‘Premaye Nagaraya’ at Elphinston Theatre
View(s):Young playwright Asanka Gurusinghe’s theatrical production “Premaye Nagaraya”, an adaptation of American playwright Thornton Wilder’s well-known drama “Our Town” will go on the boards as a part of Preksha Ranga Kala Mahothwaya (Theatre Festival) in Colombo. The play will be staged at 3.30 and 6.30 pm on August 18 at the Elphinston Theatre in Maradana.
Asanka Gurusinghe
Randheera Fernando
The play was selected to the final round of the National Youth Awards 2019 and it won the Best Supporting Actress award together with some merit awards. Translated by Randheera Fernando, the play revolves around a mythical city of Growers Corners.
This timeless drama of life in the mythical city of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, has become an American classic with universal appeal. Thornton Wilder’s most frequently performed play, ‘Our Town’ appeared on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim, and won the Pulitzer Prize. From the very beginning, ‘Our Town’ has been produced throughout the world.
Wilder’s ‘Our Town’ explores the relationship between two young Grover’s Corners neighbours, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily loses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town–growing up, adulthood, and death–is fully realized.
Played by members of Theatre Players, a group of around 20 external undergraduates studying theatre and drama at Kelaniya University, ‘Premaye Nagaraya’ is the second theatre production by the team.
Behind the screen, music direction is by Maduranga Gamage, lighting by Saman Malalasekara, costumes by Savini Poornima and Thamali Uthapala, stage settings by Asanka Gurusinghe and make up department is handled by Sanduni Somarathna.
A scene fromThornton Wilder’s drama “Our Town”
