Horu samaga Heluven

Terribly elevating farce

Review: Malini Govinnage

DRAMA: Horu (Burglars) and Heluven (In Nude) make you laugh. You laugh cracking off the inhibitions crusted around your bourgeois decency. First, a merciless laughter at the fidelity of the 'decent' society around you. Second, the nudity of the powerful in society who, at some stage of life, are forced to cover themselves with the 'clothes of decency' of the lesser folks in society.

The two Sinhala plays are the translations of the plays 'The Virtuous Burglar' and "One Was Nude and One wore Tails" by Dario Fo, the leading radical dramatist in Europe. The Italian playwright who has so far produced more than 70 plays uses laughter to open people's eyes to injustices and maladies in society.

Prasanna Vithanage's two Sinhala plays are a welcome treat to theatre lovers. The Virtuous Burglar comes on stage as Horu (the burglars).

In fact there is only one burglar in the literal sense of the word, but, as the play proceeds one begins to notice that except the real burglar and his wife all the others too are burglars! They can break houses!

In Horu, a burglar creeps into a house, where both husband and wife are out during the day.

Though the man is engaged in an 'infamous' activity, he is faithful to his wife; the audience is convinced of this at the very start of the play. The wife is aware of the whereabouts of her husband; in fact she telephones the house which the husband is burgling!

Suddenly the door opens and comes in the resident of the house. Not alone, with a paramour. The thief hides himself inside the grandfathers clock in the parlour. When the telephone rings and the resident of the house responds, he realises that it is not his wife's voice. Meanwhile, the grandfather clock starts ringing when the thief's head bang against the clock chime. He comes out holding his head.

Then begins the real 'acting; the characters add in. The resident's wife, the wife's paramour and so on.

At the end, the spousal mess is sorted out and the 'decent' adulterers are exposed against the faithful burglar who is even faithful to his robbing - at one instance, when the resident offers the valuable cutlery in the house for him to take, the burglar feels awkward because it is not something he has robbed in the proper manner!

'Heluven' (In nude) is all about nudity in bourgeois decency.

The play starts with a group of road-cleaners shovelling away the dirt heaps on the street to huge waste bins placed along the street.

When a cleaner opens the waste bin to put in dirt, a man's head pops out, with his nude torso. It is clear that he is crouched inside the bin to hide his nude self! He begs the cleaner to take him away to his house in the bin itself! No! the cleaner's job will be in jeopardy then. After all, how did this man happen to be inside the bin?

A powerful Minister in the Government; he had been philandering, got caught in the act and has run away for safety sans clothes. Now he is at the mercy of the cleaner'.

Earlier in the play, the playwright makes fun of philosophy, which is misinterpreted by some in society for narrow gains. Two cleaners start talking on emptiness - meaning stupidity. Ultimately, stupidity is interpreted as godliness. "If I become God, what will the Pope think", one cleaner asks the other.

The two Sinhala plays are compact powerful farces. They convey very well the satire and are successful in sustaining the audience's laughter till the end through the plot and the characters.

Often, audience of the Sinhala theatre are induced to laughter by pun of the words and obscene dialogues.

Jayalath Manorathna, who plays the main roles of both plays carries the weight of Horu while in 'Heluven' Saumya Liyanage shares it with Manorathna. Jayani Senanayake as the mistress of the resident of Horu and the prostitute in Heluven add lustre through her acting prowess.

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