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Arts Sandakinduru:
Reviving folk melodies and dance Sandakinduru
is essentially a musical with a beautiful blend of music enriched
with traditional Sinhala folk melodies and dance. It can be considered
as a work that is permanently etched in the history of modern Sinhala
drama and it was last staged nearly 30 years ago in 1972. Although
the late Gunasena Galappatty made great contributions to Sinhala
drama in the form of other well known plays such as Mudu Puttu and
Liyathambara, his recognition as a major figure in the field has
been somewhat muffled. The recent
production of Sandakinduru by Deepthi Sagarika Galappatty and Tharanga
Galappatty is indeed a great treat to the lover of Sinhala drama.
When one looks at most works of contemporary Sinhala drama - they
are saturated with comedy, satire and innuendo. Often it is overdone
going to the level of TV comedy shows. Unfortunately or fortunately
it is the direction along which popular Sinhala drama has moved
in the recent past with a few notable exceptions. However new productions
of older plays like Sarachchandra's Maname, Dayananda Gunawardana's
Naribena have helped the public to appreciate them. In this context
it is good news that Galappatty's Sandakinduru has joined this fold
of revived old plays. The maiden
perfomance of the new production was made at the Lionel Wendt on
Sepetember 22, before a receptive audience. The play is
based on the Canda Kinnara Jataka - a Buddhist Jataka story about
a past birth of the Buddha and it is about Kinnaras - a group of
fairies who come down to the Indian plains during the summer. The
legend goes on to say that they live happily with song and dance
while adorning themselves with beautiful flowers. Although some
are of the view that Kinnaras are in fact mermaids and mermen described
in western literature, there is no consensus on this view. The story
revolves around the beautiful Kinnara maiden Canda, and attempts
of King Brahmadatta (of Benares) to win her by killing her partner.
Moved by the devotion of Canda, the head of deities Sakka comes
to her rescue and brings back her partner's life. The roles of Canda,
Canda's partner, King Brahmadatta and Sakka are played by Tharanga
Karunanayake, Sampath Priyanga, Buddhika Ranaweera and Nimal Wijesiri
respectively. The choreography
improvised by Basil Mihiripanna and P.A.C. Perera was beautiful.
The group dance sequences by Kinnara maidens were the most impressive
to me. The choreography blended well with the distinct local flavour
of traditional Sinhala folk melodies. It was no surprise - the melodies
were compostions of W.D. Amaradeva - the doyen of Sinhala music,
and it was beautifully interpreted under the direction of Jayatissa
Alahakoon. It was moving to see some of the original cast in the
new production too. Although I was not fortunate enough to see the
original production 30 - 40 years ago, most who have seen it were
of the view that the new one was on par with it in its all aspects.
I was surprised to learn that Deepthi Galappatty had made all the
costumes within a short period of time while shouldering the responsibility
of production and her busy work schedule as a medical doctor. Sandakinduru was a treat to see with its blend of music and dance. It is a play that the late Gunasena Galappatty brought to life with impressive music and choreography inputs. Through this new production Deepthi and Tharanga Galappatty have not only honoured and perpetuated the memory of their late father but have also made a positive contribution to Sinhala drama by physically reviving the indelible mark left by Gunasena Galappatty in the history of modern Sinhala drama. I hope we will be able to see more productions of Galappatty's other plays soon on stage. A
blaze of sound and glory The Orchestra
and soloists performed to an almost full house and I have no doubt
that the majority of those present would have found it worth their
while. This is not
to overlook the shortcomings which are inevitable in an orchestra
consisting largely of amateurs. The Overture
to "The Merry Wives of Windsor" by Otto Nicolai is a work
new to the SOSL as was all the music performed on this occasion.
It speaks volumes
for the conductor amd players that they are willing to explore the
repertoire and thereby give both the audience and themselves something
fresh to look forward to. The Overture
is quite a gem with a potpourri of medleys from the opera and tunes
once heard, not easily forgotten. The performance
lacked the vitality it deserves and the young string players without
their leaders had some difficulty in coordinating their ensemble.
With the rest of the orchestra joining in, the overall effect improved
and ended in a blazeof sound as well it should. The infrequently
heard Triple concerto for Pianoforte, violin and violincello Op.
56 by Ludwig van Beethoven followed. It was composed at the height
of Beethoven's powers and is a rewarding work to listen to and no
doubt to perform. It is Baroque
Concerto Gross in conception but classical in style. The soloists,
who have now developed empathy among themselves, having played together
frequently, held the whole thing together and the orchestra gave
them the support needed. The cellist
had a difficult part to play but performed it admirably and together
with the pianist's arabesques and such-like and the tricky entries
of the violin gave us the intimacy of a trio within a classical
concerto. The balance
of the three soloists could have been improved by a different seating
arrangement, difficult under the circumstances. The Final Offering
after the interval was the "Enigma Variation" of Sri Edward
Elgar, a work first performed (and made famous) under the baton
of Dr. Hans Richter in 1899. A difficult
work for any orchestra and the SOSL floundered at the beginning
but gained in confidence as the work progressed with the help of
the senior string players, back at their desks, and ended the final
and longest Fourteenth Variation -E.D.U. (Elgar himself) in a blaze
of glory. - Dr. Lalith Perera One -man show
of the agony of a condemned man's last hours Victor Hugo
(1802-85) campaigner for European union nearly 200 years ago, fighter
for the rights of women and children, and bitter critic of capital
punishment, adopted the novel device of presenting his vehement
polemic against the death penalty in the form of the thoughts and
feelings of a man on his last day in death row. Buried and
forgotten in the international fame of Les Miserables and Notre-Dame
de Paris, in addition to his poetry, this small but important work
is as relevant today, as it was when first published in the author's
27th year. In this adaptation,
the scene is first set in the horrible prison at Bicitre, which
was an asylum for the insane, and also held within its walls those
condemned either for life to the galleys and the penitentiaries
or to death. From Bicitre, the condemned man makes his way to the
Conciergerie and then across the Seine and down the quays to the
Place de Greve, where stands the scaffold and that horrible engine
of extermination, the guillotine. The journey is made through streets
packed with a cheering, jeering, baying mob. This presentation
attempts to convey, on stage, the agony of the condemned man's last
hours, as well as the ghastly spectacle of the chain gangs, and
the deplorable behaviour of a mob that took a ghoulish delight in
the misery of an unfortunate and exulted in the scent of human blood. Mark Amerasinghe
is studying French at the Alliance Francaise de Kandy, where this
monologue was first presented on October 26, as part of the Victor
Hugo Week. This is his fourth stage monologue, based on an adaptation of a novel; his previous presentations being, Tolstoy's 'Kreutzer Sonata' and two works of Albert Camus' 'The Fall' (La Chute) and 'The Outsider' (L'…tranger) Lankan life
with Indian fragrance He claimed,
drawing on the latest theories of perceptual psychology and philosophy
of science, that artists never simply paint what they see or have
seen, or just "abstract" an image from nature, but modify
inherited schemes under the pressure of novel demands, with making
coming before matching-in other words no one paints free from manner. Nietszche famously
said "there are no facts only interpretations". The extraordinary
richness of Shehan Madawela's interpretations of Indian themes this
time-pagan, languid, sensuous, almost scented with the fragrances
of south Indian temples, imitates life in all of Sri Lanka. To notice Shehan's
sensibility ranging over diverse subjects this time- a meteorite
in a painting which he called Mineral, a painting of a face like
a Giacometti drawing, depictions of three lingas with the imprint
of a saffroned right hand on one, so many mouths to feed from a
single steaming rice bowl, which he has called populous on the subject
of the current population explosion in the developing world, a strong
message in a work about what is known as Eve teasing in India- (the
harassment of women in public places) and six canvases on the subject
of renewal, generation and fertility-one with thrusting lotus buds
and five with competing spermatozoa around Gauri Pattas Yoni like
seed pods and lingams. With such a
range of subject matter that includes also one large canvas called
"co-existence" showing a Jain Buddhist statue surrounded
by lingams, Shehan's art, always deserves a more than routine claim
on the viewer's attention. He has successfully modified the inherited
schemes of Indian art in the most modernist manner -one could now
safely say that this artist's experiences are local but his interpretations
truly global. An exhibition of Shehan Madawela's works will be on at the Barefoot Gallery from December 4 to 10. From
classical to comedy There will
be a pinch of laughter, some nostalgia, the bliss of perfect harmony
and a finale which will bring the spirit of Christmas. Colourful
costumes and unobtrusive choreography will contribute to the visual
impact of this 90-minute concert. The music will cover a wide range
of tastes from Bach, Mozart, Handel, Rossini, Gershwin, Kern to
Berlin and the innovative arrangements of Rutter. There will be
some challenging a-capella close harmony, some extracts from musicals
and a finale of comedy. Mary-Anne David who has taught many students over the years will conduct 35 of her singers in this concert. Neranjan de Silva will accompany the singers with Ramya de Livera Perera, pianist cum violinist along with drummer Christopher Prins. The concert is produced by Andrew David. Kala Korner
by Dee Cee Acknowledging
that Collette's cartoons were the newspaper's most popular feature,
respected Editor-in-Chief Frank R. Moraes, in his foreword, says
that political cartoonists need more than the usual modicum of competent
draftsmanship, and the gift of seeing politicians as their world,
large or little. "It has been said that a good cartoonist can
kill a political reputation with a drop of ink. Collette's pointed
darts are rarely barbed with malice, and if politicians sometimes
squirm they more often share the public's delight in seeing themselves
so titilatingly pilloried," he adds. Collette had
started drawing cartoons for the Times in 1946. The first cartoon
in the book is dated March 27, 1946 , possibly his first. Titled
'Sabotage' it has the legend: "The Language Commission, in
attempting to boost National languages, ignored the value of English
as a common tie between the island's different communities."
In recent years,
several collections of cartoons have appeared. Wijesoma, who
took over from Collette as the leading political cartoonist, has
put out two publications, the first in 1985 and the other in 1997. 'Fifty years
in cartoons' was the title of an ANCL publications released to mark
Sri Lanka's 50 years of Independence. It featured cartoons by eight
cartoonists which had appeared in the Lake House papers. Folk music
was his forte Ranwala had
been active since the sixties, presenting his first production ,
'Nogiya Gamana' in 1966. In the same year, he took part in W. B.
Makuloluwa's 'Depano'. Soon after he produced 'Eka Gediyayi Palagaththe'
and 'Kalagola'. The late seventies saw him producing two more, 'Beeri
Ali' and 'Vediya Kadana Naraka Lamai'. Having been
a teacher at two leading schools, Royal and Ananda, Ranwala devoted
a lot of time to researching and collecting traditional folk music.
He was ready with his second cassette (the first , 'Ahase Innavalu'
was released an year ago) which was due to be launched this week.
But it was not to be. He died just two weeks before his 63rd birthday. Not to the
Art Gallery Sugath apparently
had been adamant that his body should not be taken to the Art Gallery,
'Lakbima' reported. "Under no circumstances should my body
be taken to the Art Gallery after I die," was his clear instructions.
And so we paid our respects to him at Sudarshi Hall, which would
have been familiar ground for him when he rehearsed his plays. Tony Ranasinghe
whom Sugath introduced to the stage, wrote a very moving piece tracing
the beginnings of 'Ape Kattiya' and Sugath's early days, and paying
his tribute to a man who was so close to him and his brother Ralex.
He recalled how he insisted on everyone calling him Sugath or Sugathe
rather than Mister Sugathapala, Master or Sir. Sugath was such a
simple man. Tony also remembers him preferring to wear clogs rather
than sandals or shoes.
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