FringeReview Scotland 2026
Samadhi The Birth of Kabandha
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Emergence Festival 2026
Genre: New Writing, Short Plays, Theatre
Venue: The Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Indra has taken over from his father and drawn in his greatest rival, Vishvasu, to ask for support. The twist is that he has sent the woman his rival loves, Leela, out into the real world from their heavenly kingdom. He will allow Vishvasu, a great favourite of his late father’s, to go and get his love, Leela, if he, Vishvasu, will bow the head, bend the knee and endorse his mandate. And so off he goes into the real world to find Leela, which he does in a night club, but discovers that she does not feel the need to be rescued.
Review
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Emergence Festival provides a platform for senior students to present their work to an audience as part of their final preparations for joining the profession. They are designed to challenge us and the students onstage.
This was an interesting mythological take amidst a power play between one man who inherits and another who may have been more favoured by the father now gone. From there the script takes us to the realm of the real world and an encounter with his love who he has to get to take a potion to come out of her fugue state to contemplate her love having arrived to rescue her. The problem with the script was that it tended to be presentational rather than allow character depth. The idea of a woman in need of rescue by a man is also something we have seen a thrust – even in panto – to move away from. It therefore felt a little dated.
The script led to a ponderous direction which lacked the drama and verve of the situations in which each character found themselves. The scenes between the rescuer and his love, Lela did manage to show the disconnections between honour and duty, where refusing to do the wrong thing for the right reasons or doing the wrong thing for your own reasons hinted at a different direction. Then in came the other man and it was reduced to the two of them in battle. By then the woman had gone, ironically.
Performances were appropriate for the topic and the style of writing and Errol Rodrigues as Indra gave a regal style that showed his authority tinged with arrogance, Shiladitya as Vishvasu was an effective counterpoint, running through enough emotional movement for both whilst Hamshya Rajkumar as Leela gave a much more nuanced and well delivered performance showing the guts and the defiance that she ought.
The projections were interesting and did their job, however the portal, I think, was present at times without much fanfare meaning it was lost. Everything onscreen felt AI generated which was a shame as both costumes and set were very worthy. They stole much of our attention. It was added to by the nightclub which was really well done – though again the projection seemed a little out of sorts.
Overall, this was exactly what was planned and told an ancient tale, well enough. As a piece of theatre there was enough to feel that it captured the spirits of the piece but with more of a push, it could be more translated into the realm of 21st Century gender roles.
