Sheridan on our stage

Speaking of my good friend Kapile, I mentioned the PWD Recreation Club. The PWD was one of the main Govt. offices in Colombo at that time, together with the Survey Dept. and the Irrigation Dept. (I still cannot understand why the head office of the Irrigation Dept., has to be in a place like Colombo - for heavens sake!) Our Recreation Club was, naturally, a rather big and well organised one.

We had several sections or units to it. There was the tennis section and a couple of tennis courts too - tight behind our canteen, which, incidentally was a popular lunch place for even outsiders.

Most of our bosses such as T.P. de S. Munasinghe, V.E. Herath, V.C. de Silva, J.W. de Alwis and Justin Samarasekera quite often played a game of tennis in the evenings. My friend Kapile too was a member of the PWD tennis club.

There were other units too such as the carrom unit, ping-pong club, bridge players club and the invariable badminton club. Each section, unit or club had a separate secretary to conduct its affairs such as inter-departmental tournaments, annual functions etc.

These secretaries worked under the supervision of the General Secretary of the mother club - the big, PWD Recreation Club. In this set up there had also been a section for Literary and Dramatic activities, which, for some reason had been inactive for long years.

After the little fame I achieved after 'Handahana' I was appointed the secretary of that section. I have a feeling that my friend Kapila was behind this move too! (I had invited some of my bosses too, for 'Handahana' and they gladly obliged) Naturally I felt rather elated about the whole thing.

This is where Sheridan comes in. I had been poring over a rather hilarious comedy by Sheridan called 'The Rivals' for my GCE Adv. Level examination. I had been thinking of doing an adaptation of this hilarious social satire for our stage and that is exactly what I did when I got the post of secretary of the literary and drama unit.

In fact I had already been working on the adaptation and the script was more-or-less ready. I got down to work immediately. I gave the adapted script to Kapile and a few other friends such as Owen Weerasuriya, for an opinion. They all approved it unanimously.

My adaptation was titled as 'Manamalayo' - because the original play by Sheridan in fact had a fair number of 'manamalayas' vying for the hand of the delectable, head-strong, wealthy and rather frisky young heroine of the play. (Unfortunately I have no copy of 'The Rivals' now and I cannot remember the actual names of the characters, except that of Mrs. Malaprop. I believe the word malapropism came into the English language with this character?) I would like some reader who has a copy of The Rivals to update me with the rest of the characters.

Permission

Of course, I had to get the permission of our Director - the Director of Public Works - before I could proceed any further. He was the ex-officio chairman of the Recreation Club. Our Director at that time (1954-55) was a nice, rotund, man of humour and laughter - Mr. T.P. de S. Munasinghe.

I could not approach him direct and so I met Mr. V.C. de Silva, our Deputy Director, who was also vice-chairman of the club. I did not go to him alone. I got Kapile to accompany me. Mr. de Silva was the perfect 'gentleman' in every sense of the word.

He had studied in English his wife, who - no offence meant - was more 'Sinhala' than even her husband. (She always wore the saree and talked in perfectly good Sinhala) Mr Victor de Silva, a slim, tallish man, dressed impeccably, moved regally and gracefully, his manners were perfect and spoke the Queen's language far better than any of her subjects! In fact people like Kapile and me, and all of us who worked under such wonderful bosses such as Mr. Munasinghe, Mr. de Silva, Mr. Justin Samarasekera Mr. J. W. de Alwis and Mr. C. A. Karunaratne were a privileged lot, I am sure.

I have digressed. Could not help it. Let me get back to my very first stage production in Colombo - "Manamalayo'. So, one morning Mr. V. C. de Silva took me to the Director. I was ready with script in hand and full of enthusiasm. "Ah, there you are Victor," said Mr. Munasinghe, smiling his cherubic smile, as if he was already expecting us.

"I see you have brought in a young man. I only hope he is not in trouble!" And Mr. M. laughed uproariously. (It was only later I came to know that Mr. Silva had often intervened in the case of office or field employees in trouble and pleaded for them.) "No Sir, this young man is not in trouble. Certainly not." Mr. Victor Silva came back in his impeccable style.

"In fact this young man is going to do something good for our Recreation Club, Sir." "Oh, that's interesting Victor. What kind of favour? Is he going to win this year's tennis trophy for us?" Mr. M. queried with rising enthusiasm.

'No, Sir, this young man is a dramatist. He has just been appointed as the Secretary of our Literary and Dramatic section which has been dormant for a long time. And he is going to stage a play for us." "Now that is very interesting," said Mr. M. "What kind of play? Something like Siri Sangabo? or Ramayana? or Veediya Bandara? I say Victor, I have seen all those Tower Hall plays. And they were really marvellous! You should have seen Laxmi Bhai as Portia in the Merchant of Venice. She was absolutely stunning....!

I was happy that our Director was getting into the mood and I am sure Mr. Victor Silva was happy too. "No, Sir." Mr. S trod in carefully. "We are not going to do a Tower Hall play. This young man has just adapted a very smart English comedy into Sinhala. The original is a play called 'The Rivals' by P. B. Sheridan. It's a hilarious bit of comedy, Sir. I have seen the original on the English stage.

"Well, it's okay with me as long as it's interesting and as long as this chap is not after the heroine....! And Mr. M. laughed uproariously once again. "By the way, what's your play called, young man?" He asked turning to me.

I was about to reply, when Mr. de Silva came to my rescue. "In our version the play is called 'Manamalayo' Sir...." Mr. S replied carefully, trying not to dwell on the title.

"There you are!" Mr. M. more or less exploded with mirth. "I was right! This chap, after all is looking for a 'Manamali'! "Okay Victor, I have no objection as long as you assure me that this young chap is not going to run away with the heroine....!"

Thought of the week

It is election time once again and already acts of violence, obstruction, maligning etc. are raising their ugly heads and the police have already started recording them.

I do not understand why our voters cannot simply walk up to the polling booth on polling day, mark their vote and get back home. I believe most of them do. But there are the others who insist on some sort of bravado or whatever you call it and create ugly and sometimes fatal scenes.

The contenders will shake hands at the final count and go back home to exult or sulk - without killing each other. But it will be their so-called 'supporters' who will resort to various acts of intimidation, thuggery and burning etc. and end up in a police cell. Their 'candidates' will be too busy celebrating, sulking or 'planning' or whatever, to help those poor misguided souls!

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