Jesus Koothu (The Story of Jesus Christ Based on the Bible), a Tholpavakoothu Play by Varghese Valappat

Abstract: This translation explores Jesus Koothu , a contemporary shadow-puppet production in which tholpavakoothu practitioners, for the first time, depart from Ramayana-based storytelling to adapt the form to the life of Jesus Christ, opening new intercultural dramaturgy and modern performance possibilities. While tholpavakoothu puppeteers deliver the performance in multiple languages, this article presents English translation of the Jesus Koothu script, offering critical insight into the performative vocabulary of tholpavakoothu by rendering into English the dramaturgical structure, tonal shifts, and embodied conventions. Directed by Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar and written by Varghese Valappat, Jesus Koothu is a production by the Krishnan Kutty Pulavar Memorial Tholpavakoothu & Puppet Centre in Kerala and performed by an intergenerational ensemble comprising both senior and young practitioners. The production can be understood as a site of performative hybridity, where ritual theatre responds to religious plurality and changing performance milieus while engaging the social and cultural realities of twenty-first-century Kerala.