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Be
bungled in Bengal - again Promising many a cunning twist and unexpected turn, Bengal Bungalow revolves around the flighty Lilian Fenworth and the much-traumatised men in her life – ‘Papa’ and her lover ‘Charles’. It’s also the story of the pilot who crashes into the Fenworth residence, gets amnesia, gets renamed, gets married… and gets way in over his head. Then there is his wife (affronted real wife), Father John who runs around Bengal collecting money for “the Orphans” and winds up running around Bengal Bungalow with a ski mask on his head, and to thicken the plot, there is the other man with the ski mask on his head – the Bengal bandit who has burgled every bungalow in … (ahem)… Bengal. So many stories all packed into an evening of riotous laughs! The idea of there being many stories in one play, is a point that Shanuki elaborates on, as she feels that this is a play where there are no ‘leads’; just a cast of equally important characters contributing to a mad mix of stories. Particularly adept at the twists and turns, Shanuki, playing Lilian – “but you can call me Li-Li” – Fenworth reports that the real “challenge” is playing the “nymphomaniac” in the play, especially when faced with “social ostracism” and the fact that it’s quite a jump from the ‘Juliet’, she most recently played. The strength of the play is the comic actors who have been very well cast, comprising fresh faces and old hands at comic theatre who work well together to bring out the comedy in a play that, as Shanuki sees it, will work only if it’s slick. One of the older hands on stage is Delon, playing with panache the jilted Charles. His biggest concern is whether he can make the necessary “physical condition” to do all the “jumping up” and “running around” that this most physically demanding play requires in the two-week rehearsal period. Lilanka – the freshest face in the cast playing Mabel – on the other hand is faced with the prospect of portraying an indignant wife, worried about her husband, who at the point she finds him, is in the clutches of a nymphomaniac, hated by a jilted lover and clung on to by a devoted father whose one wish is to get rid of (marry off) his darling daughter. She has to get in on the action and make her mark with no gradual-character-development-time that the other characters are afforded! Dulika brings in the ‘mistaken identity’ element to the play, which spurs off the series of uncontrollable events that make the chaos of the play. Playing the Bengal bandit, he and Father John (fondly referred to as Brother John) confuse the rest of the cast, creating absolute mayhem because of the ski mask they have in common. The identity issues, however, do not end there. As Dulika puts it, he is a, “normal Sri Lankan, playing an Indian, playing an Englishman,” which makes him an actor acting in an act! All this with his face covered for almost the entire duration of the play! Denied of what most actors take for granted – facial expressions – Dulika depends on gestures and the expression in his eyes, treading carefully on that fine line between being static and over-exaggerated. “I enjoy it!” he says. Writer/director Jehan Aloysius has been working with audience response from the last run, incorporating them into his vision for the re-run. Every production we’ve done we’ve done again, he says, but they are never just repeated, we always strive to enhance the performance. Thus bringing in new life to the production, making it a fresh experience for director, actor and audience alike. What’s left to say? As someone in the cast so eloquently put it – Just come see it! Experience that much-talked about Bengal madness as Bengal Bungalow hits the Lionel Wendt Theatre from November 12 – 14, 2004. The cast comprises Shanuki de Alwis, Delon Weerasinghe, Domenic Kellar, Rajiv Ponweera, Ruveen Dias, Dulika Jayamanne, Michael Jayawardene, Rehan Almeida, Lilanka Botejue and Thushara Hettihamu. Bengal Bungalow is co-sponsored by KFC. The print media sponsors are The Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror. |
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