Portraying real stories for V-Day awareness
Spearheaded by the Grassrooted Trust, V-Day has been celebrated in Sri Lanka since 2011, with the first famous and controversial debut of The
Dominic Keller, Dino Corera and Yashodha Suriyapperuma rehearse a scene
Vagina Monologues (more precisely, ‘A monologue, a memory, a rant and a prayer-writings to end violence against women and girls’). Since then Colombo has celebrated the day with a theatre performance, and this year the tradition will once again be renewed on March 31.
V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls inspired by Eve Ansler’s ‘The Vagina Monologues’. Violence against women remains a grave issue in the gender rights sphere with a recent global survey indicating that 35% of women have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-sexual partner violence in their lifetime. The WHO report also indicates that globally as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner. A UN led survey into violence against women across the Asia and Pacific region in 2013 revealed a shocking statistic for Sri Lanka, with 96.5% of rapists reportedly facing no legal consequences.
For the Grassrooted Trust, an organization that works in the arena of sexual and reproductive health, gender and HIV related issues the commemoration of V-Day every year marks an important juncture in their calendar. Following 2011’s production, they have worked with original material in order to localize
Directors: Hans Billimoria
content and make it more relevant for their audiences. Last year ‘The Elephant in the Room’ directed by Hans Billlimoria and Jith Peiris presented thought-provoking material for its audience. This year, ‘Our Stories’ hopes to achieve the same end goal.
“This year we’re being more inclusive by using material submitted to us by people who have experienced what we’re portraying in their lives,” explains Hans. “We’ve been coming up with our own material for a couple of years but felt it was time to call for stories, and the script we have now is based on the experiences of the people who wrote to us in both English and Sinhala.”
When we meet, Dominic Keller, Dino Corera and Yashodha Suriyapperuma are running through their lines, and the atmosphere is tense. The act follows a righteous young man who has followed two older men for some chemically
Jith Peiris
induced ‘fun’, and finds himself entangled in a heated discussion when he discovers that one of his newly acquired friends plans to beat his wife that night. In a similar vein, the other acts will deal with the often murky area of violence against women and girls, with the nine acts presented by actors including Indu Dharmasena, Sanwada Dharmasena, Gehan Blok, Miranga Ariyaratne and Danu Innasithamby.
While the March 31 showing is for intrinsically Colombo audiences (“they’ll know exactly what we’re talking about with these acts,” Hans deadpans), Grassrooted hopes to take the play to Kandy and Jaffna audiences as well. These venues will get their own local treatment, with the settings and script changed to better reflect their own experiences. ‘Our Stories’ will be presented on a multi-lingual and multi-media platform, so expect a production that blurs the line between theatre and film, say the actors.
Catch ‘Our Stories’ directed by Hans Billimoria and Jith Peiris on March 31 from 7.30 p.m at the Barefoot Garden Café. Tickets priced at Rs. 500 available at the venue. Strongly recommended only for mature audiences.
The production partners with Women In Need, a non-governmental agency working with survivors of violence. You can reach them on 0112671411.