Driving home with humour

Sajitha PREMATUNGE

She just couldn’t sit still and the only thing that kept her from throwing herself out of the window was her chauffeur’s stories, a desperate attempt to distract the tot and deliver her to school in one piece. One of these stories became her first play Leekudu Ke Viththiya, which she wrote directed and acted in, at the age of 12, for a school concert.

Indu Dharmasena. Picture by Saman Sri Wedage

Kauda Hari exposed Indu to scriptwriting. “It was written by my mother and was a family production,” says Indu Dharmasena, our encounter on Daily News ‘Artscope’. “I used to eavesdrop on their conversations with Titus Totawatta, at home.” Yolanda Abeyweera introduced her to English Theatre, at school. All this and a sex change operation later, ‘he’ has become a promising entertainer in the world of theatre.

Q: Do you use your personal experiences in your plays?

A: My plays are mainly about society and I draw on whatever I come across in real life. One of my characters may be a combination of three or four people of my acquaintance. They are not my own personal experiences, rather whatever I pick up along the way.

Q: You originally wrote in Sinhala, and then switched to English, why?

A: Before I went to UK to do my degree in Economics, totally unrelated to me becoming a dramatist, I wrote in Sinhala. When your first language is Sinhala you always think in Sinhala, so it was difficult for me to write in English. But after I came back from UK it was the vice versa.

Q: Having been a judge for the School Shakespeare Drama Competition, what is your comment on school level drama?

A: The attitude about drama has definitely changed for the better in the past few years. We were normally discouraged from engaging in any extracurricular activity, when we were schooling. But parents today are more understanding. They realise that textbook knowledge is insufficient in a competitive culture like today. They realise that getting up on a stage in front of 500 or so people and performing, really boost a child’s self confidence.

However it is a pity that promotion of drama is largely limited to Colombo and the suburbs.

Q: Being a playwright, producer and director which aspect of theatre do you like best?

A: For me it all goes together, but you definitely feel a sense of completion when you take that final bow.

Q: What obstacles have you encountered?

A: The number of theatre goers has increased since the end of the war. But foreign plays usually run for months, in Sri Lanka you would be lucky if you can have a full house for more than half a month.

Sri Lankan theatre, whether it is Sinhala, English or Tamil, is not professional. Most artists do day jobs to earn a living. This makes rehearsals all the more difficult. Every production costs money. It’s difficult to cover the expenses let alone make profit.

Another major obstacle for producing plays in Sri Lanka is the attitude that all things foreign are somehow superior. People go to Broadway or West End to watch plays and musicals that cost them hundreds of dollars to watch or spend up to five thousand rupees to watch foreign troupes perform here, but they are queasy about spending a few thousand to watch Sri Lankan performers. Lack of rehearsal space and state of the art theatres are other problems that dramatists face.

Q: Critics claim you are an escapist, your comment

A: I am an entertainer and my objective is to have a full house. It is not surprising that people want to relax and even escape their tedious routines in the safety of a theatre, this is what I provide. It maybe escapism on the part of the audience, I am just catering to their needs.

Q: Critics claim that you produce mainly drawing-room comedies. Your comment.

A: It is cost effective. Sri Lankan plays are limited in terms of setting because of the lack of state of the art theatres. Sri Lankan theatres do not even have revolving stages. This prevents productions from making use of different settings for one single drama.

Besides set changes take time, the kind of time that theatre goers of today cannot afford. My plays are short. drawing-room comedies or not, people leave the theatre after one of my plays after a hearty laugh.

Q: The use of comedy tends to dismiss your plays as trivial; still you prefer comedy, why?

A: I am more of an entertainer than a dramatist. This is what kept me from venturing into other literary genres such as poetry and prose.

But if critics read between the lines, they will realise that there is more in my plays than that meets the eye. Every play has a hidden message no matter how ‘trivial’ it may seem. And the message really drives home if delivered with humour.

Q: How do you use language to generate humour?

A: My plays are what I call ‘Singlish’ plays. I observe people, specially the way they speak. There can be humour even at a funeral. It is this sort of authentic speech I use in my plays to create humour. My plays are an extension of real life.

Q: Doesn’t the hybridized form of language you use demean the quality of theatre?

A: No, nobody speaks in the written language, whether it be Sinhala or English. Theatre has to evolve with the times. The language used in my productions are nothing but authentic.

Q: The middle-upper class of the Colombo society is often the subject of your satire, why?

A: It is what I know. Unless I actually live in a certain environment, whatever I write about it would sound contrived. I prefer realistic plays than melodrama.

Q: Is your perception of the Burgher in ‘It’s all or nothing’ influenced by the Burgher stereotype resulted from nationalist discourse?

A: No, the Burgher girl in It’s all or nothing is actually the most amiable. She may not be educated, which is a demerit generally associated with Burghers, but she only brings this up to promote herself with respect to her suitor who is an absolute gob.

As for the Burgher in It’s all or nothing being influenced by the Burgher stereotype of the nationalist discourse, most Burghers I know are highly educated.

Q: Did you intend ‘Potta Harry’ as a political farce, with all its Chief Wizards of Interplanetary Affairs, Magical Finance, Magical Power and Energy, Fishing and Planting, Defence, Information and Mr Yellow Saffron?

A: You have to read between the lines to know. It does not allude to any real life ministers. But it has relevance to the political atmosphere of the time. It is kind of a take off on Harry Potter. Forgive the pun, but they are all looking for the sorcerer’s balls.

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