Men Without Shadows: Directorial debut with a stellar cast
Men Without Shadows, which opens at the Lionel Wendt next weekend marks 26-year-old Sashane Perera’s directorial debut outside of school (D. S. Senanayake College, which he directed into the Interschool Shakespeare competition finals three consecutive times and to the trophy in 2012). With a stellar cast of actors in this equation: Gihan De Chickera, Dominic Kellar, Gehan Blok, Bimsara Premaratne, Chamath Arambewela, Dino Corea, Rajiv Ponweera, Chalana Wijeyasuriya and Feroze Ahmed taking on the roles of the captured and capturer, Men Without Shadows is the tale of five soldiers of the French Resistance captured by the Vichy forces for interrogation during the height of World War II.
So how does a first-time director round up some of theatre’s most well-known faces for his play? “I’ve worked with them all at some
Sashane Perera
point,” he explains. Sashane began his theatrical career as an amateur 14-year-old Fool in King Lear, D.S Senanayake’s 2001 bid for the Inter-School Shakespeare Drama Competition. Before that he was a cricketer who thought drama was just that little bit, well, uncool. After Shakespeare it was a different story altogether; he was hooked not just by the sheer pleasure of being on stage, but also by the camaraderie one inevitably shares with fellow cast mates. “All those late nights, the arguments and the exhaustion-you make friends who last, I think.” School drama was also how he met Chamath (Arambawela, who takes on the role of the captured Henri in Men Without Shadows), together with Feroze Kamardeen. “They were like demigods to us at the time!”
These larger than life figures have now become his friends, the people he turns to for advice. “They tell it like it is,” he says.
Having left school, he appeared in a string of productions, including an amusing stint as Pusswedilla’s son in the play of the same name by Kamardeen, which was where he also met Kellar. Following his return from college in the US, Sashane returned to the stage, sometimes acting (in Widows, most recently) and mostly behind the curtains backstage. “If I had to pick between acting and directing I’d pick the latter every time,” he reveals before adding “I can’t believe I said that.”
“Sashane has a way of letting us do our thing but he keeps a close eye on every single thing we do,” says Gihan De Chickera and his fellow cast members agree, although Sashane will tell you that he’s a control freak, forever telling his cast to turn at the right angle or bullying the stagehands into moving colossal sets in under five seconds. “Attention to the smallest of details-that’s important if you’re putting on a play where there’s no wild action, costumes or glitzy song and dance items.”
That’s true of the play he’s picked- one of Jean-Paul Sartre’s best, with its strong theme of existentialism and very physical theatre.
“I enjoy serious theatre,” he explains. “I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I don’t think I can make a funny play to be honest.”
In taking on a script set in the 1940’s, the question posed would probably be of how relevant it is to contemporary audiences. There’s something the director wants you to know about the play before you watch it-“it’s about war, and it’s about prisoners, and there’s torture involved. But if you can spot the real story and the real plot in the midst of all this, then we’ve succeeded. The play asks a question we all ask of ourselves at some point in life-what’s my role in all this? Am I doing the right thing? Have I made the right choices?” That last one might be more of a question for Sashane himself, and for the play he has carefully nurtured and watched over for the past few months. The verdict is yours.
Men Without Shadows will be staged at the Lionel Wendt on February 7, 8 and 9. Tickets and box plan for the show are available at the Wendt.