Defining a Patriot

Always looking to literally take the bull by the horns when tackling pressing social issues that are prevalent in Sri Lanka today, voluntary youth organization Beyond Borders, through the interactive form of forum theatre faced the issue of patriotism on stage last week at the Bishops College Auditorium.As did their previous productions which looked to solutions to such topics, the play very simply titled ‘Patriot’, brought about a flurry of opinions, questions and suggestions from the enthusiastic audience.

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

The play depicted the protagonist David, the son of a key figure in the country, who through his work in an advertising agency is forced to make a choice between standing by his models and ideals or giving in to the tremendous pressure he faces from the opposition, in this case a corrupt government, and simply becoming a government stooge like the masses in order to protect his loved ones and his own career. He is caught in a dilemma when a promotional campaign for what he considers to be questionable government propaganda is thrust upon him by his boss. The consequences of his decisions are far reaching. And David is ultimately forced to find out just how far he is willing to go to stand by his beliefs.

Although based on a fairly solid premise, the thespians faced a problem when trying to get across the real issue out to the audience, which itself was no easy task as this was not as straightforward a topic as the ones depicted in their previous productions.

The protagonist itself was not the most likeable or strongest character, hence the audience found it rather difficult to really be drawn to him in order to understand the serious dilemma he is in. The corrupt minister however was played to perfection, belligerent yet smooth, his deceptively likeable surface hiding the dominating, cruel veneer that run underneath it. The plot itself was rather weak and although bringing across a topic as abstract as patriotism in a series of five scenes in the space of twenty minutes is not easy, the actors could have done a better job of bringing out their individual characters to life to make their message clear.

Stifled by the problems he faces, David in a drunken rage stands by his beliefs and refuses to go on with the controversial project and the minister hearing about this orders his ‘punishment’. The play came to a swift and shocking violent end where David, tied to a chair, has to watch his pregnant wife being beaten and mistreated by the minister’s thugs.

The audience, at first stunned into silence by the closing scene was brought back to life and enthusiastically jumped in to the reenactment of the play, which they were supposed to halt whenever they felt a change had to be made. The play was halted so often and discussions and arguments within members of the audience stretched on for so long, a full reenactment could finally not be completed. Although it sparked a myriad of theories and suggestions from the observers, the cracks in the plot really began to show here. Ideas given often did not solve the issue at hand or were too far-fetched, giving one the idea that maybe such a complex topic could have been depicted better by the actors themselves.

The audience kept tossing ideas back and forth and with the thespians effectively adapting to the changes and counteracting the solutions brought about stimulated a great discussion, however no real solution was come to at the end of the production, leaving the theatre-goers with a somewhat unsettled feeling which was on the other hand was countered by talks after the end of the play, so maybe Beyond Borders in fact managed to achieve what they sought out to do – which was to draw attention to such a topic in the first place.

Pix by Dinuka Liyanawatte