Tony Ranasinghe:

The Bard’s thespian

Shakespeare in Sinhala? The Bard’s dramas are complex enough even in the original language and it is certainly no easy task to translate them into any other language. Yet this is a feat that Tony Ranasinghe excelled in with remarkable success. Ranasinghe Hettiarachchilage Ignatius Anthony Silva, popularly known as Tony Ranasinghe, was better known as a veteran thespian who made the silver screen (and later the small screen) come alive with his riveting performances. But not many people knew that he had an intimate affinity towards Shakespearean drama as well. It was a passion that kept him enthralled right up to his last breath last week, at the age of 77. Tony got his first taste of Shakespeare at the tender age of 11, in 1948, the very year Sri Lanka gained Independence. As the celebrated British actor Sir Laurence Olivier strode on to the movie screen as Hamlet, little Tony was transfixed. His young mind instantly knew what he wanted to do – become an actor and play Shakespeare. But little did he know that he would one day become the man who would take the words of the Bard – in Sinhala – to a whole new audience of readers.

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