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Shakespeare in Sinhala

Playwright Bandhula Withanage has been fascinated by Shakespeare since his school days. Those were the days when we studied in English and Shakespeare's works were class texts. Once you started doing the text, naturally you wanted to read his other works. The interest grew and you became a Shakespeare 'addict'. That's what happened to Bandhula too.

'Hamlet' is one of the best known of Shakespeare's works. Bandhula has translated it into Sinhala. And it won the State Literary Award for the best translation, along with three others. The Godage publication is to be formally launched next Friday (26th) at the National Library Services Board auditorium.

This is the second time Bandhula has tried his hand at translating Shakespeare. The first was two decades ago when he translated 'The Merchant of Venice', at the insistence of renowned actor Tony Ranasinghe. "We were on location filming 'Pembara Madhu'. I had a copy of Merchant of Venice with me. "Tony told me why won't you translate it. I would love to act in it.I took up the challenge and did it," Bandhula recalls.

In 1980 the play went on the boards while the book came out in print later. "That's how Shakespeare also did it. He didn't put the book out fearing that someone would copy it. So the play came first," Bandhula says. But in the case of 'Hamlet' since the book was printed, Bandhula and publisher Godage decided to release it. Bandhula is getting ready to produce the play next year.

Bandhula has been in theatre for many years, producing and acting in plays. Most of his dramas have been translations. Starting with 'Megha Garjana' (a translation of Harold Pinter's 'The Collection') in 1965, he produced French dramatist Jean Anouilah's Beckett (1974), Amercian dramatist Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (Senehebara Dolly - 1978) and Our Town (Hiru Dahasa' - 1990) and English dramatist Brandon Thomas' Charley's Aunt (Romaya Gini Ganee - 1996). In between he produced Gangavak, Sapattu Kabalak Ha Maranayak (1970) and Dolosveni Ratriya (1982).

Bandhula moved over to the tele-scene and made the teledramas, 'Bumuthurunu' and 'Asalvesiyo'.

He considers himself lucky in being able to see over 200 plays during a stint of three and a half years in London when he was out of a job from the Rupavahini Corporation where he was a producer. He is back there now as Director General-Programmes.

More on 'Sinhabahu'

Reggie Siriwardena couldn't make it for Namel Weeramuni's book launch due to ill-health. But what he feels about Sinhabahu appears on the back cover of Namel's book. To quote:

"Sinhabahu is a tale which, like Oedipus Rex or Hamlet, is based on a primal human situation and enlists certain universal feelings. In Dr Sarachchandra's hands it became a drama of the relationship in the complex web of emotions intertwined with them: the father, with the possessive, tyrannical, all demanding love; the son who must break loose from the parental bond in order to realise himself and yet who remains bound to it in an ambivalence of love and hate; and the mother, tragically divided between emotional loyalties to the old life she has shared and the new life she has brought forth." 

To Professor Anuradha Seneviratne (presently with the University of London), Sinhabahu was Dr Sarachchandra's masterpiece with Maname coming second. 

The unforgettable 'Yashorawaya'

Writer Somaweera Senanayake wrote the popular novel, Yashorawaya over 20 years ago. It became a hit when Parakrama Niriella made a tele-series (not one but two) with G. W. Surendra, Iranganie Serasinghe and Lucky Dias virtually becoming family members in every household. It was the first Sinhala novel to be made into a teledrama.

The novel also won the State Literary Award for the Best Novel in 1978. The fourth reprint of Yashorawaya is being released on Thursday. Publisher Dayawansa Jayakody moves away from his usual Tuesday launch in this instance for two reasons. 25th happens to be Somaweera's birthday and it also marks the completion of 30 years since Jayakody Publishers released Somaweera's first novel, Adarayata Baya Minissu. 

They are out, but now no prices

This column has earlier commented on the delay on the part of the Department of Cultural Affairs in fixing prices of new publications. On October 28, the Department released 20 new titles. Most of them are now available at the bookshop at the entrance to the John de Silva Theatre, but without the prices.

Among the new publications is the Sinhala Encyclopædia Volume 9. We wait for years for a new volume to be out. And when it comes out, it takes another few months to fix the price. The new releases include several interesting titles on drama, literature, folk tales and folk drama. The big question: When will the readers get a chance of reading them?

Once more Godage Publications on top

For the 13th consecutive year, S. Godage Publications came on top in the release of the most number of books during a single year. 

The tally last year was 420 - the first time that the 400 mark was passed.

That's not all. Godage Publications also won the largest number of State Literary Awards this year. They collected ten awards in numerous categories.

Awards were won for Indrakeerthi Siriweera's ' Chitra Shipiya (Best Short Stories, Jayaratne Samarasekera's Hari Kalabala Magul Gedera (Best Children's Literature), Rev Fr Don Peter's Thekkapitiye Tatu (Best Juvenile Literature), Karunaratne Amarasinghe's Kalayata Smarakayak & Bandhula Withanage's Hamlet (Best Translations), Premakeerti de Alwis' Sihina Sathak (Best Collection of Lyrics), Somaratne Balasuriya's The Cart (Best Translation - English), W. A. Abyesinghe's The Fire Bird (Best Children's Literature - English) and Wijesiri Liyanarachchi's Dordanda (Best Cover).

Brooding melancholy and fiery passions

By Alfreda de Silva

Jane Eyre by Britain's Shared Experience Theatre Company, from November 4 to November 6, at the Bishop's College Auditorium sponsored by The British Council, The Taj Samudra Hotel, Sirasa TV, MTV and Yes FM.

Britain's Shared Experience Theatre which gave us Mill on the Floss with such originality and panache in 1995 brought another tour de force- Jane Eyre to local theatre-goers. 

Not surprisingly, its adaptation and direction were by Polly Teale, the Company's Associate Artistic Director, who was co-director of the Mill on the Floss with Nancy Meckler.

Teale's excellent adaptation whittled down from Bronte's abundance of material had a number of memorable cameos. 

They took the audience down a street of the imagination on which it travelled through three hours of absorbing theatre. 

Pruned down to a rare economy of style in set, props, lighting, costumes and actors the play lost nothing of its brooding melancholy and fiery passions.

The stark sparse set, seen against a backdrop sky full of clouds was orphanage and Thornfield Hall and many other things, as time and place and the audiences' collective imagination moved from scene to uninterrupted flowing scene. 

A cast of eight players fitted easily into the roles of the required 20. The audience, caught up in its out-of-body travel, savoured each role as a shared experience between itself and the actors. 

The play remained faithful to the book, but the departure from old theatrical norms and conventions gave a full-blooded and highly original rhythm, texture and strength to the hitherto unexplored aspect of this piece of theatre. 

Teale's Jane Eyre was not merely a horror story but one with psychological undertones which she recognised and unveiled dramatically. 

Marvellously played by Penny Leyden, the plain and poor Jane Eyre in her grey dress, straight hair tightly drawn across her forehead had her flip-side in the uninhibited attractive, boisterous Bertha, Rochester's mad wife, who was brought to life in a kaleidoscope of ebullient cameos by Harriette Ashcroft. 

Throughout the play Bertha is Jane's alter ego, strongly contrasting with the puritanical prissiness of the latter's Victorian moral upbringing.

Jane's intensely passionate nature is locked away even as the raving Bertha is put away in an attic in Thornfield Hall. Jane is aware that Rochester is in love with her and she with him, but holds herself back for fear of some sort of divine re-tribution, if she lets her desires get the better of her. 

The part of Rochester was lived on stage, irrepressibly, unpredictably and passionately by Sean Murray. 

The marriage ceremony between Jane and Rochester is rudely and startlingly interrupted and stayed by Bertha's brother because, Bertha remains a living impediment to it. The clever utilization of players to fill several roles, gave some characters as many as four or five parts. 

Michael Matus, for instance, who played Brocklehurst, Lord Ingram and St. John Rivers, was also a most convincing and lovable dog. Jane Eyre is the personification of Bronte, who spent her obscure days in a remote Yorkshire village. In bringing her - plain insignificant and poor as she is - to a new life and love Bronte fulfils her secret dreams. 

This is especially so when Rochester, who has lost his sight returns to Thornfield Hall and is received with unabashed and unaccustomed abandon and warmth by Jane, led on by her alter ego. 

'I don't set out to be an artist'

By Nilika de Silva

Documentary film maker from Bombay, Anand Patwardhan, whose films were screened in memory of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, assassinated by the LTTE in July, says he senses a fear psychosis in Colombo which shows that obviously the dialogue is broken. 

Patwardhan who lives and breathes within a social context before he creates a documentary reflecting core issues pertinent to the common people, makes his films in the language people are speaking. " It can be Tamil, it can be Hindi, it can be Marathi, it is the language the people are comfortable in," he says.

The title of his docu-film, 'Father, Son and Holy War', gripped me as did the nonchalant way Patwardhan attributed wars in the last 5,000 years to patriarchal society.

"The film, is about masculinity, religion and communal violence, and the connection. And the fact that all the major religions of the world have come out of a patriarchal society. They have devalued the position of women. All the gods are male gods, except I mean there are female gods, but even those female gods serve the interests of male society. For instance, the female goddess is giving salt to the warrior to go and fight. I mean the goddess is being used by the male dominant society," says Patwardhan. 

Struggling to speak to the people about issues which touch them Patwardhan finds himself forced to co-exist with governments that wish to restrict his existence over the airwaves. "But it's still a democracy so they cannot prevent it beyond a point," Patwardhan says triumphantly. "They can prevent it being on television, prevent it being of use to the masses, but they can't prevent it being made!"

Making me secretly wonder whether I am living in paradise, Patwardhan says, "The private stations technically can screen these, but they also don't do it because they are scared of the government, and they are also scared of controversial subjects."

"Occasionally I have shown my films on TV because I have won a court case against the government."

It's that bad that you have to go to courts ? I ask incredulously. 

"No, it's that good, that you can win in court," he says. "If you have a democracy, then you can at least have the option of going to court."

And how did Patwardhan launch into the wonderful world of film making ? "By accident basically, I was doing social work, and my films are related to that, and I got into it as a means of talking about the issues that I was involved in," he explained.

Why has he opted for colour in most of his documentaries rather than Black and White ? Pat comes the answer, "I don't do artificial things to make it powerful. You know doing black and white when you can afford to use colour, it's like being artistic which I don't choose to be. If something is artistic because of subject matter it's different, but I don't set out to be an artist."

And his next venture ? "I am working on a film against nuclear weapons." Being on the brink of the new millennium does "not particularly" influence the new film because Patwardhan, like many of his brethren sprawled across Asia, feels that the millennium is just another day, "Only if you believe in Jesus Christ's calendar, then you think, 'does the millennium have meaning'? Otherwise it's like any other day." 

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