'Svapnagata' is a unique two-week festival of Indian music and dance (16th -28th November 2009) curated by two of the UK's most exciting artists, the multi award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney and Sadler's Wells associate artist, dancer-choreographer Akram Khan. Svapnagata means 'dreaming' in Sanskrit presents classical work in a contemporary context and features over 60 performers in a dazzling array of presentations. One of the highlights is director, Neelam Mansingh Chaudhry's, production of Naga Mandala, by Girish Karnad, based on Kannada folk tales.

This play tells the story of the unhappy bride, Rani, who fulfils her loneliness by conjuring together dreams and illusions to give meaning to her life, and soon these stories get a life of their own and start functioning independently from her. Her husband, Shama is a boorish man, who brutalises his wife during the day, but, at night, he changes into a divine lover, a Naga -Raja (King Cobra). Both halves are unaware of each others divided self and when the wife is accused of infidelity, magic and realism converge!

The show is presented in Punjabi with English surtitles, and the translation is by the renowned Punjabi poet, Surjit Patar with music by B.V. Karanth. The production features live musicians and singers. Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, who is based in Chandigrah founded her theatre company, called, The Company, over twenty years ago and the ensemble is a mix of rural actors and urban performers. It creates theatre that fuses source material with a performance style grounded in Punjabi aesthetics. Nitin Sawhney, who saw her production'Yerma', in London in 1993, was so "blown away" that he decided there and then to go over and spend time with her company.