It’s visual magic!

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

He is his own worst critic, as he puts it. His dramas speak for him and unfurl a distinct style, social awareness and individual treatment of themes. Indeed his strength is in his ability to raise the bar with each production.

With a handful of plays ranging from Shakespeare inspired productions like Pyramus and Thisby and to realistic theatre like The Day Will Come which, hard as it is to believe, he penned when he was just 16, the dedicated dramatist has traversed through the winding path of destiny to reach the zenith of glory.

Jehan Aloysius. Picture by Rukmal Gamage

An Inspired Swan Lake

Our ‘Encounter of the Week’ Jehan Aloysius has been short-listed for the Gratiaen twice: The Screaming Mind (A collection of plays) in 2000 and The Ritual in 2008.

Q: You founded the ‘body narratives’ technique which has become popular in theatre.

Is this a special form of dance used for the disabled and hearing impaired?

A: I was asked to work on productions with the Sunera Foundation and Ranaviru Sevana. I needed to create a system which teaches movements to disabled people.

I and my team worked on this and we realised that there are ways in which we can encourage them to explore their bodies and find new movements which might come out of using a wheelchair or a prosthetic limb.

We were able to create a positive image to show the strength and beauty of such actions. This boosted the self confidence of the participants. They were eager to take part in more productions after An Inspired Swan Lake and Nutcracker. Such programmes need sponsors. One Trust Sri Lanka and the Sunera Foundation helped us with these ventures.

Q: Is the growth of your actors as important to you as much as bringing something new to the production itself?

A: Centre Stage Productions celebrates its 10th year in 2011. Our focus is on developping new actors, new writer and creating a new theatre. All our productions have been original scripts and works. We hope to give the audience and actors a new experience. With Caliban’s Rebellion the actors learnt to play musical instruments as well as do dance and acrobatics. It is all about developing new performers for the stage.

Pyramus and Thisby Pictures by Shehal Joseph

Rag- In Concert (2005)

I was one of the first people to start on it and now there are a few more people engaged in it.

It takes a lot of work. You need a lot of dedication and actors who are willing to try out new things.

Q: Your supernatural dramas enjoyed full houses while serious theatre productions like The Day Will Come, Stormy Weather and Rag were less popular. Do you think today’s audience go for fantasy and comedy more than reality?

A: As theatre people we need to study our audiences. It is sad to say musicals and comedies run to packed houses. When I do a play like Bengal Bungalow, which I regard as frivolous, masses crowd into theatres so that we even have to have extended runs.

We merely stage such productions to get funds for other projects like the Nutcracker. You have to balance it with the serious plays. Serious drama has a smaller audience and we look at smaller theatres to stage the production.

People are looking for a means of escape. They can evade from the harsher realities through the supernatural and the elaborate costume, singing and dance. Work is stressful to them so that they come to the theatre to relax and make merry.

Q: When are you going to complete your ‘bard-bending’ trilogy?

A: I always wanted to do a trilogy on Shakespeare’s plays using new adaptations. Pyramus and Thisby based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the first and Caliban’s Rebellion based on The Tempest followed. The third is called The Bollywood Saga which is basically Romeo and Juliet set in Bollywood. Though that was the first production I have devised, we have not staged it yet.

The Day Will Come

Caliban’s Rebellion

Around 30 percent of the scripts of these plays are from Shakespeare.

It is more of collaboration with Shakespeare rather than an adaptation. We add new elements and set the story in a new context. It is the subplot which becomes a full fledged drama. It is not making a caricature out of Shakespeare but a way of adding to the literary cannon.

For example we have set the background for Pyramus and Thisby in Sri Lanka and brought in traditions like the Kolam, fusion and dance.

Q: Tragicomedies, comedies, musicals or serious theatre - which do you prefer?

A: My first was an anthology of serious plays named The Screaming Mind. It is all about underplaying and speaking. The rehearsal process is much more exciting and writing it is more fulfilling. I actually meet some of the characters I have written about. Some of my plays have strangely been called prophetic.

Q: Do you believe in theatre as a form of therapy?

A: Yes, definitely. It is a form of therapy for the people who are teaching it as well as the performers. I had a surgery done while I was working on An Inspired Swan Lake and could not even speak. It made me realize that we all had challenges.

I used to tell the performers about my own physical challenges. I have to deal with scoliosis, which is three curves in the spine that gives me pain almost 24 hours a day. I was supposed to be on painkiller from 1995.

Jehan Aloysius. Picture by Rukmal Gamage

Stormy Weather

I don’t take them because for me laughing and enjoying life while rehearsing is a reason to go ahead with life.

Q: You were planning to stage The Ritual in Sinhala. Why didn‘t it work out?

A: The Ritual is a hard hitting play. It has some very strong language and I was breaking some stereotypes.

The Censor Board did not approve of it because they though some groups might take offense.

The Sinhala theatre is for the whole family. They wanted me to take out certain terms in the dialogues and change some of the scenes. This would have ruined the original. So we decided not to pursue the matter.

Q: Do you think the English theatre is more open to topics like sexuality than the Sinhala theatre?

A: Sinhala theatre spreads island wide. It travels to communities which are more reserved than Colombo. Due to elements like cable TV the urban crowd is more open to such topics.

People grapple with the idea of the village being ‘pure’. Some of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s films broke stereotypes. Some people took offense but you can’t just sweep it under the rug and pretend that it never happens.

Nutcracker

Q: You were nominated for the Gratiaen twice. Are you disappointed that you did not win?

A: Not at all. I accept the judges’ decision. I am happy because five of my plays made it to the nominations list. The Ritual had gained a great deal of recognition by the time I sent it for the Gratiaen. Before the winner was announced there was a huge debate on why The Ritual was short-listed. I studied linguistics and a part of my dissertation was on the use of Lankan English. My plays do not reflect a bastardization of English but a language variety which embodies its own rules. However some dramatists use Lankan English in a regressive way to evoke comedy to show that the characters cannot speak English properly.

Q: You originally wanted to be a film director.

A: Film is my first love and I am thinking of doing a film. It might be an adaptation of one of one of my plays. Stormy Weather was actually done according to the 1940s film noir style.

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