|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 16 November 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Two times two is two : The more you see it, the more you see in it by Farah Macan Markar
An old man and a youth. A bench and a lamp post in a dimly lit street. A mysterious note. Nothing is said. Everything is said. Hardly anything happens. Everything is acted out. The mind and the body. Two bodies-Two minds. Four on a stage where there's really two. 'Two times two is two". Having first been performed in the British Council in July 2000, re-run in August the same year and then again in 2002, Ruwanthie de Chickera's 'Two Times Two Is Two' will be run for the first time for a large audience in the Lionel Wendt, today at 7.30 P.M. A part of the Lionel Wendt 50th anniversary celebrations, being written and directed by Ruwanthie, the play will cast two of its veterans, Prasad Pereira and Gihan de Chickera, plus two new-comers Nanda Abeysekera and Keshan Thalgahagoda. A minimalistic play with hardly any sets and props, no special effects, its focus is directly on the acting and through it the unique techniques of the playwright, in bringing out what is said and unsaid. What people show the world and what people don't show. What we tell and what ourselves tell us, Ruwanthie brings about the innerselves of her characters, their minds, memories and emotions, stark naked. While the play shows aspects of loneliness, opportunity and missed opportunity, memory, dreams and reality, it simultaneously brings about the confinement of the human body and the contrasting energy of the human spirit, immaterial of age, hidden inside. Written in 1996 to explore the technique of bringing out the "Said and the unsaid" in theatre, Ruwanthie built her plot around her technique. "The play has a lot of synchrony," says Ruwanthie "Timing is important on part of the actors. The acting style too is different to the norm. The body is subtle while the mind goes berserk. two times two is two is my favourite play. The more you see it, the more you see in it". A combination of comedy and tragedy, it is an A-cultural play. The cast having done a background analyst of each character, delving beyond their confinement on stage, Gihan says "It takes time to get into the parts. The play requires perfect skill, concentration and coordination among the actors". "two times two is two" is Ruwanthie's second play. Her first "Middle of Silence" won the British Council International New Playwright Award for South Asia in 1997. For Ruwanthie theatre is a tool for bringing communities together. Having worked with kurdish refugees and prison inmates in the UK, she set up "Stages", a theatre initiative for the young in Sri Lanka. Her work is centred on translations, the production of multilingual plays and evolving plays collaboratively through workshops. To this end she has conducted workshops in several places like Jaffna and the National Institute of Mental Health. De Chickera has won several awards for scripting and directing, including the Gratiaen Prize for the best Sri Lankan work in English and the Presidential Scholarship Award for drama. ******************** International exhibition of the Photographic Society of Sri Lanka
This year too, the entries cover a very broad range of subjects - landscapes and portraits, wildlife and nature, glamour and fashion, beauty and the arts, the abstract and the contrived, news and life. The judges for this year's competition were Rani Wickremasinghe, Lakshman Nadarajah and Chandi Chanmugan, all of whom have earned widespread recognition in their own right. The judge's prints are specially displayed at the exhibition. ******************** Women in war time Mounathin Nillalil is about women in war time and how they confront and negotiate with the power of silence overpowering their lives. Mounathin Nillalil by Sumathy will go on the boards on November 23 as part of the Jubilee celebration of Lionel Wendt Theatre. It is an adaptation in Tamil of 'In the shadow of the gun,' Winner of 2001 Gratiaen Prize for English literature along with 'The Wicked Witch' and is played by three people. "In the shadow of the gun" is published in the book Thin Veils (ICES, Colombo 2003) by Sumathy. This production is sponsored by The Sunera Trust and other well-wishers. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Today is the last day of the 48th annual exhibition of the Photographic
Society of Sri Lanka which opened at the Lionel Wendt Memorial Art Centre
on November 14.
