STAGE

Five-and-a-half hours into “The Mahabharata” on Saturday, the power blew out at Hollywood’s Raleigh Studios, plunging the audience into darkness only half an hour before the conclusion of the play’s second part. The audience waited outside until the source of the power failure was located (a central distributor blew out). When all were seated, they were informed by Los Angeles Festival Director Robert Fitzgerald that Indian tradition required that if a performance were interrupted, it had to start again at the beginning. He was joking.