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Kala Korner - by Dee Cee

The dawning of the day
Having contributed two articles to 'Applause at the Wendt' edited by veteran journalist Neville Weeraratne to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lionel Wendt Theatre, I was happy to get a complimentary copy of the exhaustive publication.

Neville has done a fine job in planning a book, which covers a wide spectrum of the happenings in the field of theatre in Sri Lanka during the past 50 years.Neville's introduction titled 'The dawning of the day' running to nearly 60 pages, is in itself a fine record of the early days of Lionel Wendt and his close associates.

At the outset, he reminds us that the house Wendt built at 18, Guildford Crescent in Cinnamon Gardens - 'Alborado' (Spanish for 'the dawning of the day') is where the Lionel Wendt Theatre stands.

He quotes Harold Peiris as having said that 'Alborada' was "no ivory tower but a small house where he (Wendt) was accessible to all, lovers of the arts and lovers of the people."

"It was a popular belief that Wendt was a cynic, a highbrow and unsociable, someone whom simple people couldn't meet, yet Suramba, Ukkuwa, Guneya and Jayana (Kandyan drummers and dancers) were very much at home at 'Alborada'," says Neville. "He brought together in his home people who shared his taste in music, which resulted in the Steinway grand piano that stood in the lounge becoming the centre of musical evenings, very much in the style of the Schubertiades of another time, entertaining his friends with a wide range of music.

“It eventually became the venue of the Colombo Music Society, which had been functioning for a while at the YMCA in the Fort. For a while too, 'Alborado' was home to a gramophone society where people gathered for evenings of recorded music."

The formation of the '43 Group on August 29, 1943 with Wendt playing host to a "heterogeneous brotherhood of painters who, though they worked in independent styles of their own discovery, coalesced into a single body of artists" is referred to in detail. Discussing Wendt's role further, Neville says:

“Wendt's support of these painters was not merely theoretical: he often bought the entire work of a painter at an exhibition to give substance and credibility to his enthusiasm.

“He went to their defence with vigour when they were ignorantly dismissed in the press or whenever the opportunity presented itself. “He exerted enormous influence as a critic and he employed his sharp wit and vigorous pen to expose fraud and pretence and readily came to the support of the honest artist and poet. Wendt was dreaded by the charlatan."

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