India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 16 :: No. 04 :: Feb. 13 - 26, 1999

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SYMPOSIUM: SRI LANKA'S CULTURAL EXPERIENCE

Aspects of the English theatre

Covert cultural codes, priorities and preoccupations of the English-speaking elite in Sri Lanka manifested themselves in the changing theatre scene.

RUWANTHIE DE CHICKERA

The atmosphere was one of heavy anticipation. The audience was a slightly apprehensive English-speaking upper class, struggling to adjust to the withdrawal of colonial apron strings. "Cultured" cultural aliens in their land of birth, they were bent on constructing for themselves their own representative, public cultural agenda. An entire theatrical art form had to be created - ranging from language, through dress code and themes to presentation. The covert cultural codes, priorities and preoccupations of the English-speaking Sri Lankan bourgeoisie were about to manifest themselves in the type of theatre that it would or would not produce.

WHEN the curtain first went up on local English theatre in the 1940s, it was to reveal a rather sparse stage setting. The score was only a tentative tuning of a transplanted theatrical tradition. With no indigenous legacy and no exposure to parallel forms of local theatre, audiences were more than content to applaud rhapsodically the existing parochial British theatre. The most outstanding productions during this time were by the legendary Lyn Ludowyk, whose grasp of stagecraft and understanding of European drama made him the most successful and popular director of that era. He staged a number of established European dramas and also a few local farces. Unfortunately, the dividing line between stimulating theatre and mere entertainment seemed to be synonymous with the distinction between foreign and local drama. As Regi Siriwardena once said, the reason for this was probably an assumption that Ludowyk shared with the audience of his time - that "if you wanted to explore life deeply in the theatre, then you had to go to Shakespeare or Ibsen or Brecht, but if you wanted to present the local life on the stage, that could be material only for farce and caricature." However, Ludowyk played his part in setting the stage for the growth of Sri Lankan English theatre. A group of actors and actresses introduced by him trod the boards for several decades thereafter.

During the 1960s, Ernest MacIntyre, hailed as the most prolific and successful of Sri Lankan English playwrights, took the centrestage. The performing group formed by him, Stage and Set, presented established international plays in addition to MacIntyre's original plays. Treated to the sophisticated craftsmanship of his productions and provoked by the thematic relevance of his plays, the expanding English-speaking audience developed a taste for political and social drama and grew to proportions that could easily sustain a play for several days at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in Colombo. During this time there was an encouraging growth in the interaction between the English and Sinhala theatrical worlds.

MacIntyre's emigration in the 1970s brought a lull of about seven years. The ethnic riots of 1983 and the intervening cultural changes saw a depletion of the size of the audiences and the number of performers alike. Many theatre people emigrated, and those who stayed on either hovered about off-stage, or, like Iranganie Serasinghe, channelled their talents towards the English theatre's bigger and more courageous cousin - the Sinhala theatre. Mention must be made of the brilliant cameo performance by Richard de Zoysa, who charmed and challenged his audience by his outstanding talents as an actor and as a director. In addition to his brilliant theatrical prowess, de Zoysa possessed a sensitivity to social change and a desire to communicate across class and cultural barriers, a combination that placed him securely in the limelight until his tragic exit.

AFTER an unduly prolonged intermission, audiences were lured back into the theatre to the overtures of the established local comedies of the 1930s and 1940s like "Well", "Mudaliyar" and "He comes from Jaffna". Although hackneyed, these farces, sustained essentially by racist and classist innuendoes, proved immensely popular. It seemed that the 621 members of the bourgeoisie seated in the Lionel Wendt Theatre derived much delight from a village yokel fumbling his way through the play and the Queen's English. But these comedies, however reliable crowd-pullers they may have been, could only serve as appetisers. The main course would have to be considerably more substantial and creative if it were to sustain its audience.

However, these comedies succeeded in bringing audiences back to the theatre once again. Directors became confident enough to find their own speciality and variation within the widening theatre scene. Making entrances at this stage were directors such as Mohammed Adamaly, who introduced a series of established British farces and thrillers, Indu Dharmasena, who has written and produced a series of local satirical plays, and Jerome L. de Silva, who established an amateur theatre group, The Workshop Players, which showed a strong inclination towards well-known musicals such as "Oliver", "Cats" and "Les Miserables".

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A scene from Ariel Dorfman's political play "Widows" in a production by Feroze Kamardeen.

Although these were definite attempts to throw back the curtains of English theatre, the improvisations tended to remain within certain "safe" zones. Siriwardena articulates the reality bluntly when he says, "English-language theatre is dying of a surfeit of spectacular foreign musicals and trivial local farces." Over the past few years, local English theatre has been the platform for a disproportionately large number of musicals and comedies. This diffidence could be because audiences have come to expect theatre to snuggle up within the plush comfort zones of "entertainment". What is interesting is that though the composition of the audience had changed considerably, expectations of the theatre appeared to have remained unchanged and unchallenging. The aversion towards more serious theatre could stem from lack of interest; or it could be due to a need for release from stress in everyday life. Far worse was perhaps the suggestion in a review of a recent political drama ("Widows") that this sort of drama fails to make an impact within an environment of tension and suffering: "Sometimes we've heard their tragic accounts too often for their agony to register beyond a mere nodding sympathy. We have become blase about husbands, brothers, lovers, sons lost to their women as casualties of war. Thus the play was at most a chord but only tangentially."

This may be too brash a generalisation, but nonetheless English-language dramatists in Sri Lanka seem to have produced a popular formula for escapism that appeals to the majority. English-language theatre has been out of sync with the volatile backdrop that the country represents today. There has been apparent apathy on its part to the contemporary political and social realities of Sri Lanka.

The stage-fright that directors seem to have developed with regard to staging political drama is tied up with the bleak funding prospects available for this type of theatre. English theatre is low priority and receives no financial support from the state. Producers depend either on their own funds or on corporate sponsorship, which is of course driven by the box-office. The narrower the target audience, the less likely is the chance of breaking even. So, to keep the plays afloat, the tastes of the mainstream audience need to be catered to. Imported theatre, musicals and comedies seem to be what bring the audience back to the theatre.

If political drama of any sort is accepted, it goes down best when it is hidden within the folds of the British Council auditorium or is presented metaphorically, with universalised issues, ambiguous connections and diluted responsibility. There are directors who have subscribed to this; most markedly, Feroze Kamardeen, who is making his mark as a director who deals with political and social issues. A politically charged and highly revamped production of "Julius Caesar: An Anatomy of an Assassination" and a production of Ariel Dorfman's political play "Widows" were both set in foreign countries of political unrest, and though the insinuations and parallels were painfully explicit the punch was padded when it fell. A review that appeared in the Sunday Leader on May 24, 1998 dealt with this aspect (perhaps a little too dismissively). "While the issues treated in 'Widows' became universally relevant, they became socially ineffectual. Perhaps to treat it as if it happened here would have made it a valid work of art. Instead it was a valid production of drama in that it observed theatrical norms within contemporary expectations."

SRIYANTHA WALPOLA
Literary critic and playwright Regi Siriwardena.

With the production of "Widows", however, a point has been notched up in favour of serious or political drama. The encouraging ticket sales and the impassioned response such plays provoke suggested there was an audience yearning for political theatre.

The English-language theatre appears to be on the threshold of change. Recent productions have boasted a high level of technical competence, and the limits of the theatre appear to be only in the imagination of the directors and the abilities of the performers. A young and enthusiastic group of people waiting impatiently in the wings for the cue, coupled with experienced directors, willing sponsors and a potentially adventurous audience - the cast seems well equipped to treat its audience to a sterling performance. Whether the enthusiasm of directors, performers and the audience would be able to give a lift to the standards and jostle the boundaries of the existing theatrical traditions will determine either the growth or the demise of a theatre that has remained in an embryo stage for far too long.

Ruwanthie de Chickera is an actress and a playwright. She has performed in several English-language plays staged in Colombo. She won the best South Asian play award in the British Council International Playwriting Competition in 1997.