Punchi Theatre ploughs a harvest

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

Namel Weeramuni

A theatre festival celebrating the ninth anniversary of Punchi Theatre is ready to get underway with a host of plays to be performed with other directors as well as veteran director Namel Weeramuni.

“This time we thought of having one full festival with18 plays. At the very beginning we had 30 plays that went the duration of the month. This time out of the 18 productions four will be mine which I have done in the past and I consider two of them very important.

One of the plays which is known as Nattukariya is a famous play done in the 70’s. But it was revived two or three years back. The critics loved it and was hailed as ‘theatre at its best’. The second play that I really value as a good play is ‘Madhyawediyekuge Asipatha (Sword of a Journalist) which I did about five years back.

That is a very powerful play where a minister is trying to control a journalist,” said Weeramuni Weeramuni further added that the theme of Madhyawediyekuge Asipatha is a journalist seeking the truth. “I believe that is the function of any journalist. All journalists should do that. The pen is the sword of a journalist. Critics say I have evolved a new structure in production and a new style in production. I have combined so many elements into the production.

There are two one act plays, one is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s, the Proposal and the other one is Kandoskiriyawa, an original written by Somapala Gunadheera.”

Weeramuni believes that this is the way you promote theatre. “The director and the producer have to spend a lot of money to publicize the plays. The important thing is to keep the drama field going. This has to be done in order to bring good theatre and popularize theatre among the audiences. The commitment of all dramatists stands out and this is the case in general with Sinhala theatre. What we are looking for is to popularize these 18 plays.

All plays will be performed at Punchi Theatre.

	Scenes from ‘Nettukkari’