‘Cue’to bring novelty to stage with Our Town
Ranga Jayaratne’s home in Ratmalana bustles with fun and laughter, but underneath the light hearted pre-rehearsal gaiety runs a deep ore of serious passion for the theatre, something that has always animated ‘Cue’. If you are unfamiliar with the name of this theatre group, you won’t stay the same for long, for the fresh-faced cast has the enthusiasm, talent and the depth to captivate audiences however discerning.
Ranga Jayaratne: Drawn to the simplicity of plot and everyday characters of the play. Pic by Amila Gamage
Previously Cue gave Colombo a taste of two musicals, ‘The Tale of a Man and a Monster’ (2012), ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ (2014) as well as Sarah Ruhl’s play Eurydice last year. Their latest production is Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, a play they first staged in 2015, and are now resurrecting to mark the 80th anniversary of this favourite Broadway classic. The onetime Pulitzer winner for drama is heralded to be ‘the only play that is still performed at least once each night somewhere in the world’.
The play would bring novelty to the Lionel Wendt and to the audiences. They will find the ‘stage manager’ breaking down the fourth wall, and directly addressing the audience and assuming control over the onstage action- through such unconventional, metatheatrical devices as prompting actors and cuing scene changes.
The action happens in Grover’s Corners, a fictional town based on Peterborough, New Hampshire, and is a fascinating microcosm of the life cycle, with the three acts titled Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death and Eternity.
Ranga was drawn to Our Town due to the simplicity of the plot, the everyday characters and the fact that it is metatheatre, the peculiar style of theatre where the play is conscious of and draws attention to its nature as a drama unrolling on stage. Ranga and the cast fell in love with the play back in 2015 for its pared-down simplicity- where the limelight is thrown on ordinary, everyday lives of people.
The message at the heart is the preciousness of life, and how rarely we appreciate the little things that constitute it. As Emily, the lead character, says in the last act, we do not sense the beauty of “the smell of new-ironed dresses, the hot baths, waking, sleeping, the sunshine” (until we are gone- as characters after death discover in Our Town). This is the story of those little moments. Wilder himself stated that it is “a beautiful little play with all the big subjects in it- and a big play with all the little things of life impressed into it”.
Wilder dictated that the play unravels with no props (another feature of metatheatre). It is up to the actors to make audiences visualize everything- from a cup of tea to the streets, the gardens and houses: having to conjure all these out of thin air requires rare mastery.
Ranga handles a mixed cast, a few of whom are first timers, and she makes sure that everyone enjoys the process. Her outlook on theatre in general and Wilder’s play in particular is that acting is about community, and therefore unity. “To achieve unity as a cast you have to suppress your ego. It can’t be about “me first.” It has to be about sharing your spotlight, your talent, and your energy and experience with your fellow actors and making sure you all rise together. And for this play in particular where it’s all about people, I think it only makes sense to have a diverse cast both culturally and in terms of experience.”
The play has a direct message, and that a message anyone should treat as precious: appreciate life while you live it, every day; every moment. While Ranga calls it the ‘average’ story, where the boy-next-door meets the girl-next-door, it contains something much deeper- the essence of life in fact- which any level of audience will appreciate with little effort.
Our Town will go on the boards at the Lionel Wendt on September 22 and 23 starting at 7.30 p.m. The tickets are priced at Rs. 2,000, 1,500, 1,000 and 750. For advance bookings and delivery, contact 0778631011.