[Assignment]
For those accustomed to reading modern dramas, Kalidasa’s Sankuntala and the Ring of Recollection is both familiar and strange. In terms of format, the general arrangement of dialogue interspersed with stage directions is the same in plays from the modern era; the nature of the stage directions, which use miming actions instead of utilizing set pieces and props, seems strange to modern sensibilities, as does the prologue, which breaks the fourth wall and has the director addressing the audience directly as an introduction to the play. In the content of Sankuntala, even more is unfamiliar. This is ...