‘Collective conspiracies’ to the fore

By Dilshan BOANGE

A friend and former colleague from my days at Bonsoir, Nandana Sitinamaluwe once told me in a conversation about Rajitha Dissanayake’s work, that in contemporary Sinhala theatre Rajitha is the ‘Madha mawathe pera gamankaru’; how precisely that would translate to English in keeping with the ‘phraseology merits’ of it, is difficult to say, yet it would seem apt to say that it speaks to the effect that Rajitha is ‘the frontrunner on the path of moderates’.

Rajitha’s craft

His dramas do not address audiences in highbrow lingos to disaffect the average theatregoer. His theatre isn’t about exacting awe by projecting an intellectualism as the basis to qualify to his audiences. His stagecraft isn’t about reproducing the classics sought by the lovers of the Grecian theatre, set in a Sri Lankan mould.

Rajitha Dissanayake

And what Rajitha’s theatre is not about is building banal slapstick entertainment that works as crowd pullers to fill seats in an auditorium. But his is a craft that very much qualifies as a form of ‘popular theatre’ today, given the fact that it has gained popularity among theatregoers. ‘Sihina horu arang’ titled in English as ‘Dreams robbed’ is a work which has made its mark as one of the best known plays by Rajitha and has been critically acclaimed over the years. It was staged at the Lionel Wendt on August 18, which was my first time watching it although I had been exposed to some discussion about the drama during my Colombo” varsity days as well as once when Rajitha was featured on Bonsoir, and rehearsals of the play were shown on the show.

Time period setting

Chronology wise, the period in which the story is set, today is not the most crucially focused juncture in the present political landscape –the dissolution of Parliament in 2004 that effectively led to the end of the CFA between the Government and the LTTE. This juncture which marks a turning point in our country’s shaping of government policy leading to the present is not the central ground for the drive and integrity of the story, its relation and relevance to us as society, and the validity it holds in reflecting a facet of what and who we are to our own senses sitting in the soft darkness of the theatre. ‘Sihina horu arang’ deals with a host of themes that ring out some drilling arguments and needles the conscious viewer to become ‘self aware’ of them. ‘Trust’ is one of them. One of the most compelling and thought provoking concerns of being human that cannot be disregarded is how ‘trust’ works between individuals and in turn within society, and thus in turn reflects the ‘system’ which governs us.

The theme of ‘trust’

There are two scales of ideas on trust, that work in the text of the drama that delivers dialogues, actions and emotional outpours that enliven the stage. There is the ‘micro’ level of how simple dealings between two people work intimately, playing on the matter of trust, and then its macro projection of how ‘people’ deal with the ‘reps’ of a system, on the belief that trust is either in place, or displaced.

And then there is also that dejecting revelation, that to some, the gullible and desperate, ‘trust’ had been simply a lure to an end which shows the tragedy that befalls them when trust is ‘misplaced’. On this theme of trust I feel Rajitha has built a critique that unfolds in theatrical performance to tastefully imply an unpalatable truth –as a people, we get what we deserve for being who we are.

The opening message

The stage is set with a rather minimalist arrangement of chairs and coffee tables to depict a lounging room type space. The first person to speak is a male played by the well-known face of the stage and screen Gihan Fernando. Reading an issue of the Sunday Observer (of the earlier layout design) the man lowers the newspaper and addresses the audience in the manner of an intermediary from the ‘sphere’ to come alive as the ‘play’ and the audience seated in the darkness whose presence will complement the drama to bring alive ‘theatre’.

He says to kindly switch off the cell phones and in the event the drama turns uninteresting to be considerate enough to not disturb the person sitting next to you with your restlessness and then informs parents that it is their duty to disallow their little children if any have been brought to cause disturbance to viewers.

The all too well known civic notice for better manners when at the theatre issued over the public announcement system is thus spoken from the stage to hopefully solicit better adherence. What purpose does an element like this serve? I feel it is to begin the drama’s discoursing from a personalised call, both situational and symbolic, for a few simple adjustments to ‘better ourselves’ out of considerateness for others, whom along with, each person claims to form ‘society’. The outcomes of any ‘collective’ after all are as salubrious or as opprobrious as the ‘individuals’ who form it.

The setting is a beachside holiday resort where a host of characters intersect one another’s lives in ways rather chanced but revealed to be almost providential.

Going to a linear series of synopses of the drama may be rather trite I feel, and whether that is the actual role of a drama reviewer, to narrate the story for the benefit of those who haven’t watched it, is another matter should be ‘reviewed’ altogether. The discussion of this article will therefore be more on the exploration of different aspects of the drama that bespeak the work’s numerous representations and its aesthetic facets.

Character descriptions

The reader who has not yet watched ‘Sihina horu arang’ would stand to benefit by a brief description of the characters and facts of the ‘faces’ that played them in the performance, to better able something of a mental visualisation before going into the interiorities that await exploration.

‘Asanga’ played by Gihan Fernando is at the outset a secretary to a cabinet minister who afterwards curries sufficient favour with the top brass of his minister’s party after his boss defects, following the dissolution of parliament, and succeeds in becoming the candidate to contest the former minister’s electorate on the government party ticket.

Priyankara Rathnayake performs the role of a police Chief Inspector (the rank implied through the mentioning of his next promotion to be as ASP) named Jagath who had been class mates with Asanga in a central college and presents the archetypical corrupt politicised cop.

Shyam Fernando plays the role of Sarath an expatriate Sri Lankan living in Europe who had made it up the hard way, and now staying in the resort for a small holiday. Played by Prasad Sooriyaarchchi, Jayasumana a serving Lance Corporal in the Army is an old time friend of Sarath who arrives at the resort for a short rest en route to visit the parents of his wife Wasanthi who is played by Jayani Senanayake. Ruwini, played by young actress Samadhi Laksiri is a researcher for an NGO whose entry point to the story is as a ‘guest’ of Asanga’s who is brought to the resort to carry out some research for the NGO she works for.

The underdogs

Piyaratne is the long suffering ever obedient caretaker cum steward cum all round good man at the resort played by Dayadeva Edirisinghe, and Sugath his son played by Dharmapriya Dias is the lead vocalist of the band that performs at the resort.

One salient feature of this assortment of characters is that while all are connected to the resort as either patrons or employees of the resort, the police officer whose presence is manifold, such as an overseer on matters of security which he makes very manifest on several instances, becomes somewhat of an interloper of sorts.

A scene from Sihina Horu Arang

But nevertheless the representation he makes as a policing authority of civilians being the OIC of the area posits him as a persona entitled to access places such as the resort unrestrictedly.

The primary factor of describing the characters sets the ground to view how a relationship schema bound to the holiday resort is distinguishable in the story. The ‘space’ modelled into a ‘place’ where any drama unfolds is after all critical in gauging the socio-political angles that are assignable to both the characters and the story they present.

Circumstantially corrupt

Asanga although makes confession of being in his profession of cutthroat politics and mercenary allegiances not out of his ‘ideal design’ but more as circumstantial compulsions, he does not seem to apologise for his actions. One must keep in mind that his choices in life are partly ascribed by him to a system that failed him, being a graduate who could not secure what would have been expected of him but instead had to sell himself and his morals to corrupt politics to ‘move up’ in life.

This is one point that draws a distinction to explain the positions of Jagath and Asanga who were classmates. The former having not been able to get into varsity had clearly been left with fewer options in choosing his path upwards. His is a case of making his choice of ‘position in life’ more through design than Asanga.

Both Jagath and Asanga are two corrupt faces of the same ruinous game and reps of the system, but which of them will become the greater evil is hard to pinpoint since the layers Asanga and Jagath symbolise are in a symbiosis where one protects the other and would seem powerless if made to stand without the other’s mutual cooperation.

Is this the ‘State’ one may ask? Indivisible in its different agencies of power and at times not fully visible of who is the real power holder? And being unclear from whom founts the true source of power and authority, which becomes somewhat sardonically manifest when towards the end Jagath pretends an admonishment to his long time friend and fellow operator of the system that he will impartially conduct the investigation of Sarath’s murder in which both Jayasumana and Sugath are seen as suspects who had by then been circumstanced to accept Asanaga’s intervention which got them released from police custody in the hope of enlisting them election campaign.

That instance in the play showed a clear mockery of the system and the impunity with which a power holder may twist and leash the law, to reinforce that tyrannical maxim –‘might is right’. Interestingly what stands to implicate Jayasumana as a possible suspect in the murder of his old friend Sarath is the letter he had given Sugath to hand over to Jayasumana before leaving the resort.

The letter which admits the departed’s treachery of having had an illicit affair with Wasanthi and begs forgiveness is a desperate attempt to ease the overwhelming guilt he is saddled with.

This act done in good faith ironically serves to allow Jayasumana to be incriminated in the murder. Sarath’s purpose in life is never really made to be understood since he is the now ‘uprooted’ one who does not fit into the societal picture of his generation here.

Jayasumana’s objective was to get Sarath hitched and eventually settled down, and his eyes quickly fall upon young Ruwini who although had been one of Asanag’s discreet ‘keeps’ had obviously yearned for the orthodox way of life to get settled down with a financially stable husband.

Ruwini is thus a casualty in the scheme of deceptions and treacheries that snake under a layering of seeming happiness at the resort.

But her own journey isn’t free from scandal although it hasn’t spilt out to create a public scene of opprobrium like what unfolds between Sarath and Wasanthi. And thus as the indiscretions and lies churn out their inevitable ugly outcomes the ‘shit’ as the saying goes truly ‘hits the fan’.

Indiscretion and disclosures

The character of Ruwini through what Asanga reveals of their relationship is exposed to the audience of her own gold digging ways. This juncture in the story gives a very important axis to gauge what her own past was in terms of looking at her future expectations. Asanga was much a utility to her as she was to him.

And once she had found her path to fulfil her expectations she merely wants to discontinue her ‘arrangements’ with Asanga who although takes a deplorable pleasure in mocking her doesn’t disallow her to move away from him.

She isn’t in that sense his sex slave, and Sarath who obviously would have gauged the nature of their ‘association’ revealed his ‘broadened’ outlook about people and society (presumably from his thinking being influenced from life in Europe) when he reveals to have given her his word for marriage.

What differentiates the relationship between Asanga and Ruwini from the dilemmatic adulterers Sarath and Wasanthi is that the understandings between them were much clearer though understated and unlike the one sided genuine expectations borne by Wasanthi when she allowed to be bedded by her husband’s friend believing his promises to take her away with him to Europe since she is desperate to get out of her marriage to Jayasumana. Wasanthi in that sense reveals to be a woman who positions her body as a means to an end like Ruwini, yet fails to achieve the intended objective.

Being in a parentally unapproved marriage to Jayasumana, when she says her desire is to break free from his oppressive ways and become financially able enough to support her old parents there arises a facet to her that seems estimable yet also seems possibly pretentious seeing as how she obviously wasn’t an ideal paragon of filial obedience to begin with.

Simplistic Jayasumana

Wasanthi’s character further reveals her dubiousness as an indiscretion with Asanga is also strongly indicated to the very end and thus leaves her appearing rather an unpalatable personality, which reflects Jayasumana to be revealed through his conjugal bond to her as more and more moronic.

Sooriyarachchi delivers a praiseworthy performance as an actor giving credence to why a viewer should find the character of Jayasumana endearing. His is a character who brings out a marked humanism when even at the end when faced with the ultimatum of joining ranks under Asanga to serve in his campaign and get freed of all charges of being a suspect in the murder of Sarath this simple man from the village does not jump at the chance to be unhooked of the inconvenience of being in police custody.

His silence and sombreness indicates a man with a better sense of being conscientious of what his decisions to get allied with corruption will result in. In this respect Jayasumana seems one who is very appreciably humanist in his outlook. Although the drama does not really offer any ‘heroes’ to adulate the character closest to a ‘hero’ on being more morally palatable, can be found Jayasumana.

Understated Piyaratne

In terms of character revelations the role of Piyaratne is reflective of a certain stratum and a generation that is bound to serve the power holders regardless of what moral foundations may be found or not in their masters. Piyaratne innocently hopes that his son Sugath may be able to make a success of himself if he goes to Europe with the help of Sarath which he requests humbly, and a means to see to fulfilling this actually is made on the part of the expatriate Sri Lankan although Sugath reveals another side to him latterly when he says he too will take to working for a friend who is an election candidate who is with the opposition and hopes that if his friend wins and is granted a Deputy Minister’s position he will get a ‘secretarial’ position to serve the Deputy Minister. This turn of events is also a ground to build a critique on the likes of Sugath who is markedly different to his father’s generation.

Unlike Piyaratne his son is ready to play the risky game of politics and up for the gamble. His father’s approach however is to believe that people who are known to him and are known for their friendliness and reliability of favouring the ones known to them should be hoped to be seen in power. It’s clear in the case of how he speaks optimistically of Asanaga upon learning his candidacy to run for parliament.

Piyaratne thus shows how his wishes and outlooks are simple and not ambitious or complex. He desires to see wellness befall himself and loved ones like his son, yet towards that end he will not fight but humbly bow his head and seek the mercy and benevolence of the powerful.

Piyaratne remains very much a subaltern and shows no empowerment. He remains as one who will at best be able to lick the scraps thrown at him for his unfailing obedience which is exemplified when he helplessly obeys the command of the OIC to take Sugath to the police jeep to be taken away for questioning.

Experienced corruptors

On the topic of political gambles, it seems that Jagath and Asanga are the ones who known best the nature of the game they play. Jagath at one point early on in the drama says that for his unfailing loyalty to the regime, the outcome after the election will be either a promotion or a ‘punishment transfer’.

Yet those such as Sugath who simply try to test the waters instantly feel the ‘burn’ of its painful iciness when he is said to have been hauled into the police station for being involved in some election canvassing mayhem.

But for all his bold choices in choosing to get involved in electoral politics, what he is made to face as ‘Hobson’s choice’ at the end is to side with Asanga if he is to survive persecutory ‘police politics’ and not be wrongly harassed as a suspect in Sarath’s murder.

On the level of being a work that entertains the audience I feel the main scene that really provides something of a well rounded sense of entertainment is where on the first night spent at the resort a festivity unfolds over a bottle of Ballantines and Black & White whiskies as Sooriyarachchi brings to life a Jayasumana depictive of a typical Sri Lankan reveller who discards all cares and drifts into the joyousness of song, drink and dance.

Jayasumana becomes a reveller who speaks with total indifference to the parliament’s dissolution saying that the state of the parliament does not really affect the lives of ones such as him, and that their plights will always be as they are irrespective of who comes to power. But he says that if he war starts again that however will be a matter of concern for him.

By this point Rajitha indicates to the audience that polity does affect ones such as Jayasumana not merely on the basis of the social stratum them represent but also the realities of their occupation are also captured by it.

‘Sihina horu arang’ is the third play of Rajitha’s I have watched, ‘Apahu harenna baha’ (No return) and ‘Veeraya marila’ (The hero is dead) being the other two. In comparison to ‘Veeraya marila’ the drive for an entertaining narrative on the lines of some comicality is notably less in ‘Sihina horu arang’. While in ‘Apahu harenna baha’ the likes of W. Jayasiri deliver entertaining performances in bringing their characters to life, it is Sooriyarachchi who occupies this central place of being the role that entertains, yet that too is bound mainly to his spot of revelry and the antics that are liquor spurred, where he generously offers Scotch to Sugath and his band as ‘Rata arrakku’ (Foreign arrack).

In choosing Sooriyarachchi to play the role of Jayasumana, Rajitha has certainly displayed his prowess in sound casting decisions.

While Dharmapriya Dias too becomes something of an entertaining character both he and Jayasumana are deathly silent and drained of any vein of joviality when the ‘end’ begins with Asanga pouring them each a glass of Jack Daniels bourbon and posing them their ultimatum.

Character revelation based narrative

One approach of looking at the play is that the characters are given the space in the length and breadth of the story to be gradually revealed of their individuality and what makes them who they are, and what binds them to one another in the course of the story. One may say the characters are well rounded and balanced in their development to fill the story, and thereby it is a story that is driven by the development of the characters.

One could say that the story sees the characters be revealed and understood for their past, their present and then also what their future expectations are. While Jagath, Asanga, Ruwini, Wasantha, Jayasumana, Sarath and Sugath can be read for their background and what they are and hoping to head towards it is Piyaratne, in my opinion that becomes the understated one since the play does not go too deep into revelation of his character’s individual background when compared to the rest.

What is revealed of his background is more on the generic of the social layer that is read off him. However the manner in which Rajitha has scripted the play and posited Piyaratne shows that his functional value has been made optimum in the manner he demonstrates his place in the spectrum of actions.

Music and use of sound

The use of music and the sound element in the production merits commentary. Two instances are presented in the play where the calypso type ensemble of Sugath sing and do their role as musical entertainers. The first is when Jayasumana dives into his revelry and the next is in a later scene where they sing to Sarath a soulful song about the significance of maternal love. The two songs depict two very strongly identifiable vibes related to our sense of thinking.

The carefree happy music in the first instance shows one facet of the Sri Lankan mindset while the second touches on a very culturally significant theme, both of which are lyrically well worked as musical elements devised for the story.

The sound of rolling sea waves played between the ends of scenes reinforced the setting of the story from an auditory aspect. Although it may seem unneeded after a couple of times it nevertheless seemed to function as a filler for the darkness that the play is still flowing, and yet to end.

Valuing sorrow

One very crucial revelation that Sarath makes somewhat subjectively is that Sri Lankans make sorrow something to savour, and dwell on it very soulfully as something laudable. He posits it in contrast to European thinking and sees it as a drawback in our ways.

The lack of optimism in Sarath is a vein that at a larger level speaks of the tragic circumstances the characters are pushed to (with perhaps the exception of Jagath) and be inheritors of sorrows and regrets at varying levels.

The message Asanga delivers at the end through his discourse of advocacies to both Jayasumana and Sugath is that what is important is that one gets to live well and not ‘go under’ pathetically fighting for matters such as morality. This is somewhat implicitly reflected through what he tells Jaysumana and Wasanthi to continue living as they always did despite the friction that has come into being between them.

This is to say that all the unpalatable ugliness of perversions that have come to pass should be forgotten and chucked aside. It means to embrace pretensions on one hand to better continue with a life, pursuing the benefits of material gains.

This in turn I feel is meant to reflect the macro situation of how people should not let matters of ethics and scrupulosity dictate the approach to scrutinise the political landscape, because what matters is what can be gained out of it.

Dreams robbed and surrendered

The shameless exploitation of the people by the representatives and the opportunism resorted to by the people to make capital from the representatives who need them, comes out very clearly in the play. After all Asanga explains this vicious cyclical scenario that gets put in place when a man gets elected by the people, as one of their representatives. He says it then becomes a relationship that neither the people nor he can end arbitrarily, even though one may desire it.

‘Sihina horu arang’ is a critique of our times and the people who form the system that we bitterly resent yet have failed to correct. From the point in time that this play is set to the present day whether improvement of the system that we are governed by has happened or not is a matter for the viewers of Rajitha’s drama and the readers of this review to decide.

And as for people reflected by the characters in the play, who may feel that they have been robbed of their life’s dreams, if they seek the faces that are to be seen responsible for their plight, they need merely look around them, as well as look in a mirror.