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| Wednesday, 24 November 2004 |
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Gleanings A passionate Blood Wedding
Spanish poet and playwright Garcia Lorca has been rendered into English, Sinhala and Thamil locally even earlier. Frederico Garcia Lorca is a familiar name for Lankan audiences and readers. An early 20th century literary phenomenon, Lorca's plays include Blood Wedding, Yerma, Bernado Alba and the lesser known Mariana Pineda, The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife and Dona Rosita, the Spider. Garcia Lorca was not merely a dramatist but also a poet and a painter. Social taboos were rampant in many orthodox countries and Catholic Spain was not an exception. Amidst all this writers and poets tried to portray life as it was in artistic expressions. Lorca was particularly interested in depicting the inner self of women in a rigorous Spanish society as evidenced from most of his plays. This was perhaps one reason why the Sinhala and Thamil producers of drama chose Lorca for their adaptations. Kaushalya is an offspring of two well-known Lankans - Lionel Fernando and Somalatha Subasinghe - (Lionel Fernando was immensely loved by the people of Yaalpaanam when he was a Government Agent then, which was one of the high positions he held with the Government of Sri Lanka and Somalatha is a household name in Sinhala theatre and is justifiably a 'Mother of Children's Theatre in Sinhala'). Kaushalya Fernando had been judged as Best Actress five times at the Sinhala drama festival. That is ample testimony for her acting talents. She is a Star on stage, screen and small screen. She has a Play House in Kotte which is affiliated with Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Organization founded by Somalatha Subsinghe in 1979. Incidentally the title of the Sinhala version of Lorca's play is "Sanda Langa Maranaya". Dr. Chandana Aluthge dubs the style of the play 'a semi-musical - surrealistic and adds: "The play incorporates choreographed movements, music and rhythm, and vivid lighting and colours in addition to very intense acting on stage to impart to the audience an entertaining yet intense theatre experience." I am in agreement with him in regard to the rhythm and music. What were fascinating for me were the rhythmic poses, pauses and superbly fine tuned Spanish dances and movements to an invigorating melody on guitar. While the two men have lust on the woman they chose to exploit, the woman was passionately in love with a married man. I think Kaushalya brings this aspect in an implicit manner and the actress Chamila Peiris was adequate in giving expression to this. A somewhat wooden performance in not expressing the character's real feelings was perhaps due to show how the Bride was intensely involved in love with Leonardo, the already married man. This role was played by Wishvajith Gunasekera. Although he played his role in his own style, I would have liked if he had been loud and clear in his voice production. I liked the theatrical movements of Prassanna Mahagamage as the Bridegroom both in his fights and the dance sequences. In fact all dancers including the main dancers at the wedding- Suresh Fernnado and Nayomi Gunasiri- were lively and orderly to evoke a fine movement in unison. The dance director deserves praise. Lakmini Seneviratne as servant woman draws attention as a budding character actress combining natural talent for comedy. Nadee Kammellaweera was very fine both in her portrayal and dance movements. She played the role of wife of Leonardo. Somalatha Subasinghe showed how a matured actress would perform the role of a tragic-laden widow. Effortlessly and so naturally and so simply she performed her role. That's the sign of virtuosity. And even though he appeared briefly, veteran dramatist and actor Lucien Bulathsinhala was pleasingly admirable. Stage set design, costume design, makeup, stage lighting design, choreography were adequately satisfying. Nadeeka Guruge, assisted by Chandana Aluthge, handled music composition and direction very well. Kaushalya Fernando and Nadee Kammellaweera were responsible for the adaptation and dialogue. I haven't seen a Sinhala play for a very long time and this play 'Sanda Langa Maranaya' proves that the Standard Sinhala theatre is not dead despite the incursion of some crude teledramas (why do they go on saying 'teledramas', when it comes on small screen, the products should be termed 'telefilms'? Colombo Thamil Theatre It is sad that those specialized in local Thamil theatre academics, I mean had not cared to record the Thamil theatrical activities in Colombo or Malayaham or even in the East in their articles or books. However professors Karthigesu Sivathamby and S. Maunaguru are reported to have regretted about this later. I was one of those literary columnists writing about the Colombo Thamil Theatre in English and Tamil in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. But even the present enthusiasts of Thamil theatre in Colombo do not seem to have researched on them. It's a pity. This is evident from a book titled, En Ninaivuhalum Nijangalum (My Remembrances and Realities) written by a practicing dramatist and poet, K. Selvarajan. The irony is that I was asked to speak in appreciation of the book last Sunday (Nov 21) at a gala extravaganza at the Elphinstone Theatre, which I did, of course in good faith. I shall write about the book giving you information gleaned from it later. This launching was extraordinary as it was only a part of publicity blitz and dance and songs event. Several Colombo VIPs in politics, entertainment world and artistes were there. It was a thamasha. Good if it can sell the book. Pioneer school service broadcaster's demise The death has occurred of Monie Elias, a pioneer radio broadcaster specializing in school service over the then radio Ceylon, in Chennai, Thamilnadu capital in India. A very senior broadcaster, who originally worked for the school service and later became the Head of the Thamil Service of the SLBC, Gnanam Rathinam, spouse of the late E. Rathinam of whom I wrote earlier in this column, now lives in Australia. She has sent me an obituary on Monie Elias to be published. I thought it would be appropriate that I include this in my Gleanings column for the simple reason those connected with education, culture and the like would be able to gather information through this column. This what Gnanam Rathinam wrote: It was with great sadness and shock that I received the news of passing away of Monie Elias- one time Programme Executive and broadcaster and first head of the Schools broadcast Service of radio Ceylon. Behind all these titles and eminence there was a very lovable person in Monie. I met Monie Elias in the late forties when as a student I participated in a radio programme. She was in charge of Tamil broadcasts at that time. Later she was appointed as programme organizer the head of the Schools Broadcast Service which was inaugurated in 1951. Monie Elias headed the Service which broadcast programmes in Sinhala, Tamil and English. I joined the Service as Tamil Programme assistant. The other two Programme assistants D. M. Colombage for Sinhala programmes and Iris Cockburn for English programmes were veteran broadcasters having served in the institution as announcers. We were a friendly little group and under the guidance and supervision of Miss Elias, as she was then called, set out on the huge task of building the Schools Broadcast Section. It was from this little group that I learnt the nuances of broadcasting. Monie was ever helpful guiding me in the techniques of broadcasting especially for schools. She encouraged me as well as all staff who joined the service later to write scripts, present programmes, and even do continuity announcements for school programmes so as to become multi skilled. Monie Elias who was qualified in music was a pioneer in the production of songs broadcast for children in Tamil. She, with the help of D S Man Bhagavathar, set to music many lyrics and poems suitable for children for broadcast in a series Let's Join in Singing. This series was a regular feature in the schools Broadcast schedule. Another series of programmes introduced in Tamil and presented by Monie Elias was Kindergarten of the Air which consisted of song, movement to music and story. She injected a great deal of liveliness and joy into this programme and it became one of the popular programmes broadcast over the service. Monie was kind-hearted and understanding as a supervisor. She was able to win the support of the staff as she always considered herself as one of them. She would sit with the staff and actively participate in the packing and dispatch of the schools broadcast material which had to be sent out to schools in advance. Monie was blessed with a daughter Premila who even as a little child displayed her talent in music. She had her Arangetram in Carnatic vocal music as a teenager in Colombo. Monie's dream was to give the best opportunity she could for her daughter to develop her talent in music. She therefore took the opportunity to retire from her service in Radio Ceylon when the option was given in 1968 for early retirement. She settled in India as she knew that her daughter would have great opportunity to develop her full potential in music in that country. Monie Elias thus quit the broadcast field early but she received her life's dream as her daughter Premila Gurumoorthy is a reputed musician and head of the Department of Music in the University of Madras (Chennai) Monie Elias passed away in Madras on 7th October, 2004. Thus wrote Gnanam Rathinam from 3/82 Dartbrook Road, Auburn NSW 2144, Australia. I would like to add that my idol Thamil announcer over the then Radio Ceylon, S. Cunjithapatham was closely associated with Monie Elias family. Monie Elias, I gathered was of Malayalam origin. Contact: kssivan19@sltnet.lk 2587617
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Produced by Lake House |
One of the finest young actresses on the Sinhala stage, Kaushalya
Fernanado's maiden attempt in directing an internationally known play
adapted in local idiom with short and pithy dialogue was staged on
November 13 and 14 at the Bishop's College auditorium. What struck me most
was the youthful and passionate display of a tragic ending of a triangle
of love.
