Two women locked up in a cell, make a desperate attempt to forge a connection with each other and survive the torture they are subjected to each day. A widow at her philandering husband’s funeral lashes out at a woman who she suspects was her dead husband’s mistress. An asylum seeker with a rather unfortunate name struggles to explain why he is eligible for protection.
Quirky, sometimes comical and sometimes tragic, each story dramatized at this year’s Noir Theatre Festival promises to give its audience something to think about.
“What we wanted was to give the audience access to a more serious, intimate form of theatre,” says Feroze Kamardeen, recalling the inception of Noir. “At the time, having done many productions at the Lionel Wendt we realized that any production that takes the stage of the Wendt has to be a large scale one. It has to be commercial, appealing to a large audience to fill roughly 1500 seats. However, with a smaller, closer set, there is scope to explore different and in some cases less familiar themes.”
Judging by the enthusiastic response the Noir Theatre Festival has received, and the level of interest in dark theatre, Feroze looks on the festival as a platform in which actors, directors and the audience alike are challenged to push their boundaries. “It is a great opportunity for some of the younger actors to have some one-on- one acting time with the most experienced actors in the industry: they learn far more from the veterans than they would when acting alongside them in a much larger production,” he says.
As always, Noir is about bringing in new faces, and this year’s festival which started on Friday, features a group of young directors, some of whom make their debut. “Working on Friends of the Deceased has been a fairly new experience for me,” says Wasaam Ismail. “Before this production I have been used to working with larger casts when directing schools at the Inter School Shakespeare Drama Competition. Here, the challenge lies in paying far more attention to characterization because in a lower scale production there is next to no focus on props or other gimmicks. So the acting has to be sound.”
“It is a fascinating process,” adds Brandon Ingram. “After acting in several productions and assisting with others, directing is a step away from my usual comfort zone but I feel that I have learned a lot with this production. ‘Commencing’ is one of those plays that would really make you think. I get the feeling that the writer has- in a hardcore way- fought to bring out certain stereotypes in the characters she has created; and I’ve tried to move away from that a little; to break away from the stereotypes to make the characters easier to relate to.”
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| A drama rehearsal in progress |
Each week, the festival features an interesting mix of plays; and the young directors agree that each play will impact the audience in some way. “The point of the drama we present is not to preach to people,” explains Brandon, “but it will still leave them questioning things and hopefully being open to new ideas.”
The Festival which will run till July 31, features plays directed by Feroze Kamardeen, Chamat Arambawela, Brandon Ingram, Ruvin De Silva, Swasha Perera, Tracy Jayasinghe and Wasaam Ismail. Tickets for the festival are priced at Rs. 600 and Rs. 400 for individual days; and a season ticket is priced at Rs. 1500. Tickets are available at The Punchi Theatre and at www.ticketslk.com . All performances start at 7 30 p.m. at the Punchi Theatre.
The Sunday Times and Daily Mirror are print media sponsors for this festival. |
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