How easy is it to get people to question a well-established status quo; for example what is right or wrong about the judicial system in a country? An easy task, we would assume, living in a country where sovereignty is constitutionally enshrined in the people. But actor cum director Athula Pathirana who has successfully directed a play that questions whether a majority decision is always the right one, has found that inspiring and challenging people to think outside the box can be a daunting task.
"As artists we have to contribute even in a small way to get people to think, to get them to question the existing system. Drama should be an educational process that will stimulate the intellect of the people and get them thinking long after the curtains have come down on the show but that is vastly lacking in the country," says Pathirana (38) who found his escape from the laid back lifestyle of his home town in Matale by taking an early interest in acting.
He was bitten by the acting bug while still in school, travelling five hours by bus to and from Colombo to watch a two hour stage play, but it is this kind of passion for theatre that has enabled him to develop both as an actor and director. "Self-belief is very important whatever we want to do. And it is equally important to go out and do what you want to do without waiting for things to happen," says Pathirana, who has won several awards in his career including the best actor award at the State Drama Festival in 2002 for his role in the short play Mama saha mama (me and myself).
With his latest play "Dolahak", an adaptation of American writer Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, Pathirana has ventured into new territory, the first time he's tackling an adaptation. "I heard of the US production which is in the form of a short film from a friend several years ago. It immediately caught my interest but it took several years to get the script ready, plan out the play, for casting and rehearsals," he says. Being a stickler for detail, he also spent months planning how best to promote the play and putting the actors through the dialogue. "As all 12 actors have to occupy the stage throughout the 2.15 hours of the show (except for brief visits to the washroom), I wanted them to live the characters. Unless that happens, it is difficult to hold the interest of an audience with a drab setting of a rundown jury room and with no distractions by way of music, dance and no colourful costumes."
Another challenge was to get all the actors to rehearsal on a single day, given the fact that several were full time actors with other commitments, but so far things have gone smoothly. Three shows staged at the Lionel Wendt in Colombo were sold out, while the two shows in Kegalle also attracted vast interest. "I want to take the play all over the country with the hope that the process of questioning and re-evaluation attempted in the play will get the audiences to do the same."
The play revolves around the 12-member jury that has been asked to deliberate on the fate of a juvenile male offender accused of homicide, punishment for which is the death penalty. The verdict has to be a unanimous one. The play starts with 11 members of the jury convinced that the young boy is guilty while one juror has a 'reasonable doubt" based on the evidence presented in court. The seed of dissension is cast by the single juror as to whether the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt which culminates with each of the others beginning to re-evaluate what they had heard from witnesses and have doubts of their own if the accused is in fact guilty of homicide. "We live in world where the majority word rules but exposure to this kind of a play can make people question what they would otherwise take at face value. And it's not a process that has to be confined to a set of jurors, it's a process that can be applied in any other form of deliberation," 'Pathirana adds.
It is change that Pathirana wants to bring about with his work in theatre, be it acting or direction. "If Leonardo Da Vinci and (Pablo) Picasso did not revolutionize art by changing how artists portray images, the world would have lost out on their great works. Similarly if we don't change and stick with only the "tried and tested' ways, then there is no room for creativity to grow,' he adds.
With little formal education, Pathirana is a self-taught artist but says a sound academic education would have made his journey in the field smoother. "Unlike people with good academic qualifications, I have had to work harder to prove myself." He doesn't like to dwell in the negativity that local theatre has come to be associated with mainly due to lack of adequate patronage. "I am positive in my outlook and when we seek we can find the opportunities," he adds.
The next show of "Dolahak" will be on March 10 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. |
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