StageLight&Magic Inc’s second theatre season which goes on the boards at the Punchi Theatre next month will present plays with a dark comic theme. Nine plays, by Shel Silverstein will be staged across the two weekends of the festival.

Marsh Dodanwela in ‘The Devil and Billy Markham’ in 2007’s Theatre Noir

Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American poet, songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter and author of children's books. He sometimes styled himself as Uncle Shelby especially for his early children's books. Silverstein never studied the poetry of others, and therefore developed his own style: laid-back and conversational, occasionally employing profanity, and slang. Already writing by the time he served in the U.S. army, Silverstein was stationed in Japan and Korea in the 1950s, and during his tour, he worked as cartoonist for the Pacific military newspaper, Stars and Stripes.

He is most commonly known for writing and illustrating his children's literature including The Missing Piece, A Light In The Attic, Lafcadio, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, The Giving Tree, A Giraffe and a Half, and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O. For adults he wrote Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book, a satirical mock children's book, and created Different Dances, a coffee table book of wordless, adult-themed cartoons. He continued to write colloquial poetry on occasion throughout his life, including a rap version of Shakespeare's Hamlet that was published (on yellow-beige specialty paper) in Playboy magazine in 1998. He also co-wrote the screenplay Things Change with David Mamet.

In last year’s Noir theatre, Shel’s play ‘The Devil & Billy Markham’ performed by Marsh Dodanwela was one of the highlights of the season.

The schedule of performances for the Festival is as follows:

July 18 – 20 : Wash & Dry, No Dogs Allowed, Dreamers, Abandon All Hope & The Best Daddy.
July 25 – 27 : Buy One, Get One Free, Blind Willie and the Talking Dog, Click & Have a Nice Day.
The plays in Noir 2008 are directed by Anuruddha Fernando, Sajith Amendra, Marsh Dodanwela & Feroze Kamardeen. Noir 2008 is for adults only.