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| Wednesday, 19 May 2004 |
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Proctor John de Silva : Outstanding dramatist by Kalasuri Wilfred M. Gunasekara
On May, 31, 1933 the popular playwright and dramatist Proctor John de Silva wrote the "Ramayana", the first public drama. He is one of the most popular figures that lived in the minds of the majority of the people of this island. He was born to a respectable family of Makalanda in Jayawardhanapura, Kotte, near Diyawanna Oya, on January 13, 1857. During his boyhood he showed an aptitude for composing Sinhala poetry and prosody. Having received his primary education at the Christian Missionary School of Kotte and his secondary education at the Royal Academy, the forerunner of Royal College on a scholarship, he went on to the Norman school, now the Government Training College, "Where he imbibed the teachings of the history and the literature of the country". John De Silva was a true interpreter of the story of the development of the Sinhala theatre. He had a wonderful insight into it. He had his spiritual awakening to the ancient method of spiritual realization. He had a well seasoned and deep seated conviction in the reality of spiritual life. He had a correct estimation of the cultural heritage of Lanka. He had full faith in man's immense potentialities, his endless progress and glorious destiny. Hence he was more interested in the holiness of humanity than in anything else. As a true patriot and uncompromising believer in Sinhala ideals, he clearly understood the inherent constitution of man who was not made of matter only but had also a soul. This aspect of man's being is generally neglected in the present day. The Sinhala people who should have known better during his days allowed themselves to be swept away by ideals whose dominating feature is materialism. In our zeal for imitating Western thought and life we have temporarily lost sight of our own ideals and traditions. Individuality In this context, I am reminded of what Ravindranath Tagore said: "No person should lose his individuality. What holds good in the case of an individual holds good in the case of a nation also. An individual or a nation should not drift wholly away from its ancient moorings." The story of John De Silva, playwright, dramatist and patriot is the story of the development of the Sinhala theatre and an exponent of the traditions outlined above. It is the story of a man's labour of love and how he lived to see his labour crowned with success and how the theatre he loved so much was elevated to its proper stature from the simple beginning of the Nadagama. His patriotism and simplicity won for him the highest admiration of the people. Among the heroes who opened the eyes of the Sinhala people who embraced western habits and culture, John de Silva deserves the highest place. In as much as Tagore was to India, Proctor John de Silva was to Sri Lanka. That he was an outstanding dramatist is seen his supreme contributions he has national and religious revival of Sri Lanka. "The wealth of thought he has contributed to the cultural renaissance of Lanka is enough to make John de Silva immortal" wrote a write two decades ago. It was thus one of the popular figures that lived in the minds of the majority of the people of this country. A contemporary of mine who wrote to me half a century ago about John de Silva is as fresh in my mind now as it was then. He wrote, "For John de Silva, the theatre was not merely a means of giving expression to his creative genius. Nor did he merely employ it to provide a popular pastime for all classes of society. Amusement The drama of his day was a cheap form of drama acted and produced by people with little knowledge of theatre technique. Characterisation was crude and the language pure and simple declamation bombastic to a nauseous extreme. In belief, the theatre, was suffocatingly theatrical and was still being branded a centre of evil. "As a result a large section of the educated middle and upper classes gave it a wide berth. John de Silva was among the foremost to realise its finer aspects and how, by providing something more than ordinary amusement, serious minded and intelligent people could be reconciled to it. Naturally gifted with a keen theatre sense, he experimented with it, made innovations, and although in actuality, he did not give the theatre of his day much of a new outlook and fresh technique, he paved the way for its future development and was responsible for the birth pangs of a new and better theatre". John de Silva was not only a playwright of great genius. He was also a lofty idealist whose burning desire was carry the torch of nationalism to every Sinhala home. He did so through the medium of his plays and like that great genius of the Western theatre, Henrick Ibsen, he never hesitated to expose the shallow standards and conventions which the society of his age accepted. Propagandist drama is rarely considered good. His play, however, were not merely puritanical in their form and though they frequently censured and scolded the society of his time, their artistic excellence wove a spell on those who saw them. He also preferred humour as his weapon to ridicule people for their foibles and his attack unlike Ibsen's was not ruthless and lacked in venom except perhaps in Parabhave which was a social play dealing with his times. In it he launched a vicious attack on people who, as I stated earlier, slavishly aped the West. He hated the social theories of his day and this worship of everything national was the theme of all his plays. If they were not rigid in form, lacked in restraint and the neatness of construction that is typical of the modern play. It was for the purpose of driving his message more forcibly into the hearts and minds of the people. Rhetoric He used every resort the theatre gave him to do this even if it meant cheap theatre. He freely used rhetoric in his plays and employed spectacular scenes. He made the stage a public platform from which his characters harangued their audiences. He thrilled them with glowing pages from their country's history and valiant accounts of their ancestors achievements. He opened their eyes, to the exquisite charm of the Sinhala language with lines of lyrical beauty whose sheer magic transported them into a world of enchantment as the past lived again. Having been appointed as teacher on the staff of the Peradeniya Government School, he showed signs of promise in the failure of coffee industry, shortly after his appointment and the consequent dislocation of trade and revenue to government, he became a victim of retrenchment. He was offered a clerical post but though poor he declined the offer and decided not to become a victim of the wheel of a government office. Independent visions ran in his veins and he decided to join an independent profession. Having married a catholic woman from Kotahena, he went to Grandpass to join the profession he longed for. His visions of care-free youth crowned him with success and he passed out as proctor of the Supreme Court. It is recorded that his first book verses titled Life of Prophet Jonas was dedicated to his first wife. Among his contemporaries during his career were Fredrick Donhorst, Joseph Grenier, Walter Pererira and Richard Morgan. Preliminaries This popular playwright and dramatist staged his first public drama "Ramayana" written by him on May 31, 1886. Certain preliminaries had to be gone through before he could stage his play. The play was produced at the only hall then available, known as the Floral Hall (Pushpa Hall) at the Racquet Court, Pettah, a thatched building fairly specious and cool. The play was no doubt a "Thundering success". As is the case with any other thing, this success brought in its train, jealousy and praise. On January 31 the Philatelic Bureau issued a stamp in honour of Proctor John de Silva. "Siri-Sangabo" (1918) which is one of his loved plays contained a song destined to capture the hearts of everyone who heard it. It was called dhanno budunge which is known today to many as the ode to the sacred city of Anuradhapura. He wrote 54 religious and historical plays which included the adaptation of Shakespeare's plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, etc. **** Back **** |
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