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DateLine Sunday, 30 December 2007

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Physical force vs moral force

Innovative and penetrative, aggressive and assertive, and that is how I hold Namel Weeramuni's Madhyavediyekuge Asipatha (Sword of a Journalist). Namel, a veteran in drama and theatre who came on stage in the early 1960s kept the theatre alive with his creations and theatre organization. With his latest play on the boards, he marks his presence with a bang. As its title suggests it leaves a sharp and precise mark in the local theatre today.
Theatre prospers and enamours with issues which have a current political and social significance. They enliven the audience to a bold experience on stage from a perspective that appeals to anyone interested in theatre. The journalists of today whose anonymity remains subdued while his views and disclosures strike an unusual identity and a publicity that every reader loves.

Selective and audacious use of theatre-craft highlights the demands and hazards in the life and career of a journalist. It is assertive and coercive in content as well as in performance with a high degree of power packed into the play. Intensity of the theme advance by its impact on the political elite consequently brings disaster to the profession of both tribes.

Conflict of interest in which one derives delight in disclosure while the other derives similar pleasure by concealing it, leads the theatregoer to a continuous treat of an energetic theatre. Each profession is committed to protect their own rights.

Politicians seek comfort in concealment of sources of power and fortune while the journalist seeks pleasure in revelation of what is concealed, and none of them are inclined to surrender to the other, the politicians uses physical force while the journalist uses moral force.

The common man who is in the centre of this contest while feeding himself with what is truth becomes judges of events, too. He is not concerned about who does report and reveal, but their focus is on the material so revealed. His instinct is that more powerful the politician the more he likes to know who he is. The less the identity of the journalist is revealed the more alluring is the material he divulges.

Namel penetrating into analytical reality of common man brings out the interests of these antagonists to a climax where the consistent resistance of the journalist overcomes the political power of the politician who fails to meet the disastrous effect. The sword of the journalist continues to glitter with its sharp edges when he refuses to succumb to pressure of the quilty politico.

The journalist quickly grabs the acts of evil in the politician who is enjoying all the comforts in life at the expense of the people who maintain them. However, the politician hates any adverse assessment by others and rests totally on his own estimate which should be projected to the people as the authentic evaluation of his work and himself.

The dramatist vividly brings out the need for a balanced and honest social relationship between the two into probing subconscious of the audience through a heavy dramatic focus. Both the journalist and the politician are assiduously concerned about their independence they should exercise within a spirit freedom of expression and good governance.

The politician craves for liberty to screen what he believes should be hidden from the public and that right he is not prepared to surrender to a 'non-entity'. Similarly, the journalist is inclined on preserving his freedom to expose what he believes to be of public interest.

Clash between the two arises when each encroaches upon the 'freedom' of the other. What this freedom is, not discussed very clearly in the play and the politician contemplates on physical elimination of the journalist and the journalist contemplates on moral eleimation of the politician.

Media personalities who wish to make the politician a moral victim of the people, they themselves in turn fall victims of the politician. This unfortunate vicious circle the play continues in its spirited thematic grip.

Torture inflicted on the journalist irrespective of gender differences, reaches the peak with the ultimatum issued by the politician on the goons to act fast. Their survival too, depend only on their successful operation. A journalist who has developed will-power to withstand torture, could not be pressed into submission, to wield the sword for wrongful use.

The underworld used in pursuance of the politician's goals should succeed by hook or by crook for their own subsistence otherwise they too are doomed. That is the essence of this monumental play to have come on the boards in the recent years.

The torture house (Koppara Maduwa) symbolically expresses the physical, mental and emotional agony into which a journalist is thrust by those who weild power and position. The pen used by a journalist is converted into a sword which cuts the corrupt character of a politician while the sword the politician uses to cut the pen of a journalist is turned into a pen in the hands of the journalist to be used against the politician.

While thespian performance in the play is portrayed with unusual dramatic force and instant reaction, choreography of Vasantha Kumara and music by Jayatissa Alahakoon, two veterans in their respective fields, add rhythm and vigour into the play with avowed melody striking a rare sub-string that enhances the dramatic effect of the power-packed portrayal.

Namel artistically and meaningfully fuses stylised elements with the relative realistic delineation which brings out a singular theatrical effect supplementing what is complimentary in the dialogue.

Pace of dramatic movement swelled by the force of scene-related musical compositions, heighten the thematic effect of a dedicated effort, spurred by the unveiling of demoniac events into the tragedy of corrupt political life.

The play requires a degree of overplay by some characters because of the weight of what was conveyed is heavier than the outwarded appearance of the character it portrays.

However, they maintain a sensible and cogent balance between realistic characterization and surrealistic emphasis as demanded by the character, best example here being the underworld goons.

Aesthetically designed choreography defined by the musical score leaves a lasting impression in the theatregoer. The question with which the play ends hoping for a better tomorrow, I feel is rather melodramatic not demanded by the play.

The future is what the politician and the journalist in their opposing roles put into shape through a continuing process of friction. Mere hope for a future with the present unable to provide a positive development, will have a negative effect on the whole process.

Confession made at the denouement of the play by the journalist who is on her last lap, realizes the kind of steel personality of a journalist which the play upto the end endeavoured to portray. Finally, it produces a vibrant play persuasive of a rare dramatic experience.

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