Pursuing Love Through the Centuries

A colorful plunge into music, dance and poetry culled from Hindu and Sufi traditions, the Fountain Theatre’s “The

Path of Love” proves more a metaphysical travelogue than a conventional theater piece, but a striking one nonetheless.

Director Deborah Lawlor conceived the work around the principle of Bhakti, the path of Devotion and Love. Tracing the course of passion from the physical to the spiritual realms, 11 short scenes stage Indian love poems and religious texts dating from the 12th to the present centuries. There’s no linear narrative to speak of, but longing, desire, disappointment and ultimate fulfillment figure as universal themes in stories that span playful seductions, unrequited obsessions, mystic quests and the conflict between secular and religious loyalties.

Aiming its appeal at the senses as much as at the reflective mind, the work unfolds against a gorgeous, celebratory tableau of richly textured fabrics and live music by Babu Parameswaran. The very fit ensemble mixes traditional actors (Naila Azad, Alexandra More, Dileep Rao and Gordon Korstange) with dancers (Leah Kline, Ken Morris, Viji Prakash, Madhavi Venkatesh, Uma Kadekodi) who take turns reciting the verse and portraying myriad archetypal characters.

Of equal importance with the text is the adventurous joint choreography, which merges Prakash’s traditional Bharata Nayam with modern dance by Morris in a manner graceful and engaging to watch.

* “The Path of Love,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (3 p.m. Nov. 21 and Dec. 5). Ends Dec. 12. $18-$22. (323) 663-1525. Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.