Comedic chaos to remember:

No Sex please we’re British

By Dilshan Boange

The British reached the height of their image of imperial glory during the reign of Queen Victoria; and ‘Victorianism’ pervasively set the scales on what stands as moral uprightness and what thereby defines to ‘be British’. Piously impassioned fulsome British voices sang with devout ardour the famous ‘Rule Britannia’ over the sound system, in the Lionel Wendt auditorium in the gentle darkness, before the curtains parted to unfold onstage, on February 28, the opening night of No Sex Please We’re British.

From the moment the curtain parted to reveal the very ‘British’ household of the Hunters, Peter and Frances it was evident that the director, a veteran of the Sri Lankan theatre scene, Jith Pieris was all set to offer his audience a theatrical treat.

The story of No Sex Please We’re British is set in the Hunter household revolving around a series of unforeseen events that trigger into disaster due to consequences that cause incidents that are not fully containable despite the valiant efforts and talents for situation control and disaster management summoned into play between Peter, Frances and their ever present friend and Peter’s colleague –the inimitable Brian Runnicles.

Porn in the post

When Frances receives pornography from a Scandinavian company when she had in fact sent a mail order for Scandinavian glassware, and Peter’s mother Eleanor is all set to spend a holiday in the new home of her son and daughter-in-law, the plot begins to brew.

When the reply to the misdirected sender is bungled and a cheque for £450 meant to be payment for some official matter of the bank Peter works at gets posted to the scandalous Scandinavian address and more unwanted pornography starts pouring in, and attempts to ‘dispose of them’ end with the authorities sounding the alarm over pornography being left in public places, the plot thickens to up the pace for the crisis to reach boiling point.

And side-splitting insanity is simply cocooning to burst out fulsomely when an unsuspecting Mr. Needham the bank inspector on a circuit visit after being compelled by circumstance to seek lodging at the Hunter household, is forcibly ‘subjected’ to being the ‘object of affection’ of the two Scandinavian ‘escorts’ of the ‘Scandinavian company’, who arrive without warning to the residence of the peaceable and properly ‘British’ newlyweds –Mr. and Mrs. Hunter!

With a very elegantly well planned set design that contributed much to the appealing visual element of the production, the players brought to life on the boards of the Wendt a riotous comedy which although British in concept and to a considerable extent in elocutionary enunciation, felt a production which had its Sri Lankan veins intact in terms of the non verbal vibe that seeps out from the actors.

One of the notable aspects to discuss the performance is how the accent element had a ‘stage presence’ of its own. The overall production clearly had an intent to portray and deliver to the audience as much an authentic British mould as possible, in all respects, which of course is commendable.

The objective in respect of accenting, however, may have been only achieved, and for that matter in fact can be achieved, only to a certain extent. Britain cannot be recreated on a stage in Colombo through accents alone after all.

The aspect of delivering a British accent, therefore, optimally, overall, from all cast members wasn’t the strongest merit the production possessed. That being said one may even raise the question as to whether a strong drive to capture the British tongue and tone was indeed pivotal to accomplish what The Creative Arts Foundation that produced the play, set out to achieve through their production?

I say this due to the reason that not all the players onstage that evening were able to pull off a British accent that complemented the cultural setup that the play intended to project.

The tongue of the policeman

The Superintendent of Police being one whose tongue was notably Lankan seemed the oddity in the ‘architecture of enunciation’ that was built onstage. Do not however presume, that based on my comment pertaining to the accent matter, my take on how the role of the policeman was performed is a negative one implying the actor lacked acting skill. The actor possessed in fulsome measure the essence of creating a jovial and entertaining character and is duly applauded for the skill displayed onstage.

While Peter Hunter seemed very much a standard english accentor his wife somehow had an elocution that almost flirted with a ‘cockney curve’ here and there. The talented young actress appeared almost out of zeal to deliver a starkly British effect, to slightly exceed the limit. What a critical contention may bring out in this regard is that British society which is stringently stratified observes a strict separation of the classes in terms of what the classes symbolise as their ‘identity markers.’

Language and English class

Language is the foremost ‘signpost’ that shows the ‘station’ of a British national in their social scales. While Peter Hunter, his mother Eleanor, Brian Runnicles and Peter’s boss, the urbane Mr. Bromhead played smashingly by Abbasali Rozais, spoke a markedly standard English as far as my ears could pick, Frances seemed somewhat not fully of the exact same ‘wavelength’.

But if that is exactly how the character was meant to be presented, and the nuance of a class gradation between the Hunters is in fact intended as per the play written by Alistair Foot and Anthony Marriott, then Jith Pieris in his directorial vision certainly pulled it off very finely I would say.

The memorable Mr. Runnicles

The makeup department must be applauded for the commendable job of creating the visage of Brian Runnicles played by Nadun Dissanayake. Dissanayake’s acting talents shone brilliantly as he brought to life the ‘life of the party’ who surely became the darling of the audience that evening.

The actor deftly manoeuvred the pauses for dramatic effect with sudden climaxes and modulation of volume in his voice to create the ‘roller coasting’ anxieties within his character. The rousing applause he received during the curtain call was ample evidence of how he had won the crowd over en bloc. It was a prize winning act.

The role of Frances Hunter as a young wife who must contend with the nerve-wracking situations that just kept spiralling into newer chaotic crises, while compelled to maintain semblances of normalcy was surely a challenging one, which the young actress Anabela Brochard pulled off commendably.

That was in fact the first time I saw her in a theatre production, and her performance that evening leaves no doubts about the thespian talent she has to offer to the field of drama and theatre. Imani Perera as Eleanor, the finely refined paragon of classy English womanhood was simply superb in delivering her role with no hiccups or shortfalls in neither tone nor persona to bring to life a compelling characterisation on the boards of the Wendt that evening.

Kanishka Herat

A rising star in today’s Sri Lankan theatre, Kanishka Herat delivered a praiseworthy performance bringing to life the character of Peter Hunter as though the role was written especially for him.

Unless someone were to take up the argument that he did not accentuate in the manner of an Englishman to tally with the character of Frances, and thus mark him down, there seemed hardly any shortcomings that evening on the part of this talented thespian.

As an actor Herat is now spreading his wings and stretching his legs on the theatre scene with roles that test his ability to not only characterise the attributes of the personae to be created onstage, but also cultivates the skill of creating the right dose of acting output that blends with the scenario, compatibly with other players, and thereby keeps an audience compelled by characters performing right before a live audience, from the point the curtain parts right to the moment it closes.

The cast which consisted of Kanishka Herat, Anabela Brochard, Imani Perera, Abbasali Rozais, Nadun Dissanayake, Avishka De Alwis, Anurudha Fernando, Asela Mendis, Trinushka Perera, Eraj Gunawardene and the director Jith Pieris and the entire Creative Arts Foundation team must be saluted for the praiseworthy production of ‘No Sex Please We’re British’. It was an evening of side-splitting classy comedy that will surely be remembered for years to come.