Arts

50th Death Anniversary of Bertolt Brecht:

The Good Woman of Setzuan : How to be good in a corrupt society

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

The Sinhala production of Bertolt Brecht is one of the famous plays. The Good Woman of Setzuan was recently held at John de Silva Theatre to mark the 50th death anniversary of this great German playwright.

The drama was co-presented by the Goethe Institute of Colombo (German Cultural Centre) and the University of Visual and Performing Arts.

One of the specialties of the drama was that it was, for the first time, produced in Sinhala and the drama translated into Sinhala by Professor Tissa Kariyawasam, was directed by Matthias Gehrt. Apart from the superficial story of Shen Te, the Good Woman of Setzuan who was rewarded with 1000 silver dollars for accommodating the gods, Brecht tries to portray the human predicament to be good in a corrupt society.

This is a moral dilemma that any good citizen faces in a commercialized society.

Although the Brecht perceived a socialist government would be a possible solution to this predicament, he did not live to see the collapse of the socialist block.

On the other hand through the characters of Shen Te and her alter ego or the other self- Shui Ta, Brecht tries to portray that there are no black and white characters in the world and it is absolutely impossible to have perfect and good characters as each and every human being has his/her own darker side as the day and night compliments each other and forms a complete day.

It shows that one has to strike a delicate balance in order to survive in the society.

The performance is marked by its prologue in the heaven where Gods discuss about their project on the world which is amply depicted in dance by Kapila Palihawadana and his troupe Natanda.

Director Matthias Gehrt and the students of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, the Academy of Design as well as the Goethe Institute should be commended for presenting an authentic Bertolt Brecht's landmark work in Sinhala, for the first time in Sri Lanka.

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Matthias Gehrt on the Sinhala production

On one side they are absolute beginners, I think university focused on dance. For example, they have no voice training which can be dangerous when you shout loud. On the other hand, they are very enthusiastic.

Unlike professional actors, they do not know the process as it is their first theatre production. Except the lead actress and few others, the rest are absolute beginners.

I directed this play in Germany half a year ago. As a director, you have to find your own way to this writer. I follow his techniques (Brecht's). He does not write psychological characters; the police man is policeman. I would not say they are cliche,s.

They are like the mosaic of a puzzle to get the whole picture. When you direct Russian realistic plays of the 19th century, they try to invite the people to discover the world emotionally. Brecht wanted to touch people intellectually not to feel emotionally.

We have a fight to get the black curtains off the stage. Everybody should see how it is made, there are lights, there are tables where actors change clothes and there are co-ca cola boxes waiting to be opened. So we did not try to hide any thing. This is typical of Brecht.

It was indeed a difficult task to communicate with the cast. However, Upul practically translated all words without any interpretation. We adapted this play. It was a harsh adaptation to focus on the Sri Lankan situation. I reduced the 30 per cent of the text.

The play normally lasts three to four hours. Before the production started I travelled to Kandy and Galle to familiarize with the Sri Lankan situation. I never found a water seller but found lottery sellers. And in Brecht's play, it was a cigarette shop, I never found a cigarette shop here.

And we go for Kade. We just sell Co-ca cola which is designed for capitalism and globalization, says the director of the play, Matthias Gehrt. The prologue in heaven which was depicted as a fusion of drama and dance by Kapila Palihawadana and his troupe was not in the original script.

However, Matthias Gehrt admits that interesting aspect of the whole exercise was its smooth transition from the prologue into the play.

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'We have worked with metaphors' Richard Lang

The challenge that the director has to face when he puts on stage the Setzuan is what kind of society do you depict? Deeply and as such was written by Bertolt Brecht before the time of the collapse of the socialist block, particularly the Soviet Union.

He always thought that there might be a possibility of creating a better society. He has not lived to see the end of this experiment in the world although there are few countries formally called socialist countries.

It seems to be very interesting that his play is so well received all over the world. Within this framework, practically the question of this play, is it possible to lead a good life in a wrong environment?

The wrong environment is certainly a capitalistic environment which exploits people in order to make money. If you don't do that, you don't have money to spend to be a good person. Brecht proposes one person, Shen Te who is changing into night-side Shui Ta. Once she changes Shui Ta, she becomes a very dreadful, having a Coca-Cola bottling company.

What is new in this production is exactly that. We are working with metaphors. We see the entire shanty town on the stage, nothing else but the scaffolding. Then you see a Kade, but Kade does not have all kinds of bananas, but only bottles. One element as metaphor for many, so that the entire scaffolding represents the whole shanty town says Richard Lang, Director of the Goethe-Institute which presented the drama to the Sinhala audience.

Referring to some of the changes made in the production Lang said, the main character of the play was a Chinaman selling drinking water. Drinking water is not sold in Sri Lanka, but lottery is sold. So we make out of the water seller, a lottery seller.

So, therefore, we have adapted the play. So each play, each production of the same play is a different story. It is a different piece of art. You can't attack or agree with the director or repel him, but you cannot easily reject a play which is successful around the world.

Matthias Gehrt from Berlin is a director I knew since ten years and worked with him in three continents. I know very well that he is a very sensitive person when it comes to work in an estranged cultural environment.

Each cultural environment presents certain challenges that you have to deal with and you have to cope with. For, I knew that he would be not only prepared but able to cope with this environment. That made it possible to do this production within only three weeks.

That was also possible because we have in Dr.Asoka de Zoyza, a very good person to prepare other things who is not only very knowledgeable in German but was also looking over the translation to check if the German word fits really in Sinhala which was something what we could not do.

Upul de Silva, one of the teachers also helped to bridge the language gap, the production of the University of the Visual Art and Performing Arts and the assistance by Kapila Palihawadana and his troupe Natanda.It was a tough but a rewarding exercise. The copyright for the translation and Sinhalese production was obtained from Suhrkamp verlag in Germany.

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 Art Exhibition

by Ananda Kannangara

A colourful exhibition of paintings with over 400 drawings, designed by students of Dudley Senanayaka Central College, Tholangamuwa will be opened at the College auditorium on November 30.

School children of over 35 schools in the Kegalle district will get an opportunity to see the 4-day exhibition which ends on December 3.All paintings which are to be displayed at the exhibition have been designed under the guidance of the teacher-in -charge of aesthetic studies, Sudumenike Wijesuriya.

In an interview, Sudumenike Wijesuriya highly commended the inborn talents of students who have made a great sacrifice to finish their paintings during the past few months and said that it will be the first time the school conducts such an exhibition.

She said most paintings which are to be displayed depict the Buddhist Jathaka stories, village life, Sri Lanka's traditional agricultural methods, various traditional crafts, heritage etc.

A special closing ceremony to coincide with the exhibition will take place at the school auditorium on December 7 under the patronage of Ministers Anura Priyadharshan Yapa, Athauda Seneviratne and Ranjith Siyambalapitiya.

She also thanked the Principal Mrs. G. Gamaarachchi and teachers Mr. H.H. Sawantha Karunaratna and Miss Niroshani Adikari for their support to conduct the exhibition.

Segar's paintings on display

They say that artists have curious ways of making themselves expressive in all situations, and more often than not, they have the gift of observing the abstract which escapes the non-professional eye.

Segar's 30th one man exhibition of paintings takes place at his residence gallery at 100-7 Horton Place, Colombo 7 till November 22.Raja Segar, unlike most professionals, had an uncomplicated beginning where his brush was confined to making greeting cards only.

"That was only a hobby" he said. "I never thought it would be this way", he added, recalling the past. "My associates in my former workplace were my sole encouragement. My office-mate, Marle Scharenguivel, who was a great admirer of my lines, bought my first set of cards.

During the Christmas season I used to draw cards for our company's customers, too. Some customers came to Elephant House solely to buy my cards. This rather embarrassed our management accountant. It was through one of our customers that these cards found its way to the bookshop of Hotel Lanka Oberoi. Segar likes to use straight lines and this trait is traceable to my fancy for French cubism which permits artists to delve into the abstract".

In addition to painting regularly for exhibitions, Segar is a permanent display participant at the art galleries of the British Council Alliance.

Vyshnavi Devyani