Arts
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The
critic but always the humanist And, even though Miller latterly fell out of fashion, he never gave up: astonishingly, at the age of 89, he saw his most recent play premiered in Chicago last autumn. In one sense, the absence of a living tradition of American drama worked in Miller's favour. Most of the serious inter-war playwrights, such as Clifford Odets, Elmer Rice and Maxwell Anderson, were either dead or defunct by the time Miller started writing. In consequence, he looked to Europe: especially to the ancient Greeks and Ibsen, both of whom left a profound, and beneficial, impact on Miller's work. Miller's first great success in 1947 came with All My Sons, an almost classic Ibsenite play in which the layers of pretence are stripped away. Gradually we learn that the hero, Joe Keller, has allowed defective parts to be fitted to air force planes thereby causing the death of his son. But Keller is not presented as a villain: more as a man who has allowed profit and wartime production schedules to take precedence over safety. Instantly this introduces one of Miller's great themes: the sacrifice of conscience to expediency and the eternal conflict between man's private and public roles. But it was with Death of a Salesman in 1949 that Miller created both an American classic and an archetypal hero in Willy Loman. Willy is a failure both as a salesman and a father; but what he comes to represent in the course of the play is the decline of the American Dream. As Harold Clurman once pointed out, the original premise of the dream was that enterprise, courage and hard work were the keys to success. But Willy sells his personality and tragically comes to believe that all life's problems are solved by making oneself "well-liked." But it's a measure of the play's universality that it proved as popular in Beijing as on Broadway; and it's a sign of its durability that Robert Falls's superb Chicago production, starring Brian Dennehy, is coming to the West End this summer. From 1947 to 1955 Miller enjoyed a golden period, going on to produce The Crucible and A View from the Bridge. But, in a sense, he was always in opposition to the prevailing ethos of Broadway. As he once wrote, "our theatre inclines towards the forms of adolescence rather than analytical adulthood." But his postwar creative surge was strongly affected by two events in 1956: his summons to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and his marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Neither was conducive to his role as a public playwright. The story of Miller's marriage to Monroe is a complex one; and I sense he grew weary of being asked about it. Before interviewing him at the National Film Theatre when his autobiography appeared, I suggested to Miller that I raise the subject before the audience did. He agreed, and I remember the generosity and grace with which he spoke of Marilyn; but the fact is that the five years of their tempestuous marriage was a creative lacuna for Miller in which the film of The Misfits was the only major work he produced. He bounced back and in his later years produced an extraordinary variety of plays. Few masterpieces, perhaps. But seeing his penultimate play, Resurrection Blues, in Minneapolis in 2002, I was struck by its sprightliness: a satire on the commercialisation of the return to earth of a putative Christ, it reminded us that Miller was always an ironist. And the point was confirmed by the recent London revival of The Price, which posterity may rank as one of his best plays. But the great thing about Miller was that he was always a critic of society who retained an unshakable belief in the possibility of human goodness. He documented an imperfect world without ever sacrificing his liberal idealism. The Guardian Film
review:"Ira Madiyama"(In the Midday Sun)
Once in a way, an artiste captures the trauma of Sri Lanka and expresses it in a story, sometimes in a book, sometimes in a film. But there are films and films in the world today and a cinema-goer goes to the cinema hall expecting to see a love story, a horror story or a tear-jerker, each with its share of sex and violence supposedly to draw the crowds. "Ira Madiyama" does not have a beginning or an end. It is a slice of life in Sri Lanka during the separatist war in the North and East. It is a sensitive portrayal of three sets of individuals as they journey through life in Sri Lanka. From a hotel in Colombo through Anuradhapura to the islands and little villages of the North, the film gives the viewer an intimate glimpse of war and how it impacts on a soldier, a trader, a young woman and a little boy. Oh, no…don't think that you can go home feeling self-satisfied and on high moral ground. With absolutely no pointing of fingers at anybody, Prasanna Vithanage as director has juxtaposed the crisis and everyday reality. With clever editing, the film shows the Muslims as refugees from the North side by side with the van taking the journalist and the pilot's woman to the North. The stray dog races behind the overloaded trishaw carrying the boy who regularly fed him. The soldier and his friends eat, drink and make merry on leave from the battleground. Perhaps it is in this understatement that the real power of the film lies. There is a powerful message for there is none so blind as he or she who will not see. The soldier is assaulted in the brothel and awakes the next morning to the chanting of Buddhist "gatha" or stanzas carrying the message of "ahimsa" or non-violence in the sacred city. The young woman, sensitively portrayed by Nimmi Harasgama, says frankly that she lived in a flat with her pilot with no piece of paper registering a marriage for his parents had opposed the match. Yet she says, "Niroshan is my man and that is what counts," and she proves her undying love for the lost pilot as she watches television and scans the papers and then sets off with just a faint hope through dangerous terrain in search of him. The journalist who is a husband and a father tells her frankly that they could have had a love affair as they journey together if not for the fact that "A beautiful woman like you has given her love to just one man and I recognize that." As they part at the hotel, a decorated wedding car draws up behind their van. Perhaps a glimpse of the ‘might have been’? For the young woman said that her pilot lover and she had planned their wedding when he was shot down by the separatists and taken prisoner. She breaks coconuts in a Buddhist temple and also prays at a Christian shrine in her desperation. The Muslim families in the boat on the way to Kalpitiya pray to "Allahu Akbar"(God who is Great). Religious leaders and fanatics may make differences but for the ordinary people of Sri Lanka, as symbolized by the protagonists in this film, some spirituality sustains them. Yet the soldier brother's love for his only sister whom he found in the brothel surfaces as he takes home a gift of a costly pair of earrings. The lack of real communication so common in most families is apparent as she bursts into tears and is yet unable to tell her mother what kind of job she had really been doing. The mother, so typical of the majority of conservative parents, is only interested in completing her house (with money earned by her soldier son-never mind what horrors he continues to face on the battleground) and "settling" her daughter through marriage. The trader continues to trade and the soldier soldiers on with the young woman never giving up on finding her one true love. The bus trundles on with its humble passengers while the father and son cycle on and so the film ends, leaving the viewer with much to ponder about life as it is lived right here in Sri Lanka when the veil of pretence and religious, racial and family posturings is drawn aside. A brush
with beauty Of the 11 artists, four are students between the ages of 12 and 17, one is a doctor and the rest are housewives who paint to relax, says Mrs. de Alwis. "Parents should encourage their children to draw because it helps to improve their concentration and they learn to appreciate their environment much more," she adds. Although this is the second exhibition under this title, which means beauty created by the brush, overall this will be her fifth annual senior group exhibition. In addition, Mrs. de Alwis holds three children's art exhibitions a year, titled "Little Hands on Canvas". Bringing
to light the hidden beauty We may think a trunk is a trunk but the point is we cannot see how marvellous it may be. In the Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya or deep in the woods, Hemantha Arunasiri looks for "the impressions of god", these great "patterns, lines and colour in harmony" concealed in trees. We cannot see this "poem of the divine" because we do not watch nature like we should, because we do not examine the particulars of nature like a child would do. But nothing would be possible without technology. Hemantha Arunasiri uses special macro lenses to capture these microscopic treasures. Colours,
figures and lines of the Orient Writing about her paintings, artist Sarath Chandrajeewa says, "Her theme is more religious and more conscious awareness of the Oriental art, such as the Chinese method of divination by means of lines, colours and figures, 'Tantra' and 'Mandala' paintings and paintings integral to the religious life of Buddhist worship in Tibet- 'Thangka paintings'. "As
a painter her works are variegate and dainty.....She also wants
her works to relate closely to her culture and tradition and indeed
religious concepts." Having sold seven paintings for over Rs. 200,000, Sharmila was glad to have done her part for tsunami relief. She has lived in Sri Lanka since July 2002. ‘Railing’
together for tsunami children A selection of some of the best works of art donated will be auctioned from 5-6 p.m. on the opening day (Feb. 23) of 'Rail'. These auction will have works done by those within the various advertising agencies and from their private art collections, including paintings by George Keyt, Shehan Madawela, Muhanned Cader, Nelum Harasgama and Mahen Chanmugam. The rest of the paintings, photographs and sculpture will be on exhibition/sale after the auction. The railway platform will be transformed into a 'Hawker Street', with poetry readings in both English and Sinhala and readings from books written by advertising agency people, said a spokesperson for AdAid. There'll also be a few live duo and ensemble performances for audience entertainment and a hat collection, (in typical railway station style), so that people can contribute any amount they wish to. AdAid came into being as a result of a few advertising agency people, joining together to discuss how best they, as an industry could help. A motivational advertising campaign is currently underway, as to how the country can get back on its feet, said the spokesperson. Profiling the children displaced by the tsunami, by finding out their current status, (place of residence be it with a relative or an orphanage etc.,) is one of the next projects they hope to undertake. As such information has been collected only in certain areas. AdAid wants to commission the services of an independent research agency to start it on a district by district basis, depending on the amount of funds they manage to garner, said the spokesperson. AdAid is also planning an auction of cricket memorabilia donated by present and past cricketers for which they already have four paintings done by children of Seenigama and autographed by Shane Warne. |
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