India's Ramayana tells the epic story of King Rama, exiled by his stepmother and forced to wander the subcontinent with Princess Sita and a number of friends before he rises again to his rightful throne. It's one of two story cycles that serve as epic sources of Hindu myth, the way Homer's epics were a source for Greek playwrights. A.C.T. Conservatory's production of the whole Ramayana is massively ambitious -- imagine students putting on an edited version of the Odyssey -- but they have help from a rising young New York director named Ruben Polendo. The actors, until they're needed onstage, sit quietly around the floor at little mirrored tables and do their own makeup; Jeffrey Evans plays his own score on a variety of bells and drums. The show starts with too much stilted language and formal ceremony, and some uninspired shadow puppetry, but near the middle the action hits a real stride. The stories of Hanuman the monkey king and his straw-dressed ape-men retaking the ancient island of Lanka from Ravana and his female demons are worth the price of admission. The show is overlong but rewarding -- a rare taste of traditional Hindu theater.
