Caged--an experimental dance theater brings on stage a regular ‘man’ entrapped in his day to day life due to various social norms and values. [break]
The play shows how humans are entrapped in relationships, love, marriage, and education throughout their lives.
The play was performed at the Russian Culture Center as part of the 2nd Mandala International Youth Theatre Festival by the Inter Act Art, a youth theatre group from Sri Lanka.
Directed by M Safeer, the play is one of the many achievements of the group consisting of members from all across the country with diverse ethnic, religious, and professional backgrounds.
The group consists of a dance teacher, a government official and businessmen from various regions.
A total of 10 members, they take great pride not only in being the pioneers of the Black Box and Mobile Theater in their country but also being the first to stage bilingual plays even though Sri Lanka hosts festivals for Sinhala and Tamil dramas separately.
The director and leader of the group, Safeer, is a highly respected personality in the Sri Lankan drama scene. He has been honored with various state level awards and he has staged his plays at various international theatre fests.
This group of theatre enthusiasts has traveled all around their country with their campaign ‘Use of Performing Art for co-existence.’
Even during the Sri Lankan civil war this group traveled across the country hosting workshops and discussing problems, experiences and the response of the locals.
The group then staged plays based on the views expressed by the locals during such discourses. The issues these plays brought to the stage were impromptu but very realistic.
Talking about their plays, Safeer was quoted by The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka saying ‘As a Muslim I believe that I have a responsibility to bring together the other two communities in the conflict.
This is not a propaganda campaign for peace. But it is working together successfully with the different communities understanding one another. It can be done and we have done it.”
As they enjoy the various international plays being staged at the Youth Theatre Festival in Kathmandu, the group consisting of Aruna Priyantha, Dagadevan Dayalan, Nadeeka Tharangani, Thiwanka Ranasringhe, Illme Hassim, Hasindu Randil Abeywickrama, Lalindra Dissanayake, Chamal Virantha, Aruna Shantha, Manoj Priyadarshana join Republica for a brief chat.
Share with us the theater scenario in Sri Lanka?
Inter Act Art: These days a lot of plays are being staged in our country. There is a huge rise in the number of festivals and competitions too. New methods and narratives have taken over and there is a huge young populace interested in theatre.
One, however, can’t take up theater as a profession as the money involved is very less. Even in our group none of us are into theatre fulltime.
Isn’t it difficult to coordinate and stage plays as a group with so much diversity?
Inter Act Art: Not really. Epecially because in our country we have a lot of public holidays owing to the many festivals! On a serious note, one of the most important qualities a theatre artist needs to possess is passion.
It is because of our passion that we manage to take time off from our day to day lives and stage plays. Also in our group everyone tries to create their own settings, visual effects, and music to blend with the story and we try to refrain from traditional scripts - this is possible only because of the diversity in the group.
Tell us a bit about the Black Box Theater and the response it drew in your country?
Inter Act Art: It has only been three years since the Black Box Theatre was introduced to the Sri Lankan audience by Safeer although the world theatre saw the first Black Box back in 1950s in America. The response to this idea of staging plays has been very positive due to its convenience. Almost any open space can be transformed into a Black Box Theatre just by drawing black curtains on all four sides. Our primary intention was to create a theatre house to have dialogue with society.
In doing so, our initial objectives were to broaden and find new horizons and study the field of performing art. Another objective was to bring forward new modern play writers, directors, actors and relevant additional artists and to build theatre groups with a modern auditorium.
In 2008 the Sinhalese translation of Manuel Schobel’s ‘Beanpole Really Really Wants to…’ was staged by Safeer and was the first of its kind. From then on we have staged a lot of plays looking forward to creating dramatists at regional levels.
What differences did you find in Sri Lankan plays and the ones staged in Nepali Theaters?
Inter Act Art: From what we have noticed Nepali plays have modern techniques. For example, let’s say when the stage setting are to be changed between two scenes of a play, we dim the light to such an extent that it’s pitch-dark. Here it’s not that way, everything is visible. The manner in which props are handled is also very modern. We would love to come back again and watch a lot more plays and learn from Nepali artists.
Schedule:
November 29:
Mrityuma Padhneharu/Nepal
Written and Directed by: Rajan Upreti
Time: 1:00 pm
Home Alone/ Bangladesh
Written by: Junaid Eusuf
Directed by: Debaprosasd Debnath
Time: 5:00 pm
November 30:
Muppet and the Child/ Srilanka
Lalith Athulathmudali College Drama Club
Time: 1:00 pm
A View from the Bridge/Nepal
Written by: Arthur Miller
Directed by: Eelum Dixit
Time: 5:00 pm
The festival which started from November 25 at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture (RCSC) is organized by Mandala Theatre Nepal in cooperation with RCSC and Mahendra Golchha Memorial Trust.
The fest will close on November 30.
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