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| Sunday, 11 July 2004 |
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Bimba Hevath Yasodara : An intellectual and emotional exercise
K. B. Herath, the veteran Sri Lankan dramatist, has achieved the near impossible by presenting the story of Yasodara and Siddhartha/Gauthama Buddha on the Sinhala stage. The other main characters portrayed in the play are Suddodhana, Maha Prajapathi Gothami, Mahanama and a few others As in the case of the majority of his plays such as Dona Kathirina and Deveni Mahinda, the central theme of Herath's new drama is the conflict between the aspirations and interests of a woman with the existing social, political and moral realities. The woman here is none other than the spouse of Siddhartha before he achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha. On June 10 Bimba Hevath Yasodara (she who was Bimba or Yasodara) had its premiere at the John de Silva Theatre in Colombo. The performance lasted about two hours without an interval (an interval would have definitely caused a collapse of the development of the theme and the mood of the play). The play started with the procession, of a group of women led by Maha Prajapathi Gothami walking toward Vesali, a place hundreds of miles away, for the purpose of requesting the Buddha for the third time, to grant them permission to obtain priesthood. From that moment onwards the audience became vigilant and the playwright-director held the attention and interest of the audience through his creation, controlling their emotions as well, for at times, some of the audience were reduced to tears. For two hours there was a deep silence (of course disturbed from time to time by the noise of the mobile phones). At the end of the play, the audience seemed to be immersed in a mood close to meditation. The applause at the end followed a moment's silence, which grew in a steady swell, interspersing with this well deserved applause were the occasional "sadhu" as intended at the end of a sermon by a priest. However Yasodara was no sermon and should have raised many new questions in their minds. This of course is a very sensitive and difficult theme to portray before a Sri Lankan Sinhala audience. Firstly there are taboos one has to observe in converting Siddhartha/Gauthama Buddha into the character of a stage play. Secondly a dramatist who is brave enough to take that risk has to overcome the preconceptions set in the minds of the audience about the characters he wishes to portray and interpret according to his wishes. Herath and his team were able to achieve a ground breaking success (albeit with a few mistakes that should be expected at a premier) in an area where no other dramatist has hitherto braved. In the play one of the main characters of the story, Siddhartha/Gautama Buddha never appears physically before the audience. There were instances during which the spectators were brought to the brink of an appearance but that never happened. On the one hand, the playwright-director observed a taboo that has been created by the tradition. On the other, the absence of this character was to achieve a subtle effect of estrangement that leads to a multi-faceted and complex discourse within the play and between the characters of the play and the audience. The absence of the Buddha on stage transforms him into an almost omni-present force transcending the limitations of personification By doing so Herath was successful in bringing forth several social, political and psychological problems, allowing the audience to interpret them in novel ways. Yasodara, a woman with deep emotions and strong will power, confronts this force first as a faithful fiance, then as a wife who was abandoned with her new-born child, and finally at the end, as a mother who is separated from this same child. Suddhodana, the politician father relates to this force on another plane of human and social relations. Maha Prajapathi Gothami, a selfless, strong-willed and understanding step mother communicates with this force with a motherly love at one moment, vehemently confronting the positions taken by the said force. Rahula, a confused child starved of fatherly affection, looks forward towards a different level of relationship with this force. The dramatist uses these conflicts and relationships among these persons and forces, to project his attitudes toward the nature and interaction of primary human emotions such as love, hate and jealousy; social and political behaviour such as power, male chauvinism, subordination of the weak, and especially of women by men, the institution of marriage; philosophical problems such as man's attempts to understand and explain his own fate, the liberation of this world from suffering; and moral problems such as sexual relations, selfishness etc. Even though Herath does not try to change the accepted version of the story of the Buddha and does not challenge the main precepts or norms of Buddhism, he tries to interpret several main events/ actions of leading and lesser personae in the scriptures to give light to aspects he wishes to raise. One example is the importunate Mahanama, resurrected skilfully from relative obscurity, only to meet the steadfast loyalty and faithfulness of Yasodara. Here too, Herath's main concern seems to be the plight of women. Not only the social injustice against women but the indifference of men of the sufferings, and disadvantages and risky natural challenges inherited by them. One such example from the play is in the portrayal of Suddhodana's eagerness to have a grandson for political reasons, where he overlooks Yasodara's fear and anxiety about the risk of childbirth (the death of Mahamaya due to post-childbirth illness is also recollected). Herath takes the audience from the time of Gauthama Buddha to the time of Deepankara Buddha using an inner narration. At the same time, this technique of an inner narration runs throughout the performance and sends clear signals of an intellectual and emotional exercise without being melodramatic. As stated earlier the audience was in a mood of intense alertness during the two hour performance. However, the spectators were not kept just spellbound. While experiencing this intense mood they were able to confront what happens on the stage and compare it with what they have already heard and read. And that enabled them to come to their own judgments even if they do not agree with Herath. That is the most significant quality of Herath's play Yasodara. With a few exceptions, the performances of all the actors, music, costumes, make-up, and stage props contributed to the success of the play. Indika Upamali, who played the role of Yasodara portrayed effectively the intimacy, strong will and the sufferings of Yasodara as created by Herath. Wittingly or unwittingly, Herath has loaded the character of Maha Prajapathi Gothami with two tasks. On one hand, she is a woman with a strong character, and power of endurance to face any difficult situation. At the same time she is an unsatisfied woman who had to serve others without having any opportunity to achieve anything for herself. On the other hand, Maha Prajapathie Gotami becomes an inner narrator of the play who coordinates every event and character. Kusum Renu was able to perform this difficult task, demonstrating a deep understanding and great skill. An evaluation of this play will not be complete without making an observation about the final scene. Up to a certain point the play does not exceed the limits of a realistic (but not naturalistic) portraying of the story of the Buddha. There are no unbelievable incidents or superhuman characters. However, Herath ends the play with a scene of a miracle performed by Yasodara taking the form of a gurula, a mythical bird, in front of the Buddha shortly before her death (Evidently this idea has been taken from a traditional literary source). It was obvious that this scene disturbed the hitherto developed mood in the majority of the audience. Herath's purpose for inserting this scene is not clear. Is Herath experimenting with a deconstructive technique? However, the result is a reconstruction of the tradition of mystification of the story of the Buddha. A play, like any other work of art, has its own life. It grows. It ages. It becomes rigid. It dies. However, over time, a great work of art reveals new facets of itself as Theodor Adorno would have said. Herath has created a new play which shows his creative and intellectual maturity. It is definitely one of the few good plays that have come to the Sinhala stage after Maname. However, it has to grow over time to become a great work of art. Michael Fernando, Department of Fine Arts, University of Peradeniya. |
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