The Great Heart behind the Punchi Theatre
 Namel Weeramuni, dramatist and actor, is an extremely engaging and
effervescent man. Lively and bubbly, he immediately puts anyone at ease.
Namel Weeramuni whose craft and forte is drama is no newcomer to the
limelight. Reminiscences of Gold met with him at his Punchi Theatre.
“I was born in Ahungalle. My parents were not that rich but they were
fairly alright. My father was running a wholesale Cinnamon business in
Balapitiya. My mother was a housewife. Unfortunately my parents died
when I was small. My father died when I was about six and my mother died
when I was 14-years-old. And I became a totally self- made man from that
time onwards. There were two uncles of mine who helped me in my
education. One was working in the government service at that time. The
other one was a priest. He was my mother’s brother. I have a sister and
she is still living in the village,” said Namel.
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Namel Weeramuni |
“I studied in four schools. First I started schooling at my village
school Galvehera and I studied there up to the fifth standard. I was a
very boisterous child and one day I had a fight with another boy and he
got injured. As a punishment I was caned very badly. I was very upset
about it. That was my worst experience in life as a schoolboy. For about
one year I didn’t go to school. My uncle was a government servant and I
had to change schools whenever he got transferred. I was in Peradeniya
Maha Vidyalaya for about six months. Thereafter I went to St. Luke’s
College in Ratnapura. Finally I ended up at Nalanda College in Colombo
where I did my university entrance exam. I blossomed at Nalanda as a
student. I was involved in sports as well as literary activities there.”
Namel studied at the University of Peradeniya where he got his degree
in Sociology. He remembers his university days as the most memorable
period in his life. “Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala, Professor J. B.
Dissanayake, and Minister Sarath Amunugama were some of my
contemporaries. There was ragging in the university but through ragging
we also made long lasting friendships. But at that time ragging was
decent and not violent. I remember the way I was ragged in my first
year. K.H.J. Wijedasa who later became Secretary to President Premadasa.
gave me half a cent and said: ‘Go and get a packet of Cigarettes and
don’t forget to bring the balance.’ At that time the smallest coin was
half a cent. So I did not know how to bring the balance.
Literary activities
I went to the canteen and asked for an empty packet of cigarettes.
The brand was Navycut. So I took the empty packet and gave it to him
together with the half cent coin. Then this guy said: ‘my God, this guy
is cleverer than us’ and with two other guys he raised me up. They are
still my very good friends.”
Namel is a man of many talents and he has a remarkable capacity to do
diverse things with equal commitment. “I really enjoyed university life
and did all the possible activities. Except for cricket, he did almost
all the other sports: boxing, rugby and football and I got University
Colours for boxing. I was involved in university politics too. I was a
Communist. I was the second Communist president in the university.
However, it was my involvement with literary activities in the
university that continued throughout my life. I acted in Professor
Sarathchandra’s play in 1959 which was my first appearance on stage as
an actor. The play was Rattaran. I was selected as the main actor in
that particular play after 15 people were auditioned. Professor
Sarathchandra selected two people and after that I became his final
choice. So I got involved in theatre after that. ”
After his marriage to Malini in 1963, he joined the Law College and
became a lawyer. When he was working as an Assistant Legal Draftsman, he
got a scholarship to go to Canada for three months. When he came to
Washington from Toronto after completing his work, he got an assignment
to observe the proceedings at the US House of Representatives and the
Senate. He thought that this experience would be helpful for him in his
career as a Legal Draftsman and applied for an extension of his leave
for a further period of three months. It seems that his letter has got
lost on the way. When he came to London on his way back to Colombo, he
was shocked to hear from Malini that he has been served with a vacation
of post letter.
“When I heard that I saw stars. I wanted to come back home because my
family was there and we had just built a house. Since I have lost my
job, I decided to stay in London. During the initial period, I had a
very hard time in London. I worked in a petrol station. Then I worked in
a restaurant as a waiter. Even though I was a lawyer in Sri Lanka, I
could not practise in London straight away. First I had to work as a
clerk in a firm of lawyers for my apprenticeship. So I worked in about
three firms in London. After that I qualified and joined as a partner
with another Sri Lankan lawyer. Then I started my own law firm. I
developed a very lucrative practice and finally there were 41 people
working for me. My children studied in England. It was a very enjoyable
period in London. When my three children were on their feet we decided
to return to Sri Lanka.”
Short stories and poems
Namel is a person who has written, acted and produced a number of
plays since the 1960s. Even when he was in London, he staged several
plays. His best production was Nattukkari, first staged in 1970, and
critics hailed it as theatre at its best. “It was a very good
production. There are other plays which I am doing at the moment. One is
Madyavediyakuge Asipatha (Sword of a journalist). This was done five
years back and now I am reviving it. I have also written short stories
and poems. And I translated Professor Sarathchandra’s Sinhabahu into
English and that won the Presidential Award in 2002.”
Namel and his wife Malini have been associated with dramas for a very
long time. One of their dreams came true with the building of ‘Punchi
Theatre’ which is being used now for many literary activities. “Since
1962 when we were rehearsing under the trees at the Royal Primary, I was
wondering why we couldn’t have a proper place for rehearsals. That was
how the idea got into my mind. Subsequently in London we started
collecting funds. I was working in a petrol station. During Christmas
there were a lot of lavish tips and I got 63 Pounds as my share. When it
was given to Malini, she went inside and brought an empty biscuit tin
and put all the money there and said: ‘this is for your little theatre’.
And that was the beginning of the collection of funds.
Later I had a very lucrative legal practice. A certain amount of our
earnings were set aside in a special account. Of course we had a huge
house in Campbell Place on a 50- perch land. We had sufficient funds
from our savings to build one floor.
Malini suggested to sell the house. It was with the money we got from
the sale of that property that we built the Punchi Theatre,” recollected
Namel. Usually this kind of ventures are undertaken by foundations or
institutions. It is not very often in this country that one finds
individuals who sacrifice their personal wealth to promote a common
cause. The Weeramunis are an institution unto themselves. The Punchi
Theatre stands as a magnificent monument to their personal dedication
and commitment to the promotion of arts and culture in this country. |
