Literary animation at its best

Literary evenings have a way of leaving an indelible mark on the human mind. After all literature tackles the human condition as we see it within and without our immediate confines. That’s exactly what happened when the latest event in the series of animating literature promoted by the British Council was staged at its auditorium on Thursday May 31.

The event which is aptly titled Book Buzz - the words “buzzed” out of their printed pages – this time around, featured a poet and a prose writer: Vivimarie Vanderpoorten and David Blacker.

Blacker began the event with excerpts from his Gratiaen short-listed and State Literary Award winning book Cause Untrue. Three readers, Blacker himself, Rajiv Weerasinha and Anasuya Subasinghe went on stage and read some striking excerpts from the book. The tone of the book and the intonation of the readers culminated effectively to bring out the emotion, frustration, stress and the drama behind each printed line. The book could be summed up as a coming together of brave men and women whose ultimate cause in life was untrue. The dialogues read out aptly conveyed the theme and the audience was brought face to face with men and women who either portrayed confidence based upon false interpretation of events around them or frustration accumulated as a result of their conflicts and their situations.

The second session of the Book Buzz featured poet Vivimarie Vanderpoorten who read from her recently published book Nothing Prepares You. She combined her sometimes lyrical, always sharp and sometimes earthy poetry with music and visuals. Every poem had a life of its own and was an epiphany in its own right. And every poem was a hidden truth of life compressed into a few lines of startling free verse. The unique structure of her poems were brought to life by the readers: Ashok Ferrey (author of Colpetty People and Good Little Ceylonese Girl), Sashi Mendis, Yichaelle Devendra and Vivimarie.

The Japanese poetic form Haiku, which incidentally is the only formal structure used by the poet – all her other work is free verse – was given a new dramatic twist when the verses were shared by two readers Sashi and Vivimarie. While one writer built up the suspense of the first two lines, the other provided the resolution by gently wafting in with the epiphany.

All in all the evening amidst the soft hues of the second full moon of the month of May was an event one would encounter once in a blue moon. Prose of a Cause and Poetry one is unprepared for…a literary animation that left the audience spellbound.