They say the walls have eyes; But this is not so, They have ears too…

In them lives the memories, rich histories and former glories – of the king who loved his dancing girl; of the servant who gave her heart to a prince; of the brave warrior who prays the night before battle; of the lovers who swore eternal fidelity.

The familiar fading whispers they linger…
The stones they bear witness to our fears and desires

The walls they know, they have heard them before.
The stones are hungry for more.

As the walls crumble to the chiseling of time, when the stones turn to dust, do the stories die?
Do the memories, mingled with fragments of rock, fade?
Or do the echoes forever resonate?

What sense can we make from these lives that once were?
What unspeakable truths will the stones whisper?

Tales of longing, despair, love and desire come alive through the walls of Emperor Mahmud II’s abandoned palace of pleasure.

Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s story of the same title about the spectral and mysterious circumstances surrounding a deserted marble palace, The Hungry Stones is an emotive dance interpretation of the events that might have taken place within its premises – the only records of which lie within the walls.

Choreographer Raka Maitra examines the intricate relationship between memory and place while affectively capturing mood through the delivery of visual installations and live music along with her own adaptation of movements from Odissi (Indian classical dance form) and Seraikela Chhau (martial art form) techniques. The result is a new vocabulary of dance storytelling that is fluid, conceptual yet inherently Indian.

Thread carefully between the real and imagined and let the stones unravel what they know.