AVATARANA: The Story of Natya

Ramaa Bharadvaj brings AVATARANA: The Story of Natya to the Midlands Arts Centre on Thursday 22 October, a solo story-theatre piece that traces the origins of Indian theatre. It's a one-woman show, and Bharadvaj is an acclaimed dancer and storyteller, so the whole thing is built around her on stage. The source material is the Natyashastra, one of the foundational texts of Indian performing arts, and the performance works its way through that territory by asking a few big questions: who was the first performer, the first director, and the first audience, and what was the first production? She answers them through storytelling, dance, expressive theatre, original musical soundscapes, and a fair bit of humour.

It's a mix of styles rather than a single format, so you'll see the dance and the storytelling sitting side by side. The musical soundscapes are original, and the humour is woven in throughout, which keeps it from feeling like a lecture on theatre history. The whole thing runs for about 75 minutes, and it's been praised as nonstop knowledge and humour by critics, with commendations from Uttara Asha Coorlawala, curator of the Erasing Borders Festival in New York, and Sukanya Shankar, head of the Ravi Shankar Foundation.

If you're not familiar with the Natyashastra, it's one of the oldest and most influential treatises on the performing arts in India, covering everything from acting and dance to the very philosophy of how a performance works. Bharadvaj uses it as a starting point to look back at where the whole tradition comes from, so it's as much about the roots of the craft as it is about the story itself. The performance is at the Midlands Arts Centre in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH, on Thursday 22 October from 18:30 to 20:00, and tickets are £11.55.