Review: Thatta Gaikawa

Reasoning with ‘absurdity’

by Dilshan Boange

Thirteen years ago, in 2003 I watched Kanchuka Dharmasiri’s Thatta Gaikawa performed at the John de Silva theatre. I was curious to see how much of it I would remember and what would seem changed when I sat under the gentle darkness of the Punchi Theatre on July 29 as Thatta Gaikawa came alive on the boards once more. One of the most striking facets of the performance I saw back in 2003 when Thatta Gaikawa debuted was the character of the female servant played by a young man. This time however that role was played by a female.

One of the most noticeable changes was the way the opening had several supermarket brand names mentioned when the character of ‘Mrs. Perera’ unfolds descriptions about matters related to their ‘lifestyle’. How on earth can we in this day and age even so much as describe a day in our life without including brands and escape the omnipresent commercialism that seems to demarcate our world? And how much meaning is really contained within the existence we live in which seems inescapably tethered to consumerism? But then that is only the tip of the iceberg the ‘theatre of the absurd’ is meant investigate.

Theatre of the Absurd

‘Absurd drama’ or ‘theatre of the absurd’ was a form of drama that rose out of Post Second World War Europe. The essay The Myth of Sisyphus by French writer Albert Camus was a cornerstone work for this theatre genre to gain direction as plays like Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket and plays of Eugene Ionesco brought forward intellectual investigation through the art of theatre on what ‘meaning’ really exists in the lives that we have been more or less conditioned to lead. The coinage of the term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ is accredited to the critic and professor of theatre Martin Esslin who examined this form of drama seemingly void of sense and rationality, through his essay Theatre of the Absurd (published in the early 60s). Among the notable figures whose work and practice of theatre contributed to the growth of this genre was the Romanian born French playwright Eugene Ionesco among whose notable works are Rhinoceros and The Bald Soprano.

Thatta Gaikawa (which literary translates to ‘the bald songstress’) is not a translation of Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano. What Dharmasiri offers is an adaptation that can be called a believably Sri Lankan stage drama that gives life to the vein of ‘the theatre of the absurd’. Directed by Kanchuka Dharmasiri the credits for scripting (as either translating or adapting) are accredited to Kanchuka Dharmasiri and Lohan Gunaweera. The cast that performed on July 29 consisted of Sandamini Ranwalage, Sameera Hewage, Vidumina Ihalagedara, Chathurika Sachinthanie, Madhushani Chandrasekara and Danushka Gunathilake.

The play provides an investigation into the idea of meaninglessness that governs the mundane as seen in middle class existence. Notions of ‘individual identity’ and ‘class identity’ are looked into with layered effects of relationships that deal with class and ‘function’ or ‘designation’ within the household, where it would appear irrationality reigns over ‘sense’ and ‘logicality’. How well do we really know the people with whom we claim relationships? How have we established our ‘identity markers’ to distinguish ourselves from others? Even perhaps the spouse with whom a person shares his/her bed with, may seem a person who could be made a stranger if all social factors that shape the individual identity were to be stripped and negated. How well do we know even ourselves if divorced from the labels and phenomena we have chosen or been compelled to be welded to?

The play deals much with challenging notions of logical behaviour and rationality that is considered to be the ‘steel’ and ‘concrete’ which holds ‘order’ within a human habitation and directs the notion of ‘normalcy’ in human behaviour and sets the yardstick for human interaction as either ‘sociable’ or not socially acceptable.

Notions of sociability

The utterly unsociable nature that unfolds between the characters who are guests and hosts at a middle class household speaks of what may be unsaid when people are compelled to keep company with those whom they really don’t in all individual honesty have anything worthwhile to talk about. This play presents how rationality as a principle and theory may be debunked through grasping the nature of life as found in the real world as opposed to theoretical assertions pronounced in books. If allowed to be expressed unfiltered in all its spontaneity, the human consciousness will prove to be a total antithesis to rationality and rational thought and behaviour. Rationality would be proven a myth. It is this human truth that Thatta Gaikawa elopes with in full view, unhidden and unabashed. Thatta Gaikawa from start to finish presents the challenge against ‘order’ for the unleashing of disorder as a ‘truth’ that is strongly driven by the restlessness within the individual who is forced into a state of socially constructed rationality. It deals in certain ways about what cannot and ‘must not be said’ due to ‘propriety’ when people are in the ‘company’ of other people.

When looking at how stagecraft and ‘abstractness’ work in tandem with the narrative, what must not be overlooked is the thesis of how ‘time’ as a concept of linearity of human action is disregarded, and chronology as a form or base for/of rationality is challenged. The wall clock that is absurdly shaped and almost dislocated from the capability of linear direction signifies this idea of how chronology is seen as a keeper of order and rationality and needs to be contested.

The play must also be noted for containing a facet of ‘meta-theatre’ by acknowledging within its text that it is a performance done for an audience. And as an Avant-Garde play its challenge of ‘convention’ is seen by the simple fact that even the traditional curtain call was not conformed to after the show ends.

Storytelling

The play in its depiction and examination of the extents of dullness endured by the middle class presents the scenario where the chief of the Fire Department together with the two couples playing guests and hosts entertain themselves with stories.

The story hembirissawa (cold/influenza) proved hilarious and was very engagingly delivered by the actor Dhanuska Gunathilake.

When pondering over this aspect of the drama I recalled something Michael Ondaatje has written in his novel Divisadero, in which he says –“We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, whatever story we tell.”

But what would happen one day if people discovered that they had run out of stories worthwhile to tell? What would they ‘live’ on then? Although generations apart Thatta Gaikawa adapted from a work of Ionesco and this sentiment in Ondaatje’s Divisadero may have some kinship in examining what makes life worth living.

An interesting proposition to investigate notions of identity comes by way of how the scriptwriters have constructed the place of residence of the household as being in Kandy. Dharmasiri herself is from Kandy. The couple who open the narrative are said to be Mrs. Perera and her husband and the second couple –Nimal and Lily, who joins them are first revealed through their dialogue as persons from Galle who moved to Kandy. However, at a climatic point in the drama they all claim a sense of propriety in their behaviour to be required because they perceive themselves as Udarata. This Sinhala word can be translated as either ‘upcountry’ or ‘Kandyan’. And one must note that while the former of the two could be alternated to signify strictly geographic demarcations –as in the ‘hill country’, the latter is actually not a term that is definitive of a person born or living in Kandy. The term ‘Kandyan’ strictly speaking has a legal basis as defining a person who is governed by Kandyan law as his/her personal law. Further, it applies to all people whose paternal descent traces back to the populace that were subjects within the borders of the Kandyan Kingdom as identified in 1815, and not limited to the ‘Kandy district’ of today as most may imagine.

The surname of the Perera couple denotes (as per common knowledge) they do not come within the ambit of the Udarata tag unless it is intended to mean solely geography. Nimal and Lily are unlikely to come within the ‘Kandyan’ definition unless they are Kandyans born and raised in the south, which technically is of course possible. But the ‘Udarata’ claim is made in a sense of unison and is declared so by Mrs. Perera in the play. On the one hand this facet built into this adaptation by a resident of Kandy, shows an investigation on how individuals may assert group identities regardless of the relevant official qualifying factual criteria. Thatta Gaikawa deals with how individual facades in societal contexts operate where neither sincere feelings nor honest perspectives may always be spoken or expressed openly, and what identity creation and maintenance for both individuals and groups, have to do with ‘keeping up appearances’.

Applause

Thatta Gaikawa will prove to be a worthy stage drama to anyone who is interested in the art of theatre, and will not find it dull. But it must be noted as not for the theatregoer whose principal expectation is to be entertained with comedy that incites uproarious laughter. The overall performance of Thatta Gaikawa deserves applause and can be appreciated as a work of artistic theatre.