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Upan Da Maranaya:

A modern day political parable

Nalaka Vithanage questions and reflects the role of politics and media in our life. Upan Da Maranaya is a political farce with unlikely yet extravagant situations. It is a good deal of disguise, mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication and wordplay. All these features make it an interesting and enjoyable stage play.


A scene from Upan Da Maranaya

What happens on the stage, however, is common: a politician dallying with a mistress, a renowned actress while his wife courting his secretary and a bob making advances on a female journalist. Still and all Nalaka has twisted all of them into a nice sewing work.

Our local audience are able to link most of what is happening on stage with real life incidents. This enhances the comedy and satire towards the real characters who spring up in our memory as we witness the events.

Hiding the pre-marital affairs or the number of girlfriends from each other is a popular scene, because it easily makes the situation dramatic as well as tense. Previous stage plays like Boeing Boeing and Malsara Bisav bear testimony to this.

Upan Da exposes the political reality of our times: how politicians get together to keep common folk in the dark. How it is commonly easy for them to get away out of tight situations making subordinates scapegoats. Nilaweera easily gets away making his secretary and servant put up with the consequences.

The series of scenes brings a lot of drama. They give no space for boredom, because they are hilarious and keeps audience glued to the seat. They mount a tense situation even further by adding more obstacles to the already-tight situation: garments taken to laundry, curfew, Inspector and Nilaweera’s wife’s entrance, camera grabbing scenes. The stage backdrop is interesting. Even minute details have been in the centre of focus.

Direction is superbly done to reveal the personality of the characters in the play. It’s not an easy thing to maintain the coherence among a fairly big number of characters. Nalaka is lucky to have a veteran cast, who know their acting almost to the hilt.

Minister’s servant Simon starred by Upali Bandara is exceptionally brilliant. He knows when to show the right emotions. Duleeka Marapana is made portly and looks very much suitable for the role. The situation is resolved at the end and everyone is happy but one minor detail keeps us wondering.

How will they explain the situation to the Minister’s stubborn wife who had passes out during the scene when the whole episode comes to light and resolved? They did not tie up all the threads but left the audience to ponder over the matter.

Upan da also sheds light on the role of media as a whole. The media puts the death of the Minister on their prime time belt, and interviews with the Minister’s wife and secretary follow. No one is really interested in further investigating into what happened.

The same media provides a cover up to the Minister who could easily get away from his racket just by releasing a news item. Even after Subasinghe was forced to cough up the truth, the Minister seems at ease. He knows well he could well weather the circumstances in a corrupt society. No one is interested in inquiring why. The bright side of the story is that the play strikes a balance on criticizing both estates, politics and media.

This climax towards the end of the play is very enchanting especially with the light effects.

The Minister has a personal talk with the Prime Minister and at length scenes are changed: cop releasing Simon. It is the way things work in the corridors of power. It is how the general public is made fools of. It is the easy way out for the media.

Intimate scenes that take place are also manipulated with dexterity. For instance When Subasinghe fabricates a story that he has a relationship with a journalist, it is spread around like a wildfire mostly for his disadvantage.

Overall, the play is a brilliantly carved theatre piece. Nalaka and his cast, no doubt, deserves the laurels of praise which is coming their way as more and more strive to experience the beauty of live stage acting.

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