Magical movements

By Alfreda de Silva

Aladin by Le Theatre du Petit Miroir presented by L'Alliance Francaise de Colombo (opening performance by Tharanga Puppets) October 5 at the Bishop's College Auditorium.

The drip-drip of a rainy evening notwithstanding, a fair-sized audience trooped into 'Bishop's College to view the puppet show Aladin, presented by the Alliance Francaise.

Preceding this, a short display of shadow-puppetry by the well-known exponent of the Tharanga Institute, Siri Kumarasinghe, was held in the foyer.

Gilles Salaun, the Deputy Director of the Alliance told me that this was to give the audience a contrast in styles of puppetry. It was certainly a good idea.

But intriguing and novel as the shadow-puppetry was, its portrayal of the featured theme - Aladin - was too brief to be savoured fully by the audience.

There was also the fact that the dialogue was in Sinhala and the spectators seated on the carpeted floor, many of whom were children, were of various nationalities.

It is to be hoped that Mr. Kumarasinghe, who is interested in expanding shadow puppetry for instruction and entertainment will in the near future give us a longer exposition of his art. An English translation of the dialogue would also be useful.

Aladin by Le Theatre du Petit Miroir was enchanting.

The non-availability of a compact and intimate venue at the time it was performed, brought it to the large Bishop's College Auditorium, which serves theatre groups well. But it was not quite the setting for projecting the delicate beauty of the mini- puppet theatre.

Standing close to the footlights in the middle of an extensive stage, this structure, looked small and forlorn, till the action started and carried the audience along with it.

Just two puppeteers and a highly skilled technician brought the puppets to life in the Chinese style of manipulation. And it was magic all the way.

The rollicking pace of the show and its humour and intensity kept the audience spellbound.

There was the young Aladin prancing around, quite at home in the western theatrical element, featured alongside the quicksilver Chinese techniques.

Subtle lighting brought out Aladin's daring, the actions of his doting mother, his lovely princess, and the wiles and tricks of his wicked uncle. And, quite startling were the appearances of the genie of the lamp and his counterpart of the ring.

The puppets had the power to transform themselves, disappear, fly away, fight victoriously against their enemies, and keep the magic and adventure of the story alive all the way.

I learned that those who worked the puppets were specialists in several fields. One of them was a metal worker, like the ones who worked on the rocket Ariane. The two others were an aquarium maker and a high precision gear technician.

The puppets had been sculptured on rich Malaysian wood and dressed in elaborately embroidered garments of Chinese silk.

The music not restricted to an oriental theme, was lively and universal - a blend of the traditional percussion rhythms with the resonances of contemporary musical techniques. It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening.

Nocturnal journey, real and unreal

By Asoka De Soysa

The moonlit sea, the moonlit river, silhouettes of ruined temples are some of the inevitable themes in Sri-Lantern art. Even in the domain of handicrafts, these pictures have come to stay. Tourists take home these pictures as wall hangings and even the tray serving the guests cups of tea will often show these nocturnal scenes.

It is indeed difficult to combine these hackneyed motifs in an innovative way. Muhanned Cader's exhibition at Gallery 706 showing some 34 "Nightscapes", oil paintings on wood, has to overcome all this kitsch: over a century of nocturns in the visual arts. It is not surprising that an artist like him, living in an idyllic spot on the banks of the Panadura river has been inspired to draw his own surroundings.

Muhanned admits most of these paintings have been done at night. He does not paint romantic scenes of fishermen gliding past his home or anything reproducing nature. But he captures the mood with colour - the shadows, the silhouettes, reflections, all seem real but on close scrutiny, are unreal, inviting and at the same time quite droll.

Concentrating on the interplay of light and darkness, his 'Nightscapes' do appeal to the viewers imagination. The eyes that pierce darkness, flashing from the other bank, mirror- like surfaces that distort reality are very seductive and create a relaxed mood. The horizontal line of the water runs like a thread through the paintings.

What intrigues me most, is the form of these 'Nightscapes'. No rectangular view 'from a window and no rectangular projections on a screen and no oval shapes very familiar from the tea-tray. Having experimented with shapes, ever since his exhibitions at Gallery 706 in 1994, and The Heritage Art Gallery in 1996 and 1997 on returning after his training at the prestigious 'The School of the Art Institute in Chicago' in 1993 - Muhanned created innovative shapes and forms has once more, combining his very personal "cardian" sense of humour. "Things that should be serious are funny, what should be funny are not funny, and that is sad," Muhanned comments.

The Gallery 706 having its own charm, adds a contrast to these shapes offering seascapes and views of Bambalapitiya as seen through the windows - quite rectangular as one may expect. The real sea the white- washed walls. Muhanned's amorphous shapes all make this exhibition 'gesamtkunstwerk' - a whole work of art.

We have seen modern moonlit landscapes, sometimes deriving from modern abstract or originating from the Cubit's corner. But Cader's 'Night scapes' are not pretentious to be modern, copying Abstract or Cubist prototypes. Groping through darkness, he is able to develop his personal style using a much hackneyed theme. Naturally, he too must venture further to other nightscapes, perhaps into the suburbs of Colombo and interpret the moods in his very 'cardian' way.

Muhanned Cader's exhibition of paintings titled 'Nightscapes' is now on at the Gallery 706 Colombo, and will continue till October 31. Exhibition times are: 10:00 am-7:00 pm Monday to Saturday and 11:00 am-4:00 pm on Sunday.

We sang in the spirit of truth and joy

By Dr. Lalith Perera

Re: Review of Choral Festival at St. Michael's Polwatte on 3.10.99

While thanking Louis Roberts for drawing the readers' attention to the Choral Festival held at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels Polwatte, Colombo 3 in connection with its patronal festival, we must confess that we did not expect it to be reviewed as a performance, which it was certainly not meant to be.

Praise and worship in the form of Festivals of Choirs and Choral Festivals seem to have, in the recent past, been used as a vehicle to promote the image of ourselves rather than the God we worship. We felt that a Festival such as ours could demonstrate a fundamental difference by using words and music where the whole host of participants could sing the Praises of our God and King in true worship, "in Spirit and in Truth".

The church of St Michael's thought it fit to invite as many choirs as possible to join in a Festival of Praise and Worship with the theme of Angels and Archangels and the eternal conflict of good and evil, in which we mortals are caught up. The ultimate victory, as all Christians believe has already been won, but "Satan continues to prowl as a roaring lion, seeking whomsoever he may devour".

Using the immortal prose and rhyme of the Bible and of Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, together with the music of such composers as Haydn, Handel, Purcell and Sir Hubert Parry to illustrate the theme, this Festival was prepared with some thought and care. We realised that faultless rendering of the words or the music was not possible, but the active participation of all those present was expected. We failed to gain the support of a large number of choristers, whom we had hoped would join us, but are grateful to all those who did participate. Our joy would have been greater if those present in the congregation could have joined in the anthems of the "Heavens telling the glory of God" and in the final manifold "Amen", but this was not possible with the limited resources and time available to us.

In the hymns, however, we expected not only the Choir but the congregation too to join their voices with the Angels and Archangels, who forever sing "Holy, Holy, Holy". It is therefore with some surprise and understandable disappointment we note that Mr. Roberts was able to detect the faulty phrasing of the Choir as they sang these hymns, as, while the Choir led the singing, we expected the congregation including Mr. Roberts, to sing with the Choir with joy and understanding, "in Spirit and in Truth", the mighty works of God.

Aware of the frailty of human beings in conveying these lofty ideals, we attempted to achieve something acceptable to both God and man. If we failed, we can only ask for forgiveness, secure in the knowledge that God forgives our trespasses more readily than our fellow men, if we truly repent.

Who can forget those film hits!

Do the names Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Groucho Marx or Judy Garland evoke memories? What recollections come with movies like "Band Wagon", "Easter Parade", "Swing Time", "An officer and gentleman", "Here comes the groom", "Footloose", "Saturday Night Fever" and others produced during the past 80 years?

Music from these and many more have been picked out and embroidered into a tapestry of song and dance by that unique teacher, performer and choral director - Mary Anne David; a rare personality who is equally at home with the classical song as she is with contemporary renditions. The artistic Johann Peiris, who, amongst his other interests, is a champion ballroom dancer preparing later in the year to compete in the Australian Nationals, ably assists her. In the costuming of the 50 plus senior choir and the choreography of the full cast of 125 he has two capable assistants in Shalika Marker and Chamithra Perera.

As always Mary Anne relies on her stalwart and multi-faceted musicians - Neranjan de Silva and Soundarie David-along with the ever-reliable Christopher Prins to give her show that extra punch. A newcomer to the team is Sunil Shamdasani who will play bass guitar.

An added bonus to the show is a medley from the Andrew Lloyd - Webber Musical "Phantom of the Opera". Show dates are October 28th - 31 and November 1.

Talk on Tamil theatrical heritage

Prof. Karthigesu Siva-thamby, eminent authority on Tamil arts and culture, will deliver a lecture on "The Theatrical Heritage of the Tamils" on Friday October 29 at 6.30 p.m at the Indian Cultural Centre. The talk will deal with the theatrical traditions found among the Tamils ranging from the Kuttus (Nattukuttu in Sri Lanka, Terukuttu in Tamil Nadu) to the contemporary post-Brechtian theatrical forms. Questions of Importance such as the place of dramaturgy in the overall Tamil culture and the specifics of the theatrical culture among the Tamils, will also be dealt with.

Prof. Sivathamby, formerly Professor of Tamil and Head of the Department of Fine Arts, University of Jaffna, is presently Professor Emeritus of the same university. He is also Visiting Professor at the International Institute of Tamil Studies, Chennai, the University of Madras and the Uppsala University, Sweden. He has published more than forty books and monographs in Tamil and English and almost forty research papers in English. He has won prestigious awards for his contribution to the arts and culture of the country; an award for his research work on "Drama in Ancient Tamil Society" (1982), a special Bunka award for Contribution to Culture in Sri Lanka(1998) and the North-East Province Governor's Award for Literary Contribution (1998).

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