Arts

CRITIQUE - Pocahontas:

A 'production' of 150 actors!

Reviewed by Tilak A. Gunawardhana

This panoramic theatrical production I was privileged to watch on Friday the 7th at the Lyceum International College Hall, was not exactly a play even though the Managing Director, in the brochure refers to it as one. The Director is a little more cautious, and refers to it as a 'production' (a term that could embrace anything and everything that takes the shape of a parade of actors and actresses on a stage).

Mrs. Odile Melder who has collected as much as 150 students of the school, ranging from those in grade one to grade eight, to stage this one and half hour 'traffic' jam on the improvised stage must be congratulated, if for nothing else, the coordination she has achieved with such a great variety of children.

With over 150 to tackle, a daunting task not only for the directress but for most of those teachers who assisted her, the accepted framework of a 'play' had to be abandoned, even if it was inspired by the Brechtian 'epic' theatre.

'Stage traffic'

Therefore I would not look at this 'traffic' as a 'play', but as a panorama of scenes, or cameos depicting Red Indians and the first Europeans in America. The confrontations form the theme, if there is a coherent theme at all.

The wide variety of theatrical modes used provide a kind of entertainment, more suitable for a 'variety show' I would not find fault with that having to use children of a variety of ages and sizes.

And as Mrs. Melder states in her introduction "Happiness to me is working with children".

She had been more interested in getting round the children to entertain their parents, rather than present a connected story.

The story itself has suffered from the emphasis on theatrical but loose activity representing various facets of an imaginary, and to a great extent unreal social situation.

However, the music, the singing and movement of arms created a world of fantasy. The children obviously enjoyed the Directress's orchestration, regardless of the theme of the production.

The school is big, and has at its command, human and other resources no other school in Colombo could muster.

A resourceful directress can bring a large part of it together. The management of the school, and the parents would have been struck by the use of their children in something like a professional Manhatten, 42nd street commercial venture.Mrs Melder seems to have the spirit and the nerve that New York pseudo -artistic producers offer their art-hungry audiences.

The long time she had taken to drill the children, keeping most of them at school till very late, sacrificing every vestige of scholastic work needed during the day, would I hope, not inspire other teachers of elocution and drama, to immitate her.

It would have been more useful to produce a well-known classical play, rather than go for something loose, amorphous, and really directionless in the name of drama.

Then of course Mrs. Melder would not have been able to use more than fifteen or twenty children of a particular age level.

Panorama of cameos

Since she seems to love children more than the theatre, she has sacrificed acting to a panorama of cameos, as I mentioned earlier. I do not know what the children who took part gained by this very expensively created 'stage traffic'.

The theme was, I must admit, lost in the welter of juvenile antics under the guidance of a teacher of elocution. The audience consisting of people who would not have had much expereince of the real theatre would have been often dumbfounded, and lost in this cacophoney of noises produced by organs, violins, a piano and other miscellaneous acoustic, devices and gone home with the satisfaction that their children were at least not drugged before the 'show'.

Punchi Baba and Mille Soya on DVD

The DVDs of films Punchi Baba, the film in which Malani Fonseka played her maiden role and Boodee Keerthisena's award-winning Mille Soya have been launched on DVD by Torana Home Videos.

Punchi Baba is a film that revolves around a bachelor who adopts a child abandoned by someone and the troubles that he has to face due to the child. Joe Abeywickrema, Anula Karunatilaka, David Dharmakeerthi and Anthony C. Perera play the major roles in the film. Music composed by Sisira Senaratne. Punchi Baba won a number of awards.

Mille Soya is a film about the Sri Lankan youth who migrate to Italy in search of employment and better life. It won 18 major awards including SIGNIS Awards for Best Picture, Director, Screen Play, Art Director, Music Composer and Cinematographer.

The cast comprises Mahendra Perera, Sangeetha Weeraratne, Kamal Addararachchi, and Linton Semage. Boodee Keerthisena produced the film and music was composed by Lakshman Joseph de Saram and Cinematography by K. A. Dharmasena and Moshe Ben-yaish.

RC

A rich tapestry of imagination

by Ranga Chandrarathne

"Poetry from the East" is a collection of poetry by poet Ratnam Thiru covering a range of themes such as nature, divinity and heritage should draw the attention of all who loves poetry and appreciate nature in its pristine beauty.

Thiru has dedicated his anthology to Subra Maniya Bharathi and John Keats.

Though he does not seek publicity for his poems, the collection aptly named as "Poetry from the East", undoubtedly, shows the poet's intimate knowledge in a wide range of subjects and his familiarity with diverse cultures.

Born into middle class, orthodox Hindu parents in Chulipuram in the North, Ratnam had a difficult path of educating himself and carrying on with his literary career, both in Tamil and English. In spite of working in diverse fields such as banking, management and environmental science, Thiru had been a regular contributor in the Tamil and English media to Sri Lankan and Indian newspapers.

"Roses, lilies, daffodils, Orchids, jasmines white!

They sweetly sway beside the rills

At dawning time, so bright!

...Shun the urban din and noise,

And see the rural pasture!

"Enjoy repose, peace, and poise

In perfect tune with Nature!"

This abstract from the "Nature" shows the poet's keen sense of appreciation of nature and the environmentalist in him. The anthology consisting four sections, covers different subject areas such as nature, divinity and romance. "Dynamiting at sea", "Sweet Democracy" and "Unto lovely Renaz" are some of the titles of the poems that express the poet's rich imagination and love for nature.