Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Living with ‘Dragons and Makarakshas’: Politics of Dharmasiri Bandaranaiyake’s Theatre.
by Athulasiri Kumara Samarakoon
(The Open University of Sri Lanka / smak918@gmail.com)
I have watched only three plays by veteran director cum actor Dharmasiri Bandaranaiyake; namely Euripides’ ‘Trojan Women’ (Trojan Kanthawo), ‘The Dictator’ (Eka Adipathi) and ‘The Dragon’ (Makarakshaya) (originally by Soviet playwright Yevgeney Shvarts). Of these three, ‘The Dictator’ and ‘The Dragon’ have been reproduced, currently being staged for a new generation of audience, about 3o years younger to the original productions of these plays. Can this re-production, or say, re-contextualization of old plays, still produce a certain appeal in terms of conveying its message (politics) to an audience living in different economic and social conditions, a different historical time?
(The Open University of Sri Lanka / smak918@gmail.com)
I have watched only three plays by veteran director cum actor Dharmasiri Bandaranaiyake; namely Euripides’ ‘Trojan Women’ (Trojan Kanthawo), ‘The Dictator’ (Eka Adipathi) and ‘The Dragon’ (Makarakshaya) (originally by Soviet playwright Yevgeney Shvarts). Of these three, ‘The Dictator’ and ‘The Dragon’ have been reproduced, currently being staged for a new generation of audience, about 3o years younger to the original productions of these plays. Can this re-production, or say, re-contextualization of old plays, still produce a certain appeal in terms of conveying its message (politics) to an audience living in different economic and social conditions, a different historical time? Sunday, June 13, 2010
Kill the dragon within
13-06-2010
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s acclaimed play Makarakshaya is to go on the boards once more
By Randima Attygalle
Upon witnessing the dramatic charm of Lancelot, of celebrated late dramatist Henry Jayasena’s production of Makara in 1973- an adaptation of The Dragon, none other than Prof. Sarachchandra invited the young hero to grace his celebrated play as Maname Kumaraya. A privilege indeed, yet the handpicked Maname Kumaraya believed he could not do justice to the hallowed role, with his ‘not-so-musical’ timbre! “Thus I quit rehearsals of my own accord,” recalls amused Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, who later stole the show at the State Drama Festival of 1986, bagging 12 coveted awards including Best Drama, Best Translation, Best Direction and Best Music, for his production of Makarakshaya, once again inspired by Shvart’s Dragon.
‘Makarakshaya’ hunting for dragons in humans
The maiden show of the new production of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s multi-awarded political satire ‘Makarakshaya’ (The Dragon) will go on the boards at 6.45 pm on June 19 and 20 at the Lionel Wendt, theatre, Colombo.
Staging nearly 900 shows, ‘Makarakshaya’, the Sinhala translation of ‘The Dragon’ written by Soviet playwright Yevgeny Shvarts and translated by Cyril C. Perera won 12 State Awards at the State Drama Festival in 1985 including Best play, Best Director, Best Translation, Best Music, Best Costume Designing, Best Stage Set designing, Best Lighting and Best Choreography. Produced in 1985 the play staged till 1999 to packed audiences around the country.
“Though the play was originally written in 1945 and first produced by late playwright Henry Jayasena in 1973 and then produced by me on a different translation in 1985 in Sri Lanka the message is still applicable to our society,” playwright and actor Dharmasiri Bandaranayake said.
“We find the tyrannical qualities of the leaders are inherent in the very subjects who chose them and the biggest challenge is to destroy these dragons living within the ordinary people who are lazy and shrewd,” the veteran playwright said.
‘This is a fairy tale and with certain changes we have maintained the interesting dramatic effects so that everybody can enjoy,’ he added. One of the main purposes in reproducing ‘Makarakshaya’ is to educate the present theatregoers and students of theatre and drama who had never seen it.
මකරා යළි මතු වෙයි.
මේ මස 19 සහ 20 යන දිනයන්හිදී සවස 6.30 ට ධර්මසිරි බණ්ඩාරනායක ගේ මකරාක්ෂයා නැවතත් වේදිකා ගත වේ. මේ ඔහු සමඟ කළ කතාබහකි.ඔබේම තවත් පැරණි නාට්‍යයක් නැවත කරළියට එනවා?
‘ඒකාධිපති’ නැවත වේදිකාවට ගෙන ඒම සිද්ධ වුණේ මීට මාස කිහිපයකට ඉහත දී. ඒකට ලැබුණු ප්‍රතිචාරයත් ‘මකරා’ නැවත ගෙන ඒමට බලපෑවද?
කනගාටුවෙන් වුණත් කොහෙත්ම නෑ කියලයි කියන්න වෙන්නේ. මොකද ‘ඒකාධිපති’ නැවත වේදිකාවට ගෙන ඒමෙන් කලාකාරයකු හැටියට මම ලබපු අත්දැකීම නම් එතරම් ප්‍රසන්න එකක් නෙවෙයි.
ඇයි ඔබ එහෙම කියන්නේ?
දෙවෙනි අත්දැකීම ගත්තම ලාංකීය සමාජය ගමන් කරලා තියෙන දිශාන්තය කොයිබටද, ඔවුන්ගේ අධ්‍යාත්මය රැඳිලා තියෙන තැන කොතනද කියන එක පිළිබඳව කලාකාරයෙක් විදිහට මම තෘප්තිමත් නෑ.
මේ තත්ත්වය ඔබට අර්බුදයක් හැටියට පේන්නේ ඇයි?
නාට්‍ය ශාලාවකට එන පිරිස සාමන්‍ය ජනයාට වඩා එහාට ගිය පිරිසක් වෙන්න ඕනය කියන එකයි අපේ බලාපොරොත්තුව. නමුත් ලංකාවේ ඊට එහා ගිය මට්ටමක් දැන් නෑ. මේක මම මේ කියන්නේ කේන්තියකින් නෙවෙයි.
මේක අවබෝධ කර ගත යුතු තත්ත්වයක් කියලයි මට හිතෙන්නේ. මේ පසුබිමේදීම ඔබ තවත් නාට්‍යයක් කරළියට ගේන්නෙ ඇයි?
1943 අග භාගයේ දී විතර තමයි The Dragan සෝවියට් දේශයේ රචනා වෙන්නේ. රුසියාවේ ට්‍රොස්කිවාදය මුල් බැහැ ගන්න තිබුණු අවස්ථාව මුළුමනින්ම අහුරන්නෙ ස්ටැලින් විසින්.
ලෙනින්ගෙන් පස්සේ ස්ටැලින් කෙනෙක් පහළ වීම කියන කාරණය අදහ ගන්නත් බැරි එකක්. ඒ මොහොතේ ඒ තත්ත්වය අත් විඳි යෙව්ගිනි ෂ්වාස්ට්ස් කලාකරුවා රචනා කළ නාට්‍යය තමයි The Dragan. දීනභාවය, මර්ධනය, කපටිකම, බියගුළුකම, වංචාව වගේ දේවල්වලින් පිරුණු මිනිස් සමාජයක් ගැන තමයි මේකෙන් කතා වෙන්නේ.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sinhala production of "The Dragon"
‘MAKARAKSHAYA’
(The Dragon)
Directed by
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake -1985
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake -1985
Won 12 State Awards from State Drama Festival 1985
including Best play in 1985,
Best Director,
Best Translation,
Best Music,
Best Costume Designing,
Best Stage Set designing,
Best Lighting,
Best Choreography,
The play 'Makarakshaya' has been staged 884 times
all around the country from from 1985 to 1999
New Sinhala Production of ‘Makarakshya’
(The Dragon) – 2010
Cast
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Yashoda Wimaladharma,
Dharmapriya Dias, Janaka Kumbukage,
Luxman Mendis, Priyantha Sirikumara,
Chulla Jayawardhana, Gamini Wijesinghe, Leonard Cooray,
Warnathunga Senanayake, Jagath Muthukumarana,
Oshadee Gunasekera, Vathsala Ranasinghe,
Dulanjalee Shankalya, Niluka Rajamanthree,
Arunod Wijesinghe, Amila Gal Anga, and others…
Choreography
Jehan Aloysius
Make up
Wasantha Vittachchi
Stage Managers
Priyantha Prabhash
Susanga Kahandawaarachchi,
Translated by
Cyril C Perera
Directed by
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake
Yevgeny Shvarts
Life of Yevgeny Shvarts
Yevgeny Shvarts was born in Kazan in 1896 into a physician's family. His father was Jewish, his mother Russian. At the end of the 1910s he studied law at Moscow State University, but was drafted into the army in the spring of 1917. He served in the White regiment of general Kornilov, and suffered shell-shock during the storming of Yekaterinodar in 1918. As a result of this he lost several teeth and acquired a tremor of the hands that plagued him for the rest of his life.
In 1919 decided to devote his life to dramatic art and literature. From 1924 on he lived in Leningrad and worked in Gosizdat under the guidance of Samuil Marshak; during that time he also became close with members of the avant-garde literary group OBERIU.
In 1929 Shvarts began writing plays, the best known of which are the modern retellings of fairy tales: «Golyi korol'» ("The Emperor's New Clothes") (1934), «Krasnaya Shapochka» ("Little Red Riding Hood") (1936), «Zolushka» ("Cinderella") (1938), «Snezhnaya Koroleva» ("The Snow Queen", after Hans Christian Andersen) (1938), «Tyen'» ("The Shadow", after Hans Christian Andersen) (1940), «Drakon» ("The Dragon", an original) (1944), and «Obyknovennoye Chudo» ("An Ordinary Miracle") (1956). Most of these plays were subsequently turned into films, sometimes more than once.
“The Dragon”
This play, the most "adult" of Shvarts' plays, is a political satire aimed at totalitarianism in all forms. The plot is based on the attempt of the hero, Lancelot, to liberate people in a land suffering under Dragon's brutal rule. But his efforts meet with resistance, since most of the people have gotten used to the Dragon and considered his methods, though harsh, the only possible way; their souls become, in a way, crippled with this inability and unwillingness to resist. Says the Dragon in the play: "You see, the human soul is very resilient. Cut the body in half — and the man croaks. But tear the soul apart — and it only becomes more pliable, that's all. No, really, you couldn't pick a finer assortment of souls anywhere. Only in my town. Souls with no hands. Souls with no legs. Mute souls, deaf souls, chained souls, snitch souls, damned souls."
Lancelot killing the Dragon in a fight did not free the people; all that changed was the Burgomaster acceding to the position formerly occupied by the Dragon and demanding that Elsa, the same girl who was destined to be sacrificed to the Dragon, become his wife. When Lancelot returns to the town a year later, he realizes that his task is much more complex: "This is going to be a very meticulous job... We have to kill the dragon in each one of them."
Famous Quotations
from "The Dragon"
Heinrich: "It's not my fault, I was taught that way."
Lancelot: "Everyone was, but why did you have to be first in class?"
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