Practice and therapy expounded

Dramatherapy in Sri Lanka
Author: Ravindra Ranasinha
Deepa Centre for Community
Development and Peace-Building

Reviewed by Rev. Fr. Mervyn Fernando

Drama has been a major component of Sri Lankan culture from time immemorial. Though at first blush drama is seen only as a medium of entertainment, it has always had a therapeutic thrust, direct or indirect. The direct objective of our traditional ritualistic bali-thovil performances, for example, has been therapeutic. It is interesting to note that the therapeutic role of drama has often been associated with religion, in many cultures.

The intent of popular modern drama in Sri Lanka has been, in the main, entertainment. But entertainment which engages the emotions of the audience in comedy or tragedy will have some cleansing effect on the psyche –a cathartic effect -- depending on the effectiveness of the presentation. As such, drama wittingly or unwittingly meets a deep-seated need for human whole-being.

Recourse to drama as a tool of psychological healing in a secular setting is of relatively recent origin. Given the latent potentiality of drama to touch the psyche it is surprising that drama therapy did not come to its own at an earlier date. My hunch is that Freud’s discovery of the Unconscious component of the human psyche, and Jung’s discovery of Archetypes in the early period of the last century gave a fillip to harnessing drama as a tool of therapy.

Dramatist

Be that as it may, we cannot but rejoice that we have had in our midst an accomplished exponent of drama therapy in the person of Ravindra Ranasinha. He has been active as a dramatist in the Sinhala theatre for the past twenty-five years; during this period he has been responsible for giving us some excellent theatrical presentations, many of them probing the drama of the human condition of our times in society.

In his Hiru Nathi Lowa -1989 (based on The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky) Ravindra discussed the degradation of humans in a society plagued by poverty and hunger.

This play won five awards at the State Drama Festival in 1991. In Hiru Nodutu Minissu (stage adaptation of the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - 1987) was a telling depiction of how a totalitarian State dehumanises its citizens. His last production on behalf of the Subodhi Institute was ‘Sevanali’ (Shadows - 2006) an exploration of the devastating impact of war on the lives of children as well as elders; it is based partly on The Diary of Anne Frank.

Ravindra started his practice of dramatherapy in Trincomalee in 2002, with children traumatised by the against terrorism war. He found that a bottom-up approach, making use of the diverse religio-cultural elements among the children themselves in an empathic manner, was more effective than a theoretical top-down clinical approach.

Ravindra’s experience has proved that the multi-ethnic, multi-religious character of Sri Lankan society is a great resource providing an ample repertoire of folk stories, songs, games, religious symbols and practices to the drama therapist.

His training in counselling also helped him to make an empathic entrance into the lives of the children and help them to discover and develop their potential to the maximum. Ravindra has also applied dramatherapy to those with developmental disabilities. Currently he is the consultant Dramatherapist to the Sunera Foundation.

His publication on dramatherapy is a comprehensive exposition of the art and science of the subject based on both his study and the practice of the therapy.

Theory

The book presents a logical unfolding of the subject. Naturally, Ravindra starts with a discussion of the theoretical bases of dramatherapy which has its roots in many disciplines -- anthropology, psychology, psychotherapy and sociology. Dramatherapy draws heavily from the elaborations of Freud and Jung on the complex workings of the human psyche.

According to Freud human behaviour is driven, to a large extent, by the contents of the Unconscious, which can be accessed only obliquely. Jung postulated the existence of Archtypes and of a Collective Unconscious which are expressed in symbols and myths specific to each culture.

Ravindra proceeds to take a good look at the traditional folkloric beliefs and practices deemed to be therapeutic one way or another in different circumstances of personal and social life, particularly by rural folk (chapter 4). It is a very thorough presentation of the plethora of mythical beliefs, and socio-religious rituals connected mostly with Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. Here it becomes very clear that dramatherapy in particular has to be culture specific, eliciting the meanings that the client/patient attaches to them.

Though the chapter is titled “Mythic Performance”, it could have been better termed “The Mythic Framework of Meaning”.

Case studies

In the next chapter (chapter 5) Ravindra gets down to brasstacks – and here the title is very appropriate: “Dramatherapy Practice”. Instead of a description of the practice, here we have a number of case studies of the author himself, which makes clear what the practice is all about; It is a presentation referring to specific places, events and disorders. It gives us a good idea of how dramatherapy works.

Chapter 6 on “Therapeutic Interventions” by Liana Lowenstein is a variation on “Dramatherapy Practice” but with a detailed description of the methodology.

Each therapeutic intervention is categorised into Goals, Materials and Description, which clarifies the methodology in detail. The two short, chapters 7 and 8 give more examples of the methodology.

Chapter (No. 3) “Conducting Dramatherapy Sessions” by Sally Bailey could have come logically after chapter 6, allowing a smooth flow between chapters 2, 4 and 5.

It is obvious that an enormous amount of work, both study and practice, has gone into this work. Its special value lies in the fact that it is, more than a conceptual introduction to the subject, a laying-bare of the modus operandi based on the actual practice of it by the author. Ravindra deserves the highest accolades for this pioneering and ground-breaking work. It will remain as a standard reference source book on the subject for a long time to come.