Theatre on criminalised police and politics
It is the judiciary and the police that provoke citizens to catch wrong doers with the sign of ‘WANTED’ (‘Dutu Thena Allanu’).
However, even when such thieves and criminals can be caught red-handed, we see them roaming around freely, brushing shoulders with police officers.
Sometimes, after a major display of taking a criminal into custody, we see them leaving the court room with much revelry and roaming the streets like lions, while the common man has to watch this display, open-mouthed.
When you see anyone whose name is associated with politics, it is difficult to distinguish whether it is a mass scale thief, criminal, racketeer, an honourable minister of the cabinet, a close adviser of the executive leader, or a rapist, as all these persons rally round each other and exist under their collective security.
This is the story of ‘Dutu Thena Allanu’ or ‘Wanted’ in a nutshell directed by award winning actress and playwright Kaushalya Fernando as the latest production of Play House Kotte.
A satirical representation of a decadent, socio-political scenario, ‘Dutu Thena Allanu’ is an adaptation of ‘Opera Wonyosi ‘by Nobel Prize-winning dramatist and poet Wole Soyinka.
The post civil war military regime in Nigeria and the economic upsurge created by oil extraction that resulted in social, political, and cultural decadence was the backdrop under which Soyinka created Opera Wonyosi.
His script is an Africanization of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Three Penny Opera’ and John Gay’s 18th century ballad opera, ‘The Beggar’s Opera’, which also influenced Brecht’s work.
Adapted from both these texts in 1977, Soyinka staged a powerful satire that explored the corrupt socio-political conditions prevailing in contemporary Nigeria.
Following the successful productions like ‘Sanda Langa Maranaya’ adaptation of Garcia Lorca’s ‘Blood Wedding’ and ‘Maask’, Henrik Ibsen’s ‘The Public Enemy’, ‘Dutu Thena Allanu’ is Kaushalya Fernando’s third theatrical production.
Creative Director of the Play House Kotte which is also known as the Lanka Children’s and Youth Theatre Foundation, the drama school inaugurated by her mother, Somalatha Subasinghe, Kaushalya strongly believes that the theatre experience should be an aesthetically pleasing one for the audience.
Kaushalya is dramatising the Opera Wonyosi script translated by Somalatha Subasinghe who initially produced this drama in 1991 with the students of the Colombo University Drama Society.
That production was noteworthy for it was presented in the three languages Sinhala, Tamil, and English.
Kaushalya Fernando
Music direction of Dutu Thena Allanu is by Chinthaka Jayakody. Lighting design and choreography is by ChandanaAluthge. Costumes and stage props are by Thisara Imbulana.
The cast includes Dhanushka Dias, Shanaka Fernando, Thilakshini Ratnayake, Mayura Perera, Nilanka Dahanayake, Saviour Kanishka, RuchiAbeywarna, Poojana Dandeniya, Dilum Buddhika, KumuduWickramathanthri, Chamara Gamaethige, Thilina Perera, Gayathri Ekanayake, Thiwanka Don Ranasinghe, Sameera Lakmal Wimalasiri, Duminda Sandaruwan and Hasarinda Kesara Liyanaarachchi.
All actors were trained at Somalatha Subasinghe’s Play House Kotte.