Venetia Ansell posts a pair of interviews with Ketu Katrak, Professor of comparative Literature at UC, Irvine, and Bill Rauch, of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, who worked to bring Sudraka’s Mrcchakatika to the Festival audiences. Why the Mrcchakatika? Bill Rauch replies:

The Little Clay Cart is one of my all-time favorite plays because of its inclusive and gentle vision, and its wonderfully improbable mix of characters from various walks of life. I responded then and now to the overarching theme, as our dramaturg, Ketu Katrak, so beautifully expresses it, that “character trumps wealth.” In fact, this almost 2,000-year-old play’s outrage at economic and political injustice is a great reminder of how much Bertolt Brecht was influenced by Asian theater forms.