We meet Iriyagolla again
 THEATRE: I must mention that the Stage Set designs for Mother
Courage were created by Mano Breckenridge - younger brother of Karen, my
good friend, and he did a splendid job with very innovative designs.
Mano left for some African country - Lamibia if I am not mistaken -
and I have not heard of him after that. The very imaginative stage sets
of Mother Courage, including the cart came in for a lot of praise from
the critics. Unfortunately I have no paper cuttings of any reviews of
Mother Courage so I cannot reproduce any. Suffice to say it was hard
work and the result was good.
I mentioned earlier that Mother Courage as well as The Dragon [by
Eugeney Schwartsz] was translated by me during that blank period of the
JVP rebellion. My good friend Edwin Hewakapuge published the translation
of Mother Courage which I had titled 'Diriya Mava Ha Ege Daruwo'.
The cover design for the book too was drawn by Mano Breckenridge. The
Dragon [Makara] was published by Dayawansa Jayakody publishers. The
cover design for Makara was done by A.D. Ranjith Kumara. I will come to
Makara later.
About this time we came to know that I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla was ill and
was warded at the Central Hospital, Colombo. As soon as we heard the
news Manel and I went to the Central Private Nursing Home, now Asha
Central, to see Mr. Iriyagolla.
At the counter we were told that no visitors were allowed to see Mr.
Iriyagolla. I asked them who was looking after the patient and they told
me it was Gamini Iriyagolla. I got their permission to speak to Gamini.
I asked him if we could see Mr. Iriyagolla for two minutes. I told
him I wanted to present my two new books to his father. In a little
while Gamini Iriyagolla came downstairs and took us upstairs to Mr.
Iriyagolla's room.
He was very happy to see us. "How Jayasena, I hope you had no more
problems with any of your plays?" He joked. "No, sir, not after Apata
Puthe." I told him and then I presented the two new translations Diriya
Mava and Makara.
"This is what I did during the bleak period after the rebellion. I
have already produced one. That is Diriya Mava. The other will also be
taken up, perhaps next year."
He was very happy to receive the books and congratulated me for
making use of a bad period to do something creative. "Yes, I remember
you wrote to me that you will show me your gratitude, once I am out of
the political arena. You have kept your word," he said smiling broadly.
"Oh, no sir, this is not gratitude enough.
Manel and I were very keen to see you and wish you well. In any case
sir, you have still not left the political arena, if I am not mistaken."
Mr. Iriyagolla smiled wryly. "No, Jayasena, I am not very active now.
Politics is a dirty game. You would have seen how all the university
chaps, including Sarachchandra, ganged up against me during the
elections. All because of my firm conviction against university
autonomy."
Good work
Gamini Iriyagolla cautioned his father not to talk too much and tire
himself and we also agreed. "No, I am not tired," said Mr. Iriyagolla.
"It is seldom I get an opportunity to talk to a grateful young man.
You were right, Jayasena. None of those rascals who campaigned
against your play came to see me after I ceased to be a Minister. None
of them have come to see me even when I am ill." We did not want to tire
out the poor man.
We exchanged a few more pleasantries, enquired about his state of
health from Gamini and left. Mr. Iriyagolla held both my hands before I
left and told me I was a good man and asked me to continue with my good
work.
We could hardly suppress out tears when he said that. "When I am well
enough I will come and see your new production", he said before we left.
But that was not to be. This great son of the soil passed away on
January 7, 1973 at the young age of 66. Honest men like Mr. Iriyagolla
should keep away from politics. I can think of several honest men who
were taken away before their time due to the ugly pressures of politics.
M.D. Banda, Gamani Jayasuriya, M.D.H. Jayawardhana, Gamini Fonseka, just
to name a few. My friend Karen Breckenridge and I attended the funeral
at Kuliyapitiya.
There were massive crowds. Seeing that crowd one wondered how Mr.
Iriyagolla could have lost the election. In a way THAT is a particular
trait in our country. They do injustice to a good man while he lives and
try to compensate for it by making their presence in thousands at his
funeral.
The very next year,ie, 1974 we launched on the production of Makara.
This time, I submitted the printed book to the Public Performance Board
even before I started rehearsals.
There was a reason for that. Makara was a bit of an 'explosive' play.
In it Eugene Shwartz, the Soviet author had mixed fantasy, fairy tale
and reality into a telling indictment on the system - the corrupt system
of governance. In a legendry city dwells a dragon who has been running
the affairs of the city for 400 years.
The Mayor, his assistant and all the councillors are his puppets. The
people in that city have been made so meek and docile that they have
been made to believe that the dragon, in fact, is a very benign dragon
and that 'as long as we have our dragon, no other dragon will come to
harm us'!
As booty for 'protecting' the city the dragon confiscates so many
calves, so many chicken, so much milk and many other things from the
city folk. And they deliver all that to him without a whimper. In
addition to all that each year the dragon selects a new damsel from the
city for his personal pleasure and no one dare question that 'right'.
Confrontation
This particular year his choice damsel happens to be Eliza, the
daughter of Charlmain - the Record Keeper of the city. While the father
and daughter discuss their fate as dispassionately as possible, a
visitor arrives in the home of Charlmain.
He is a man called Lancelot - a distant relative of the legendry
Lancelot who specializes in helping and saving damsels in distress. Who
drops in, but the Dragon himself. There is a confrontation and Lancelot
challenges the Dragon for a duel.
The Dragon is a real dragon, as huge as a mountain, with massive
wings, three heads, nails as sharp as razor blades and many other lethal
appendages. Lancelot is just a brave ordinary young man. But he is
helped by a set of curious magic men who have been working secretly -
just expecting an event of this nature.
They are, a couple of magic carpet weavers who have just completed a
flying carpet, which could perform all kinds of difficult manoeuvres in
the sky, a hat-maker who has just completed a hat that makes the wearer
invisible, and a blacksmith who has just completed an invincible sword.
In this scene Schwartz very cleverly shows that under all the
meekness and servility that men have been secretly working for the
defeat of the Dragon.
Final word
Any way the outcome of it all is that on the appointed day a
breathtakingly terrible battle is waged in the sky and one by one the
Dragon loses all three of his heads. The Dragon is vanquished, but
Lancelot is also terribly hurt and feeble and has to be nursed by the
wife of a cowherd in the mountains.
Thinking that Lancelot too has died of his wounds, the Mayor and his
cohorts, carry on just as the Dragon did and the people are made as
servile as before. In fact the Mayor declares that it was HE who finally
vanquished the Dragon, while Lancelot was only able to inflict a few
superficial wounds on the Dragon.
Lancelot returns after recovery on the very day that the old Mayor
was going to take Eliza as his bride in the tradition of the Dragon. All
culprits are exposed and all ends well with Lancelot taking Eliza as his
bride and promising the populace that he is going to stay in the town.
His final words are electrifying. "After we destroy the dragon in the
hearts of each and every one of us we can live happily - as happily as
ever we could."
There is a very interesting story as to its fate in the Soviet Union,
where it was written. Eugeney Shwartz, its author was born of Jewish
parents in the year 1897. He was better known as a writer of children's
fables and fairy tales and also as a bit of a poet. The Dragon was
written in 1943 and is considered as his most mature play. He had
cleverly exposed 'the system' in a fairy tale like story which if
carefully studied, hits hard even at the Soviet system.
In fact it exposes any system anywhere in the world at any given
time. It exposes corruption, bigotry and dictatorship in a subtle weave
of fact and fiction. It is known that two simultaneous productions of
The Dragon were launched in Moscow and Leningrad in 1944.
But both productions had been folded up after the very first night!
One does not have to read between the lines to evaluate the 'official'
attitude of the authorities to Shwatrtz's work. It is possible that his
being a Jew aggravated matters.
Shwartz died in 1958. A new production of The Dragon was mounted in
1962 - when there had been a sudden 'surge' to Shwartz's work. Even then
the production was discontinued after a few performances. It clearly
shows the Soviet attitude to this play.
Since I was aware of this background I chose to submit the script
beforehand to the authorities. It was the 'Collision Govt.' that was
ruling at that time. The Collision Govt. had three collision partners
and my Dragon too had exactly THREE heads!
Thought of the week
This week I thought I will write about traffic rules that are
blatantly disregarded by most of our motorists. They say that private
bus drivers, three wheeler drivers and motorcyclists are the worst
offenders. I disagree. Even others such as private vehicle owners, lorry
drivers, container drivers - in fact the whole lot of them are no
better.
There is a Road Traffic Authority and of course the police to over
see, control and direct the traffic and to charge offenders, when they
are at fault. Of course the traffic police is badly understaffed and
that is a great disadvantage.
The police could round up offenders, take them in batches and teach
them proper road rules at a convenient venue. It should take the meaning
and atmosphere of a community effort and it should be implanted in the
minds of the motorists that abiding by the rules is the safest and best
way of using the roads.
Our roads are also becoming woefully inadequate, considering the ever
increasing road traffic. Erecting flyways at crucial junctions should be
given top priority. I shudder to think what will happen when all the
vehicles on display at various sales centres are also put on the roads.
There is news that they are going to use helicopters in the control
of traffic. We hardly have enough helicopters for the war effort and
other essential transport - not to mention the needs of VIPs. In any
case it will be a very costly exercise that the tottering economy of the
country could hardly afford. Anyway, let's 'wait and see' - as we always
do!
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