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| Wednesday, 20 February 2002 |
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The artists participating will be Francis Perera, the reputed artist
and sculptor, who hails from Kalagedihena bordering Nittambuwa. His
advanced studies in art was at the Ceylon Society of Arts, where he won
many prizes for his paintings and sculpture. Francis has the versatility
of painting equally well with oil on canvas and water colours. His wide
range of subjects include Sri Lanka's places of scenic beauty, village
life and wild life. He also paints with equal dexterity on modern forms of
art. He believes that painting is a visual language which should be
studied and understood. Francis has held many one man exhibitions in Sri Lanka, Maldives, India and the Philippines. He was invited to be the sole exhibitor at the 50th Anniversary of Sri Lanka's Independence Celebrations in Washington, USA. His paintings adorn many international canters around the world. Kumara Ratnayake hails from Pasyala. He started his painting career in the design department of the Veyangoda Textile Mills where he worked for 8 years. Since then he has opened his own art Gallery in Pasyala. His paintings are on varied themes with a rich and vivid blend of
colour, much appreciated by the foreign visitors to Sri Lanka, who have
purchased and taken then overseas. Recently he held a very successful one
man exhibition at the Hilton Hotel, Colombo. A Presidential Award winner
he has won awards from the George Keyt Foundation. This year he won the
landscape award at the Ceylon Society of Arts 114th Anniversary
Exhibition. Rajakaruna B. Ananda has developed a long traditional family art technique using the seasoned trunks and wood cuts of the forest to perfect his arboric art. The beauty and intricacies of his designs, created at his art shop in Habarana has had an unbroken chain of local and foreign visitors calling here with many of his works being chosen for export to countries abroad. The uniqueness of his creations is that there would be no two identical pieces of work. His work would certainly adorn any residence or office. Senarath Ranasinghe hails from Matale. He has a wide exposure as a designer attached to the Ceramic Corporation. His black and white scenery by Rotring technique is masterful and a delight to behold. The exhibition and sale is open to the public and entrance is free. All proceeds will be in aid of charity to provide better educational facilities to the children on the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind, Ratmalana. Young pianist with Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra and SOSL Sixteen year-old Eshantha Peiris will be the soloist in Rachmaninoff's brilliant Piano Concerto No. 2 at "The New Era Concert" on Saturday, February 23 at Ladies College. This is the second concert in which the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka and the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra will join to play as one orchestra to mark the 400 years relations of Sri Lanka and the Netherlands. The Concerto is a dramatic work of many changing moods with lovely, expansive melodies, quite often used by Hollywood due to lack of copyright. Rachmaninoff was himself a pianist and his Concerto No. 2 demands both power and delicacy and a wide range of virtuoso playing by the soloist. Eshantha who is a student of St. Joseph's College first appeared as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka playing Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1. This was a winner of the 2000 SOSL concerto competition. He studies piano under Ramya de Livera Perera and violin under Ananda Dabare. Eshantha has been learning music since he was six and has won many awards. At. St. Joseph's he has been awarded the prize for the most outstanding musician. He performs as a piano and electronic keyboard accompanist and his musical interests extend to jazz, rock and oriental forms. Manilal Weerakoon will conduct the Rachmaninoff. A Twist in the Tale by Aditha Dissanayake
When the curtain at the Cinicita Hall in Nuwara Eliya goes up on 16th February 2002, the audience is given an intimate view of King Yasalalaka Tissa's bedroom. He lies on his bed with a woman whom he thinks is Bandi Manika, but is his wife - the queen. As in everything else in his life, the King has been tricked into sleeping with her, when he had wanted to be with the virgin he had picked for his harem. Yasa is Jayalath Manorathne. Suba is Shriyantha Mendis. On stage they look surprisingly alike. Except, as Yasa says Suba is younger, and as Suba says Yasa is thinner for them to be identical. "You are too skinny to look like me your Majesty" says Suba to Yasa, to which Yasa retorts "What do you expect? How can I not be thin living in the lap of luxury with excellent food, music and women? Yasa wishes to abandon his crown and live the life of a farmer or a hermit. But he is made to realize that a life of a peasant is not as simple as he thinks and that he cannot be a hermit because there are no forests any more with all the trees being rapidly and secretly felled by politicians. The Deputy Minister of Plantations, Navin Dissanayake, seated in the front row, takes this in his stride. Though he is the Chief Guest invited by the Trinity College Old Boys' Association - Nuwara Eliya Branch who had staged the drama to raise funds for the college, he arrives sans fanfare, dressed in the ordinary garb of the man on the streets stays to the end and shows his appreciation with a hearty clap. The cast deserves such acclaim. From the king to Mediya the maid, everybody fits into their roles as if they had been born into them. And through their voices, actions, and through the music, one feels the presence of Simon Navagathegama. One could easily imagine his cynical smile when Yasa is flabbergasted Suba has only one wife. The King cannot believe how a man could live with just one woman all his life. The curtain finally comes down on stage, revealing an end which is far from what is said in the Jathaka story. Disillusion seems to be the theme of the play. All the characters have dreams which do not materialize. The audience too is disillusioned when they are made to realize the characters are not what they appear to be when the play begins. King Yasa for instance is not a comic, foolish ruler, Suba is not as ruthless and dogmatic as he wishes to be and Suba's wife is certainly not the paragon of virtue everybody believes her to be. All the staff involved in bringing Suba and Yasa on stage deserves
"Jaya Sri" - the greeting used to salute the King. Here is a
drama not to be missed. Watch it when it next goes on the boards, though
no one knows yet, when or where this might be. Dancers and musicians from Sweden
The 'Tunagille Folk Dancers' and 'Roslass balerna' group of accordianists from Stockholm, Sweden are here on a pleasure tour and gave their last performance at Hillwood College, Kandy. They leave Sri Lanka on February 22. Their visit here was organised by Ms Piyanwada Banduwardene, a Sri Lankan journalist domiciled in Sweden, and Ms Sussane Wiktorine who is the group
leader. Four books by Pathiraja Pahalagama
Pathiraja Pahalagama, who commenced his writing career in the 70s has published three new books for children and a guide for creative writing in English. The titles of the books are: Talkative Wife, Pina's Plight, Recognize me and A New Approach to English for Creative Writing - Step II. Pahalagama through his newest publications has shown his potent creative abilities in narration in the different fields. He has handled his pen in a splendid way as a neo-creative narrator, a poet, both in English and Sinhala. A children's story writer, a translator, and a reputed English teacher with new teaching approaches during the past few decades, he is the Deputy Director of Education (English) in the Ratnapura Zonal Department of Education, a trained graduate and the Visiting Lecturer in English of the BED Course conducted by the NIE, for teachers in the Ratnapura Centre. |
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The Society will present the workings of four of Sri lanka's
outstanding artists covering paintings oil on canvas, water colours and
arboric art. The exhibition and sale will be held from 11 am to 7 pm and
on Sunday, the 24th from 9 to 7 pm.
Trust Simon Navagaththegama to turn a well-known, rather mediocre,
Jathaka story, into a twisted tale of bawdiness and intrigue.
A group of Swedish dancers and musicians from Sweden aged 45-68 years
performed at the Elphinstone Theatre, on Monday, February 11.
