This is not a gun:

It's life in dramatic overdrive

by Anuradha Kodagoda

'A bhikkhu looking to shed his robes leaves the monastic life with a stolen scooter he doesn't know how to ride. He crosses paths with a madman rummaging in a pile of garbage, looking for a job. The two set off together, both believing the journey would take them closer to their respective ideas of salvation.'

This is a succinct outline of Chamila Priyankara's Meya Thuwakkuwak Novey (This is not a gun), a Sinhala original play which bagged seven awards at the State Drama Festival 2014, including Best Play, Best Direction, Best Script and Best Supporting Actor, and the best awards for Choreography, Lighting and Set Designing.

Chamila Priyankara, young, talented dramatist showed his colours with his debut short play 'You & Me Alone', where he won the Special Jury award for Direction at the Youth Drama Festival and a Merit award for Direction at National State Drama Festival in 2006.

Meya Thuwakkuwak Novey (This is not a gun) questions the socio-political environment that we live in. As Priyankara describes it, it's hard to put-up yet another 'drama' within a proscenium theatre, in a context where the reality itself is highly dramatic.

"When reality itself is highly dramatized, what can staged drama do?" he asks, claiming that this is the subject he wanted to talk about in 'This is Not a Gun' and that the rest is up to the audience to decide.

Speaking about the genre of theatre that makes him excited, he says any genre of theater where the writing is powerful and well crafted and acting is raw is his favourite.

Priyankara who is inspired by the work of famous writers, Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett, says the two writers' works do exactly what he wanted his plays to do. "They mine contemporary suffering for truthful, precisely timed and often uproarious comedy.

The uproarious part isn't always achieved in translation or performance, but it's there," he says, adding that Edward Albee is huge for him as well and that Albee's work had taught him the importance of polishing the written language to make something honest and raw.

A graduate of the University of Colombo, Priyankara was introduced to the theatre by veteran dramatist Somalatha Subasinghe and the Children's and Youth Theatre, Play House, Kotte.

He has scripted and directed several plays, including 'Che & Juliet' which won the award for Best Drama at the National State Drama Festival in 2007 and 2nd place at the Youth Drama Festival in the same year. 'Come to Play Cricket' written and directed by Priyankara in 2009 was awarded Best Script at the Colombo District Youth Drama Festival.

'This is Not a Gun' is his very first full-length play.

The cast includes Mayura Kanchana, Dilum Buddika, Kanishka Fernando, Pramodh Edirisinghe, Yashoda Rasanduni, Anjana Premarathna.