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Saturday, 1 March 2014 07:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
version of the play, which is how ‘Madai Itin Dubai Giya’ came into being.
“At the end of that everyone was saying the characters were very interesting and wanted me to write another one, so I wrote ‘Madai Tommiya Kolamba Giya’. Another reason for me writing it was because Richard De Zoysa and I were discussing doing a Sri Lankan adaptation of ‘Hello Dolly’. His idea was how the fellow from the village comes to Colombo and shows off the hypocrisies of our society. That was not to be... it so happened that my writing of ‘Madai Tommiya Kolamba Giya’ coincided with his one-year death anniversary,” Indu recalls.
“In that play, when Tommiya gets ‘fashionable’ and returns to his village, he goes over the top because he wants to get back at his parents and everybody for wanting him to change. He wants to show his parents that it’s the real him that matters, not how he talks and behaves. Then people were saying ‘Tommiya fashionable wunta passe wadak na ne’. So I did ‘Madai Tommiya Pol Kaduwa.’”
As Indu reminisces, relating more Tommiya stories and acting out bits from here and there, one can’t help but wonder: How much of Tommiya is really Indu himself?
“Actually this way of talking and all that… among my cousins, I was the eldest of that generation. So when there used to be family functions, especially like danés and piriths, we were told to be quiet. As the eldest, I used to get scolded if we made a noise so I used to take them to a corner and talk to them like I was a child, even though I was much older to them,” says Indu, acting out how he used to do this.
“I suppose there’s a part of me. Tommy says things I want to say that I would not really say… There are certain things we think are rude and don’t say or do; these are the hypocrisies of our society. If you take people in the villages, they are much more upfront. Here you get people who say they call a spade a spade but they go out of their way to cut people.”
When Indu first thought up the character, did he think Tommiya would become so popular? “No, actually. I think it’s because it’s more ‘Singlish’. People relate to and understand it more. Most of my plays have Sinhala lines and these lines draw more laughter. With our language and mannerisms, you don’t have to say anything funny; it’s the way you say it that makes it funny.”
Four members of the current cast have acted in the entire Tommiya series since its inception: Indu Dharmasena as Tommy, Dr. Chithranga Kariyawasan as Lucy, Priyanka Holsinger as Angie, and Michael Holsinger, who initially played Charlie but has been playing Andana for the longest time. Shohan Chandiram joined the group in the mid ‘90s and plays Niroshan.
For Indu, it’s been an eventful journey, one that started out amidst much uncertainty. Drama was not considered a career option at that time Indu ventured into the field, so needing something to fall back on he went to London and completed a degree in mathematics and computer programming.
Thankfully, his parents never discouraged him, having produced a film themselves. “I suppose that made me want to write too. They never told me not to do it and always encouraged me.”
A past pupil of St. Bridget’s Convent, Indu stepped into the world of drama while in school, where he acted in a play he wrote for an end-term concert. The count of 60 plays came up in line with the number of Censor certificates in his possession, while the 
actual number is a bit higher if one adds up the plays done during his school days.
The first three plays Indu did at the Lionel Wendt were inspired by the novelist Georgette Heyer – ‘Convenient Marriage,’ ‘It’s All or Nothing’ (inspired by ‘Cotillion’) and ‘All Because Of Sam’ (inspired by ‘The Grand Sophy’).
So what’s next on the cards for Indu? “Now I have another booking end August so I suppose I will either write another one or do a rerun of an older play.”
Wrapping up with his thoughts on Sri Lankan theatre after 30 odd years on stage, Indu says: “There was a time when people would say English theatre in Sri Lanka was dead. I used to think, ‘then what are we doing?’ Jerome and Jith were doing so much stuff. I think it has moved forward, especially in terms of creativity and innovation. In terms of original productions, I think Sri Lankans have a lot of talent.”
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
