Back to the STAGE - with LOVE

THEATRE: After United Nations and all that I was back at the old Record Room and rearing to get on with the Stage. Acapulco was nice and the Human Rights Day stint at the U.N. Assembly was even nicer.

But my old Record Room with its dusty old files, plenty of space and plenty of my theatre friends, golayas and balayas dropping in was the nicest! I wrote my new play Manaranjana Vedawarjana which I mentioned two columns back, mostly in my record room, my office.

Ours was an ‘Engineering’ office - The Public Works Dept., and nobody bothered about what I did in my office in my spare time. I had very little ‘official’ work like scanning the newspapers for any news items, blame, praise etc. about the Dept., cutting up such items and our tender notices etc. and forwarding them to the relevant section, taking over and documenting old files, issuing of such old files when required and similar duties.

The book binding section was also in my record room. I had three assistants - R. A. Karunaratne, my immediate assistant [who succeeded R. B. Wilson, when he got through the Govt Clerical examination] looked after the recorded shelves of files, Sethan Singo, my book-binder from my very own village, Bendiyamulla and Hemaratne our office assistant [Karyala Karya Sahayaka].

We got along very nicely - not exactly like pack of thieves, because we did no thieving - but with absolute understanding with each other. When my assistant, Karunaratne knew that I was writing a play, he carried out even some of my own duties allowing me to concentrate on my writing. We often shared the lunch that we brought from home.

I always got Manel to serve me a little more than I needed so that I could share it with my pals in office. And so, Manaranjana emerged around early 1966. I made a rehearsal schedule and got to work. By this time I had aligned myself with an organization called the Lanka Mahajana Kala Mandalaya and I was producing my plays with them.

Patron

Senator Chandra Gunasekera was its president, Senator Reggie Perera, my good friend was its patron and Piyasena Gunatilleke was the secretary. When I joined that organization some of my friends including Dr. Sarachchandra told me that it was a ‘leftist’ organization and that it was, in fact, a cultural arm of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party.

It could well have been with men like Chandra, Reggie and Piyasena at the helm of its affairs. I did not mind that. Although I was not a member of any party, left or right, my leanings certainly were leftist. So I told my informants that it did not matter as long as the organization did not interfere with my work.

I had started working with them with Janelaya, in 1962 and I had done all my three plays with them - Janelaya, Kuveni and Tavat Udesanak. In fact they were very happy when I chose the Soviet Union for my Fellowship - naturally. We were getting on well like a house on fire.

Actually the ‘fire’ came later - that is after my latest play Manaranjana, in 1966, but that’s another story. I will come to it later. By this time we were quite a well organized entity with our own musical instruments, our own letter heads, an English type writer, our own costumes and various other requirements that such an entity needs.

These were acquired with the profits we made out of our plays. We had our own bank account too, I think, managed by our secretary , the indefatigable Piyasena Gunatilleke. At that time I did not ‘earn’ any money from my plays except my fees as actor and as royalty.

The reader might be surprised to learn that an actor’s fee at that time ranged from Rs. 25 to Rs. 15 and my royalty per performance was Rs. 25!

To digress just a little bit I would like to quote from a note book, I had been keeping at that time. The accounts part of the note book records our earnings from Kuveni as follows :- 8.10.63 - Henry 30, Manel 30, 13.10.63 SLBC recording - Henry 135, Manel 20, 2.11.63, Panadura - Henry 20, Manel 20, 10.11.63, St Benedict’s [concession show] Henry 10, Manel 10, 15.11.63, Hv. Town Henry 25, Manel 25 etc. During the last four months of that year, ie., from October to December, I had earned Rs. 380 and Manel had earned Rs. 235. Not bad at that time!

Interesting

My note book has a different section for the performances themselves. It is interesting reading. On 12 December, 1964, when I was away in Moscow , Manel records :- Last show for 1964 - 10.30 a.m. Special show for the visiting Soviet Ballet Troupe. Very good show. Little gifts and presents to the visitors. Special, personal gift to Vasily Yunusof - Henry’s interpreter in Moscow.”

2nd January, 1965 - Tavat Udesanak. [Manel records] Show organized by Santin and Manel. Excellent show! Hall not quite satisfactory, but very receptive audience. Neither a loss nor a profit. Loss to the cast. Bad time. [‘Bottle month’!]

28th Feb. ‘65. Kuveni. Industrial exhibition. Open air. House full. What a crowd! Grand stand packed. Good show but a different atmosphere.

Kuveni - 50th show. 25th July. Hv. Town theatre. Under the patronaghe of H.E. the Governor General, William Gopallawa. Full house. People turned away without tickets.

Kuveni 51st show. 7th Aug. Hv. Town Theatre. First show after Henry returned. He thinks that the show could have been better. Producer in the audience for the first time. Under the patronage of Thomas Amarasuriya.

Manaranjana was a new experience for all of us. It had a fairly big cast. The action shifted from place to place and there were multi action scenes. The experience I gained in Moscow came in very useful in handling the new production.

The play began with workers reporting for work overseen by a supervisor. It then moves fast for a downing of tools and the declaration of a strike. At first we see the enthusiasm and the indomitable spirit of the workers.

As the strike proceeds we see different perspectives of the strike and the strikers. We see their women at home desperately trying to come to terms with the strike and trying to feed their men and the children.

We see the young wife who chides her young husband for joining the strike. We see one striker woman lending money on interest to another striker woman. We see ‘Verikara Silva’ [drunken Silva] giving away his dole money to the strikers. We see attempts by the authorities to break the strike.

We see the earlier enthusiasm and bravado giving way to despondency and despair. We see a huge last desperate march. We see a non striker being heckled by the angry strikers. The march is blocked and there is the sound of a gun being fired. A man [the nonstriker] falls dead.

Silhouette

Let me try a rough translation of the last few lines of the play :- ‘The lights are dimmed and we see the silhouette of a body being carried away to the strains of a resounding dirge. A shot was heard and a man fell the body is still and a journey has ended.

A man who has overcome the struggle and crossed over to peace in death..voices are stilled men have come out of their dreams. Will death bring an end to this awesome struggle no one knows. We will live from struggle to struggle again and again.

My note book records the first night of the play on 25 April 1966 at the Lumbini Theatre, Havelock Town, thus:- Premier show. Well attended, besides the numerous invitations. Performance itself reached the standard I expected. The audience applause at the end of the show was tremendous. They came back stage - some to congratulate, others to remonstrate with me that the play is anti-leftist!

The protests were not limited to mild remonstrations. Some extreme left elements came out strongly against the play. And the Lanka Mahajana Kala Mandalaya called an emergency meeting. I was summoned too. Many condemned the play outright saying that it was anti-leftist, anti- trade union and that I had let down the trade union movement.

I told the reader earlier that there was going to be fire. I was facing it now. I was more amused than disturbed. All of you in the Mandalaya got a copy of the play. Some of you may have read it. The President himself attended some of our rehearsals. And your secretary in fact plays a fairly prominent role in the play.

You had nothing against it then. Now that a few diehards are making a fuss, it looks like you have got cold feet. In any case I am withdrawing the play from the Mandalaya. Hereafter I will go on my own. I will not be dictated to by a red-blurred Mandalaya. I told them firmly. I have not written this play either to support or to discredit a strike. Or trade union activities.

I have only tried to look at a strike dispassionately as an outsider would. Don’t forget that I have been a striker myself and also a non striker at times. If you can single out a single episode in the play which does not actually happen within a strike, you can challenge me.

I added. That was that. Piyasena Gunatilleke, the secretary withdrew from the play. We had a very good run and some very good reviews too. Let me quote a little bit from some of the reviews:- The acting is uniformly competent and considering the largeness of the cast this is a triumph worthy of the highest praise.

Daily News 16.5.66. Even those who must have wondered what a local playwright could do with a strike as a subject will be surprised to see what rich theatre Jayasena has been able to make of it Times - 3.11.66.

Thought of the week

This week I would like to write about the state of our Theatre Halls - if one can call the pitiful enclosures that we are subjected to perform in, ‘Theatre Halls’. The reader will notice that I am dealing with ‘Theatre’ as it was more than four decades ago. The theatre fare itself has seen some changes - good or bad. The subject is debatable.

But unfortunately the halls that are available for performances both in Colombo and the outstations have hardly changed. They remain the very same ill-ventilated, ill-kept, uninspiring things that they were half a century ago.

The Lionel Wendt Theatre has been subjected to some changes since the bomb blast damaged it a few years ago. The John de Silva Theatre, The Lumbini Theatre and presently The Tower Hall Theatre and The Elphinstone Theatre remain very much the same in spite of a few half hearted attempts at improvement.

There is no point in talking about Municipal Halls and school halls available in the outstations the only fairly decently kept place being the St. Anthony’s hall in Kandy . There have been a hell of a lot of talk about a ‘National Theatre’, ‘Arts Centres’ and what not over the years with every succeeding Govt. But they have all turned out to be just talk and bad eggs.

Why can’t we have at least some well planned, well turned out Open Air Theatres.? The country is full of suitable locations that could be carved into attractive Open Air Theatres - like the one at the Peradeniya campus. That would not cost us very much either.

Why cannot the various Local Govt. authorities like the Municipal Councils, Provincial Councils and the District Councils build an Open Air Theatre in each of their domains ? They could even get some foreign aid for this laudable project.

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