Comical chaos at the Wendt

By Cheranka Mendis

Confusion is the name of the game. The more the madness, the better it is. Who seduces whom, who gets locked in with whom, who said what lie and where is all this chaos going to end?

It is a tangled web of lies, confusion and deceit coupled with satire, more confusion and more disorder that is on offer at ‘Yes, Hon. Minister,’ a play produced by Silent Hands Productions and directed by Neidra Williams and Jehan Bastians. Scheduled to go on stage on 24, 25 and 26 February at the Lionel Wendt theatre, await the arrival of English Affairs and Public Morality Deputy Minister Richard Parakrama, his wife Pamela Parakrama and of course, his able secretary George Palliyaguru.

A local adaptation of British playwright Ray Cooney’s ‘Two in to one,’ the drama unfolds around George Palliyaguru (played by Charith De Silva) in his efforts to help his master’s philandering lifestyle, even though it is much against his will.  George is the typical simple man who likes to keep things straightforward. Much to his apprehension, his Deputy Minister however craves the extreme opposite. With Richard Parakrama’s (Jehan Bastians) eyes set on a secretary of a well-known member of parliament, Jennifer Almeida (Michelle Herft), his attempts to seduce her triggers a series of ill-timed but amusing events with George in the middle.

While he tries to set up a ‘dirty afternoon’ for his Minister, he soon finds himself being seduced by the Deputy Minster’s wife (Neidra Williams) in an adjoining hotel room. Together with an inquisitive waiter, a humourless Hotel Manager and an Opposition MP staying at the same hotel, George manages to confuse everyone including himself as to whether he is Dr. Christmas, Mr. Easter, a quack from Nuwara Eliya or all of the above. And lesson learnt by the end of the day: lock people in rooms until a suitable solution to problems are found.

It all seems rather muddling but hilariously it all seems to fit in well. “The original play was one of Cooney’s funniest and it could easily be translated to a Sri Lankan context. The situational comedy in the play will keep the audience in stitches,” Neidra said, when joining the Weekend FT for a quick chat on the upcoming play. Commenting that people now prefer light entertainment in theatres to take their minds off the busy humdrum of the day, Jehan added that the crowd seems to like the idea of the comedy Yes, Hon. Minister.

Contrary to its name, what is important here is that this is not a political play. “There is no political satire here. This play is a farce and is an archetypal situational comedy. Richard Parakrama can be anyone from top businessmen, head of company etc. But somehow this Deputy Minister role fits in well,” Jehan said.  “We have a small but a loyal audience who seem to like this localisation of the play, as long as it is controlled and not over the top,” he said. The play staged last year by Silent Hands Productions, Leading Ladies was the best example, they noted.

There is also a sub-reason for the staging of Yes, Hon. Minister this year. “We found out that Cooney has written a sequence to ‘Two into one’ called ‘Out of Order.’ The plan is to stage this in a similar manner of Yes. Hon. Minister next year,” Neidra acknowledged.

The cast of 10 consists of the best for the roles. “Charith is made for the role of the secretary. This was one of our other reasons for choosing this play. We had the people that would suit the roles to perfection.” While most of the names are familiar for a Silent Hands Production, there are also two new members who have joined the band wagon. “It is a good team and the work has been tough but full of good times and madness.” Other than those mentioned above, Sashini Wakwella will take on the role of the Hotel Manager, Avishka De Alwis as Rupasinghe, Naresh Anthony as the Receptionist, Eshantha De Andrado as Mangala Almeida (the secretary’s husband), Rashmi Fernando as the Chambermaid and Sulochana Perera as Lilian Dabare, Member of the Opposition.

Having been working on it for three months, the time is now right for the production. The final words from the duo: “Be ready to laugh till your sides ache! We are quite excited about this and we hope the audience will enjoy it as much as we did putting it together.” Tickets are available at the Lionel Wendt and can be purchased between 9.30 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. - 5.00 p.m. Tickets are priced at Rs. 1500, Rs. 1000, Rs. 750 and Rs. 500 (balcony)

 – Pix by Varuna Wanniarachchi