‘It’s fun and liberating’
As a young actor making his way in London, Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke found some of his skills were in demand, others not as much. There was tap dancing which he has faked quite convincingly and fluency in Finnish which he has never been called upon to demonstrate. Until recently Sinhala felt like it belonged in the latter category, but with the decision to return home, invest at least a year in a theatre company he believes in and stage a show that promises to be wildly challenging, Arun might find it comes in useful after all.
Arun: Ready to experiment. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe
Happily, Arun’s holidays have coincided with productions by the Mind Adventures Theatre Company more than once. It was not so long ago that the young actor left Sri Lanka to attend Goldsmiths College in London after having made his debut in the 2007, Tracy Holsinger directed production, ‘Chatroom’. At the time he was still toying with the idea of being a filmmaker, but by his second year studying Drama and Theatre Arts, Arun knew where his path lay.
Arun graduated with a First in 2010 and has since starred in several productions staged at the Southwark Playhouse and the Shunt Lounge. But it was when he found himself performing in two productions simultaneously (with a total of 22 shows) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2009 that he became convinced that he wanted to do more than just portray a character onstage – he wanted to help create one. He became interested in devising, experimenting with the technique in University and in productions afterwards.
Arun has always enjoyed the challenge of working without the safety net of a script. Devised theatre he says is harder, slower going, but it also offers a more rewarding creative process and a sense of ownership for the actors.“I know some people find it scary and constrictive but I find it really quite fun and liberating. There’s something about being in a room with likeminded people and just making each other laugh and showing things to each other, which is why I liked it in the first place,” he says comparing it to playing make believe as a child.
In Sri Lanka, more often than not, the people in the room with Arun are from the Mind Adventures Theatre Company. Some stalwarts like Subha Wijesiriwardene, Brandon Ingram and Ruvin de Silva have been around since that production of ‘Chatroom’. They starred again in ‘Rondo’ which Arun co-directed with Tracy Holsinger in 2011 and will appear now in ‘Paraya’ to be staged from September 18-21 at a disused building next to the Rio cinema. The last, which Arun will helm by himself, is the most ambitious of the set.
“The whole company came up with the idea of this place and these people taking a supplement and what happens when some of them become immune, that was the germ of the idea.” Describing it as an immersive theatre experience, Arun says that an unconventional location as well an approach that pulls the audience out of their seats and into the thick of the conversation make this one of his more demanding projects.
It is also a devised play and while Arun is compiling the script he defines his role primarily as that of being an editor. The cast of 10 has generated much of the plot and the dialogue themselves, spending hours going back and forth over different sequences. While Arun would like them to hit certain key points that allow all the interconnected plots to progress, he’s happy to let them work up to it their own way – but not in their own time. For all their naturalness, the sequences follow each other like dominoes and everything must run like clockwork. For Arun, there’s the added challenge of directing his mentor but he says that watching Tracy in her element is a wonderful bonus. “She has such charisma on stage, your eyes are glued to her. It’s been really fun, like giving her a sandpit to play in.”
It’s his conviction in this play’s potential that has him exchanging his short holiday for a year’s stay. “Right now I really feel like this show could be something, I feel like working with this company – there are such good relationships we’ve formed and such good working conditions. I want to wait a little longer and really see where we could go. There are so many great things we could do.”
The Mind Adventures Theatre Company presents ‘Paraya’ directed by Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke. To reserve your invitation email mindadventureslk@gmail.com. Find out more online at: http://nationalhappinessauthority.wordpress.com/
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