Storytelling Show | 2021

“In Valmiki’s Ramayana, the tale of Ahalya is narrated in a few Sanskrit verses – it only gives you an outline. I first performed a 10-minute version of it in 2018 at the Raccontamiunastoria International Storytelling Festival in Rome. In 2021 I started to work on a re-interpreted, fleshed out version thanks to a production grant from the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation. I draw from the rich oral, literary and performing traditions of India to create a version of this tale that will (hopefully) connect with global audiences.”

A Woman’s Mind, a solo storytelling performance with live music and elements of dance, is based on the tale of Ahalya, a mythological woman from the Indian epic, Ramayana.

Ahalya was created by the deity Brahma as an impossibly beautiful woman. A besotted Indra seduces her in the guise of Gautama, her husband. Although Ahalya sees through his deception, she chooses to submit to her passions, only to face its dire consequences.

Created and performed by Shereen Saif in collaboration with award-winning Welsh storyteller and director Michael Harvey and Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts founder Jogiraj Sikidar, the show interweaves classical dance and music with contemporary storytelling to spotlight a woman who was deviant from the cultural image that was construed for women of her times.

Through a retelling of this ancient myth of Ahalya, the production explores traditional values in a modern world through the themes of love and loyalty, marriage and morals, desire and deceit, rage, revenge and repentance.

The project was awarded the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation Production Grant in 2021 and premiered at The Junction in 2022 with the support of Alserkal Avenue, Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts and HIBA Art Project.

In 2023 the show was invited to Raccontamiunastoria’s MYTHICA International Storytelling Festival in Rome, with a rare performance that included simultaneous creative translation in Italian by master storyteller Paola Balbi.

Supported by Wales Arts International, the show subsequently travelled to India in December 2023 for a performance at Kathotsava25, the 25th anniversary celebrations of Kathalaya in Bangalore followed by its public debut in India in partnership with Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai.