Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Saturday, 29 June 2013 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Q: He comes from Jaffna has been staged numerous times from the early days of the century almost. What is it about the play that makes it relevant to the different times throughout the ages?
A: Well I don’t know about earlier on but right at the moment one of the reasons I am doing it is for the country, which is in a very dangerous situation and I am very anxious that we could make a small contribution towards racial unity, because this nation is a country that lived so wonderfully with all the races before. Now here in the play they hack each other nicely, then they take it for granted and go on living like that. That is one of the reasons that I doing this and over the years that may have been the same reason that the play was staged before as well and there was a whole series of them which showed what a united nation we were. That is essentially why I am doing it again.
Q: This is a question I always ask a theatre practitioner. Why is theatre so important to society and what greater good can it bring out?
A: My God! Drama at a young age improves personality overnight. It is the quickest way of improving your personality. That is why I always tell young people to try it out as it essentially gives them confidence. It is very important today especially in the very competitive age that they live in, the tremendous head-start they get by doing drama is wonderful and I have seen it happen to a lot of people.
Q: You’ve preferred to stick to musicals and comedy throughout your theatrical career. Is that your personal preference?
A: Actually my personal preference is serious drama and when I travel abroad I always go to see the more serious productions and never watch musicals and comedy, but somehow I don’t do serious drama here because I feel the majority of the people love comedy and musicals. The audience is also growing in the recent years and I think the preference of the crowd seems to be musicals and comedies but really it’s not something I should be happy about. However, as I said, over the years we have been improving. The audiences have been growing with more people going to see plays and I feel it may change and the serious messages will get through as well.
Q: If you had the choice of picking one script from all the famous international stage productions to produce in Sri Lanka, what would it be and why?
A: My gosh! It goes back a long way. I can’t really say one specific script, but I can definitely say Shakespearian drama is something I get very thrilled and excited about. Especially in England where I saw plenty of it and in places in Russia where I didn’t understand a word but I still knew the play and yet watched it. So if you ask me which one, I would say any Shakespearian drama and I go for it in a big way.
Q: Tell me about the cast in your new production of ‘He comes from Jaffna’.
A: In the cast this time as well is Anuruddha Fernando who plays a wonderful lead role and is actually the successor to E.C.B. Wijesinghe, which is what a lot of people say. He is marvellous. The others are relatively new but they have acted before in so many dramas and we also have E.C.B. Wijesinghe’s great-grandson Kanishka Herath who will be playing the son of the old man from Jaffna.
Q: You’ve been relatively quiet in the last three years. What have you been working on in that time?
A: I have done a couple of comedies after that such as ‘Chaos at the Vicarage’; school dramas mostly, being involved in the Shakespeare Drama Competition, and I have been doing some work in Bangalore. Again I am hoping to have a Shakespearian competition there and I have also been doing a lot of work in Jaffna.
Q: Tell me about the work you do in Jaffna and the response you’ve had for theatre there?
A: My God it has been tremendous especially for English drama and I am surprised at how keen they are. We have about eight schools are quite willing to have a Shakespeare drama competition of their own and hopefully we will bring them to Colombo as well. That should be next year’s big thing actually.
Q: What stage productions have been your greatest influences?
A: Again Shakespeare. From my childhood in my days at S. Thomas’ College I was influenced by Shakespearian drama. It always took predominance and is a Thomian way of life even now. That’s why I stuck to drama and my mother of course promoted it from the beginning and still even now I occasionally quote Shakespeare whenever possible (laughs).
Q: Do you find that drama these days is more outspoken on social issues these days?
A: Not yet but it is changing. I can’t say anything definite yet but English drama is changing for the better.
