From Plautus’ The Brothers Menaechmus to Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, and countless Hollywood Box Office hits, twins have always had a penchant for mischief with mistaken identities.
For Kevin Cruze, this is one of the highlights of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, and the prospect of acting with his cousin makes the experience all the more special.
“When I first directed an excerpt from the play several years ago for the Shakespeare Drama Competition,” he says, “that was the first time I directed my cousin.” Unfortunately St. Jospeph’s College didn’t make the finals that year but the performance received many glowing reviews from the audience and the media; and this encouraged me to consider the possibility of presenting an adaptation of the full play.”
And this is exactly what Kevin has done, with ‘Lankawe Twins Kalabala’ which- as its name suggests- brings to life all the chaos which erupts in ‘A Comedy of Errors’, and the shenanigans of Antipholus, Antipholus, Dromio and Dromio.
Written and directed by Kevin, the play will take the stage of the British School Auditorium on March 10 and 11. “The experience of the Shakespeare Drama is fun, though challenging,” says Kevin, recalling his experience of directing his school for many competitions and of victory in 2005. “It can be a little limiting at times though, as an entire script has to be edited to 30 minutes, and there is the issue of coming to terms with the old English.”
With Lankawe Twins Kalabala, Kevin was able to revel in a great deal more freedom. “The re-contextualization has enabled a lot of interesting little details which add a lot of humour to the script,” he comments, not wanting to reveal any of the play’s many surprises.
A few members of the cast were part of the group which participated in the Shakespeare Drama Competition all those years ago, and the experience of coming together again and changing things around has been an interesting one. “I really enjoy seeing the chemistry of the actors on and off stage,” comments Kevin. “Most of us work for the same organization, and so we are friends anyway. This adds to the fun, and I am confident that we have got exactly the right actors to play each role.”
The idea of a production is one that has appealed to Kevin for a long time. “It hasn’t been easy to balance time between work and the play but I am glad it is happening now. I have been influenced a great deal by the work of Jehan Aloysius, and I am very grateful for the encouragement I have received from him.”
The cast of ‘Lankawe Twins Kalabala’ includes Kevin Cruze, Charmaine Samson, Jordon Bryan, Harshini Amarasinghe, Enrico Silva, Shamira Ibrahim, Billam Poulier, Suran Kurukulasuriya, Chaminda Dias, Charvi Indrajith, Sandy Samson, Chamindu Mendis, Deshaki De Silva, Anushka Bagyangani, Jason Hendricks, Kalmini Landersz and Shenuk Alles.
The print media sponsors of the show are The Sunday Times. Tickets for the show priced at Rs. 750, 500 and 350 are available from February 27 at the British School Auditorium. For more details contact Jordon Bryan on 0778659412. |
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