Two plays? Comedies perhaps? An intimate audience, may be? All this seem interesting enough for you to read on?
Well, something all you theatre lovers will want to see this September are two plays directed by Namel Weeramuni – The Man who Married a Dumb Wife by Anatole France, which is an adaptation in Sinhala by Prof. Wimal Dissanayake and The Visitor from Philadelphia one of the four plays from Neil Simon's California Suite.
"It can be considered a typical village story," Mr. Weeramuni says, of The Man who Married a Dumb Wife.
The story is about a lazy and frustrated man, played by Namel Weeramuni, who wants to get married. However, the impossible task lies in this fact – he does not want to marry a woman who nags him. So what does he do?
He marries a dumb woman, played by Malini Weeramuni. Subsequently, due to the village gossip, he feels bad and looks for a cure for his wife with the help of the village kattadiraala – Seneth Dikkumbura. And she gets cured. However, the husband realises he shouldn't have cured his wife in the first place. So his friends, played by Daya Tennakoon, and he realise there is one way he can stop the nagging – by not hearing it, so he decides to go deaf. "And therein lies a frolicking comedy," says Mr. Weeramuni of this Sinhala play, which will be a folk play worth seeing.
The Visitor from Philadelphia is more or less a comedy of errors about a couple played by Mark Haiger and Visaka Jayaweera, who are to attend their nephew's wedding.
The husband comes to a hotel in Los Angeles, a day ahead of his wife, and the night before, the husband's brother arranges for a prostitute played by Nadishani Padmasiri, to visit his suite.
What follows, as you would have guessed is complete comedy of errors, which according to Mr. Weeramuni, will have "a lot of laughter and humour," and will be in English.
Says Mr. Weeramuni about why he chose these two plays in particular, "The dramatic quality and the production potential is what I look for when I choose a play," he said.
And went on to stress that he also feels, "the entertainment value is very important." The stage set and costumes for the plays will be designed by Upeksha Haiger while the production manager will be Asoka Rodrigo.
Mr. Weeramuni's renowned passion for the arts and theatre is bound to come out in the production titled, Laughing Shadows, and will go on board at the Namel Malini Punchi Theatre, Borella, on September 18, 19 and 21 at 7pm.
Tickets will be available at the theatre. The evening of plays is presented through the Namel Malini Arts Circle and the print media sponsors are The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Times. |
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