Resurrecting Lankan Theatre

Amalshan GUNERATHNE

From glorious times to darker days, he has lived through it all. From the days wherein Sri Lankan theatre sparkled with artistic glory, to days where the art died away and the theatre turned to nothing but a forlorn mansion- he has been with theatre through thick and thin , serving the industry through its highs and lows.

"The modern Sri Lankan theatre is totally deteriorating, golden days of 60s and 70s are no more," he says with a touch of agony. In a melancholy tone, then he adds, "Theatre has trended into a very savage form of vulgarism. These days' people only watch light-hearted comedy and it is a very sad situation."

Namel Veeramuni Picture by Ranjith Asanka

'Nattukari, Viripi Rupa, Madyavediyakugey Asipatha, etc were some of his best creations. Seasoned dramatist, Namel Veeramuni was our 'Encounter of the Week'. A dramatist from the days gone by, would you dare to call him old fashioned? May be not for the wisdom that reverberates in his words exudes modern thinking.

Q: In comparison to your days, where does Sri Lankan theatre stand now?

A: I feel Sri Lankan theatre is totally deteriorating. I would consider 60s and 70s as the golden days of theatre. Sadly those days are no more. These days' people only watch light-hearted comedy and also the theatre has trended in to a very savage form of vulgarism.

Q: What do you mean by vulgarism?

A: Many young dramatists cater to this vulgarism. There is no depth or substance in those dramas. I have been to some dramas recently, but when I came out from the hall, I felt empty. The productions do not make a lasting impact on the heart.

In 1960s I saw Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Even after half a century, the scenes, acting and dialogues still resound in my mind. It is a timeless creation. But these days, it is very rarely that such memorable artistic creations are made.

Q: Is it possible for you to name a few plays that would fall into such vulgar category?

A: I would definitely call 'Colombo Colombo' as one of them. There is no doubt that Indika Fernando is a very talented dramatist, a good producer and a very good director.

But the material in the play is vulgar. The drama gives the wrong message and there is the grave possibility that younger generation could misunderstand the play. The drama portrays a scene of young people raping a dead corpse.

And people remember the drama by that incident. I feel an artistic creation should not be remembered for wrong reasons.

Q: Having said that, don't you think that artistes should examine the sexual problems of youth?

A: The sexual frustration is there. But I think sexual frustration has been implanted in the society.

There is no inhibition for sexual relationships nowadays. It has been totally imported from other cultures. I am not saying that we must survive solely on our traditional culture. It varies every second, every moment. But we have to stick within that culture on whatever art that we do. We can't root out and drift away from our culture.

Q: Do you consider cultural change to be totally negative?

A: It is totally negative. We are trying to embrace someone else's culture. For instance, living together abroad is a different matter.

They have the cultural right to engage in that kind of relationship.

The marriage in Europe is only a written document. But that culture does not exist in Sri Lanka.

Here in Sri Lanka, getting married is more or less a cultural requirement. Therefore when you live together without marrying, there is a certain sense of social stigma attached to it.

I am married for 49 years and we still are a happy couple. Many young people that get married these days opt for a divorce after a year or so. It is a very pathetic situation.

Q: Who do you identify as young, budding, dramatists who can go far in the industry?

A: I have lots of respect for Rajitha Dissanayaka. He is very disciplined at his craft and very creative. Jehan Alosiyous is also a very talented dramatist. I believe he can go far in the industry.

Q: How is the support towards theatre and drama?

A: There is not much support at all for theatre these days. The ministry does not give enough impetus to the cultural activity. It takes almost half a million to produces a good quality play. But can an ordinary producer afford such money?

Sometimes, we get in to debt while producing plays. I have even pawned my wife's jewellery in 1960s to make a play and things have not improved till then.

The project to cleanse the city from all forms of posters is very good. But how can we get the necessary publicity to our plays. There must be a place where theatre people, cinema people can go and post their posters. Otherwise it is wastage of money of those poor people.

Let there be boards for plays and cinema posters. We want publicity. The municipal must be pushed to have one particular place where they can display posters.

Q: What action should we take to improve the standard of local theatre?

A: There must be special arrangements for artists who are very poor. The most degraded two types of art forms are films and theatre. The music has already become an industry.

Theatre and film also have to be turned in to an industry. People are afraid to put money in to films because they can't get that money back. People who produce films have to go to schools begging from students to come to theatre.

The audience is drawing away from Theatre, what should we do to attract audience to the theatre, how can we make an intellectual audience? The fault lies with the education system.

The education ministry has prescribed certain set of literary books for students. But when the education curriculum is formed in that manner, the students focus only about the books that are prescribed for the syllabus. Studying a literary text for the sake of getting through an exam does not serve any purpose. Let them prescribe ten books, but never give questions from those books, let there be general questions.

Then the students will go to theatre and try to get a feel of the theatre. We have to train an audience to enjoy theatre. The theatre is a practical art.

The students can understand only the literary part. The literary part is interpreted in a superficial manner and that is why we don't have a good intelligent audience.

Q: Nattukari is an adaptation, why do many dramatists opt to create adaptations instead of doing their original creations?

A: All of my adaptations are originals to a great extent. I have adapted them to the Sri Lankan context. In a sense, I would like to call them as transcreations, you borrow the material and recreate it in an authentic manner. Even Shakespeare borrowed from Greek and Roman culture.

But he made his plays original and authentic.

As a matter of fact, there is nothing called original. Even internet is not original. Originality lives in the air, in the wave bands; you extract it from the air. It is out of those wave bands that you create everything.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: I am planning to translate Sinahabahu and Kuveni into English. And I am itching to do a cinematic creation as well, that has always been one of my dreams.

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