Narrator extraordinaire

Mark Amerasinghe’s performances are as vital and extraordinary as the performer himself. One man shows, all of them, his monodramas defy easy categorisation, not least because they demand that you focus, that you participate. Dr. Amerasinghe himself holds nothing back – each monodrama is a labour of love for him. His passion for French literature is manifest, and almost always his chosen pieces have been carefully and exactingly translated from French to English, after which they are then cleverly adapted to suit his requirements. His audience, small and select, must keep up or lose track, as he switches smoothly from one character to another. Despite this, his dramas are said to be nothing if not absorbing.

Knowing this, it is particularly interesting to note that Dr. Amerasinghe came very late to the performing arts. “The first time I ever stepped onto a stage was in 1978, I was in my fifties then,” he says wryly. The decision was unusual in more ways than one. Despite a passionate love for the written word, Dr. Amerasinghe had already dedicated decades to practising medicine.

As Kandy’s first orthopaedic surgeon, a young Dr. Amerasinghe, struggled with inadequate facilities, an uncooperative administration and pitiful equipment at the Kandy General Hospital. “I was passionate and determined but it was still quite a challenge,” he reminisces. He made progress, but it was often as painstaking as it was frustrating. “As far as instruments were concerned, I had nothing, just a knife and some forceps,” he explains, adding that when he finally managed to find a room to see patients in, it was on the top floor of a building that did not have a lift – hardly the best location for an orthopaedic surgeon.

His dogged patience, however, paid off. “I’ve always said that for the orthopaedic surgeon the tools of his trade are the mallet, the hammer and the chisel….and so I chiselled my way through all those obstacles…those chunks of masonry,” he says smiling. He retired in 1983 after which he did a two year teaching stint at the University of Malaysia in Penang. He returned to Sri Lanka and the University of Peradeniya to take up the post of Senior Lecturer in Anatomy. “I was there till 1999…long past the so called retirement age,” he says.

Not surprisingly for this man, retirement did not equal long days spent dozing comfortably in an armchair. However, it still takes a rare sort of courage to commit to exploring a whole new discipline when most of one’s peers are settling down and putting their feet up. Was there no hesitancy? No fear of the unknown? Dr. Amerasinghe’s answer comes by the way of something he used to tell his students when they were scared to answer a question in class. “None of them would answer unless they were dead certain,” he says. “I used to ask them, ‘What are you afraid of? Either you’re right or you’re wrong. If you’re right, ok; if you’re wrong so what? Are you worried about your reputation? You have none!’” He pauses, “I used to tell myself that. I had nothing to lose.”

“I started out as a narrator,” he says, explaining that a lot of his early work was with Prof. Valentine Basnayaka in pieces such as “Strange Old Man,” which were scripted and directed by the great man himself. However, very soon, he found himself absorbed in the personal challenge of interpreting two books that had made a strong impression on him. His first self scripted monodrama was based on Leo Tolstoy’s novella ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’.

“I always say, that it was an act of exorcism, to get this fellow, Pozdnuishef (the protagonist of the story) off my chest as it were.” The vivid, dark tale fascinated Dr. Amerasinghe because of its ambiguities – was Pozdnuishef right in suspecting his wife was having an affair? Did he regret murdering her in a jealous rage? One could never be quite sure.

The second monodrama was Albert Camus’ ‘The Fall,’ and it was to mark the beginning of Dr. Amerasinghe’s absorption with French literature. Once again, the protagonist - a well known lawyer with a flourishing practice - simply fascinated Dr. Amerasinghe. Having learnt French by this time, he translated the novel on his own, and cleverly adapted it to suit his needs. This was to set the trend for all his future projects. Reflecting on the challenging process of converting a novel into a monodrama, Dr. Amerasinghe says that translating the piece, so that the intent and tone of the original is carefully preserved, is key. “The most difficult and the most interesting part, however, is in writing the script.” As each performance has a self imposed time limit of no longer than an hour and half, a good deal of judicious editing must be done. Dr. Amerasinghe can be ruthless - literally turning a piece on its head, changing the order of events, and eliminating any scenes that he considers superfluous. “Once I decide how I want to present this character to my audience, I remove everything which is not necessary for that purpose.” His method has resulted in innovative and engaging interpretations of numerous works ranging from Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ to Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’.

“It is in every sense of the word a one man show ….. I fix up practices when I feel like, and so the actors are never late,” he says, smiling. The arrangement is a convenient one. “Sometimes people look at me with a sad look and say, ‘now that you are retired, how do you spend your time?’ I look at them as sadly, and say ‘my problem is to find the time to do all the things I want to do.’ And it’s true, for Dr. Amerasinghe, retirement is turning out to be the most entertaining part of a full and active life.