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ladymirthSo...I'm in a play. A professional one.
I realize it's odd that I've never talked about it after that first mention of it back in January, especially considering it's virtually takn over my life for the last couple of months. The more something stresses me out, the less I talk about it.
Here's what it's about, in a nutshell:
Here are a couple more articles, if you want pictures.
We had a preview performance yesterday for the university and school kids. Some of them didn't quite get it, but they weren't bored or anything, and most people were positive about it. Tonight is opening night. I don't suppose I'll be very nervous tonight, since I was only a little nervous last night and I think I got it out of my system. But the critics are coming today, so I hope I don't gum up just the same.
It's going to be very strange on Monday, when I won't have any rehearsals to go to. I'll have to get myself partially lobotomized to stop myself reciting random bits of dialogue at intervals for the rest of my life.
Wish me luck.
I realize it's odd that I've never talked about it after that first mention of it back in January, especially considering it's virtually takn over my life for the last couple of months. The more something stresses me out, the less I talk about it.
Here's what it's about, in a nutshell:
The Outcry – Tennessee Williams’ Swan Song Brought to Colombo’s Little Theater
Madness. Fear. Entrapment. Incest. Tragedy. All the trademark themes of Tennessee Williams works, wrapped up in a surrealist, abstract style of story-telling, comes to life this weekend at the Borella Punchi Theater.
The play centers around two characters, one of whom is Felice, an actor and playwright, and his actress sister Clare. They are both part of an acting troupe that travels all over the country. Both brother and sister are still emotionally stunted and traumatized by a horrible tragedy they witnessed in their childhood. They try to find catharsis through a play called The Outcry that Felice has written, portraying the traumatic event of their childhood to the masses – only, neither of them are brave enough to re-enact it. While they struggle futilely against the fetters of their own nightmares, they are abandoned by both audience and crew, to be eventually left in complete isolation. And it is discovered, to a fate worse than death…
Tennesse Williams was considered one of the brightest stars in the constellation of American playwrights in the middle of the last century. He gained success after success with plays like A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and a Streetcar Named Desire but the play he considered his best was The Two-Character Play; or The Outcry, into which he poured his very soul for an entire decade. He meant this play to be semi-autobiographical in nature; the two siblings in the play representing himself and his beloved sister Rose, who was schizophrenic for most of her life. On presentation however, the audiences of that time seemed not to share his passion for it – the play’s tragic themes made it unpopular with an escapism-loving public. Williams, as he had prophesied in The Outcry, never wrote another play. Years after his death, the play was attempted by a handful of directors, but its experimental nature and complexity had defeated them each time.
Enter Namel Weeramuni, veteran Sri Lankan director and playwright. Carrying a string of local and international successes under his belt, Mr. Weeramuni now set his sights on producing The Outcry, a task which he acknowledges is one of the toughest projects of his career. One of his reasons for choosing this particular play from among all Williams’ repertoire of plays is admittedly the ambition of the over-achieving thespian wishing to succeed where so many others have failed. The other is that the message of the play is so resonant with him. “I believe The Outcry is about how dramatists become trapped in their love for the theater,” he says. “It is truly an addiction one must indulge at all expense. I myself came back to Sri Lanka after so many years of living in London just to immerse myself in my passion for drama and make my home in a theater.”
The team he has assembled to assist him in this task is a compact and tightly-knit group. Mark Hager is an American lawyer who migrated to Sri Lanka after his marriage. His boundless energy and thirst for new experiences and his life-long desire to act in a professional theater, combined with his extensive literary knowledge made him an ideal candidate to play Felice. His wife Upeksha is the official set designer for the production. Hasini Somawardhana is a former student of Musaeus College and has pursued higher studies at American National College. At 22, she is at first glance a very young and unlikely choice for the role of Clare. Namel Weeramuni disagrees, “She is very intelligent and dedicated,” he said, “I was very pleased with her interpretation of Clare at her audition, and in the months she has trained with me she has improved a lot.” It is the debut performance for both leads, who have not performed on stage since their school days. It is between the four of them that Williams’ story has been analyzed, edited, re-edited and reimagined, until the true essence of the script has emerged to the forefront.
The effectiveness of nearly the entire play depends solely on the two leads, which are themselves quite complicated. “The most prominent characteristic of both characters is madness,” says Hasini, “Clare, for instance, is a schizophrenic and a manic-depressive. She has so many fears and hallucinations that half the time she has no idea what is real and what is just in her head. She deals with her utter lack of control over her life through substance abuse and acting like an overbearing diva. Inside though, she’s still just a frightened little girl who can’t understand why her parents had to go away and leave her alone. That is the sort of character she’s supposed to act out in the play within the play, but it’s actually her true self. It’s an very difficult character to play”. Mark describes his character as ‘a goofball’. “He runs from the reality he cannot accept by hiding in the characters he plays and invents. He has so many different characters running through his head at any given time, that he gets lost in pieces of all of them to the extent that he has lost a large part of his self-identity.” The lurking element of incest is also subtlely threaded through the narrative. “Williams was fixated on his sister,” says Mark, “In the play he explores the concept of co-dependency; how being so confined can bring out incestuous desires.”
Re-imaging a script steeped in abstract dialogue and a strong flavour of turn-of-the-century Southern U.S into a production palatable for modern-day Sri Lankan audiences has proven an uphill battle – the crew have been at it since January. “We basically put the script on the chopping block,” laughs Hasini, “There were so many repetitions of the same themes, and the language was so experimental – we had to cut a whole lot of that out, and re-arrange it while remaining true to Williams’ vision.” Namel Weeramuni’s direction has also bought something unique to the table. His style of directing creates a cross-pollination between the English and Sinhala schools of acting, in this case juxtaposing highly stylized and advanced choreography with the dramatic dialogue, which sets off Williams’ own non-linear, image-heavy style of story-telling beautifully. Combined with Upeksha Hager’s sparse yet heavily-ambient set design, there emerges a production that has truly not been conceived of before.
So how have the months of grueling rehearsals, careful editing and extensive re-imagining been able to contend with the inherent difficulty of the script? “So far, we have had a few objective viewers,” says Mr. Weeramuni, “And their reaction has been quite positive. They found it fascinating.” Be warned though, this is not a play where you can leave your brain at home. “This is a play for serious theater goers,” says Namel Weeramuni, “There is a sad lack of serious theater in Sri Lanka in recent years. My objective, as always, has been to fill that void and give audiences something to think about.”
The Outcry will be performed on the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th of May, 7pm to 9pm at Punchi Theater, Borella.
- from The Colombo Spirit
Madness. Fear. Entrapment. Incest. Tragedy. All the trademark themes of Tennessee Williams works, wrapped up in a surrealist, abstract style of story-telling, comes to life this weekend at the Borella Punchi Theater.
The play centers around two characters, one of whom is Felice, an actor and playwright, and his actress sister Clare. They are both part of an acting troupe that travels all over the country. Both brother and sister are still emotionally stunted and traumatized by a horrible tragedy they witnessed in their childhood. They try to find catharsis through a play called The Outcry that Felice has written, portraying the traumatic event of their childhood to the masses – only, neither of them are brave enough to re-enact it. While they struggle futilely against the fetters of their own nightmares, they are abandoned by both audience and crew, to be eventually left in complete isolation. And it is discovered, to a fate worse than death…
Tennesse Williams was considered one of the brightest stars in the constellation of American playwrights in the middle of the last century. He gained success after success with plays like A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and a Streetcar Named Desire but the play he considered his best was The Two-Character Play; or The Outcry, into which he poured his very soul for an entire decade. He meant this play to be semi-autobiographical in nature; the two siblings in the play representing himself and his beloved sister Rose, who was schizophrenic for most of her life. On presentation however, the audiences of that time seemed not to share his passion for it – the play’s tragic themes made it unpopular with an escapism-loving public. Williams, as he had prophesied in The Outcry, never wrote another play. Years after his death, the play was attempted by a handful of directors, but its experimental nature and complexity had defeated them each time.
Enter Namel Weeramuni, veteran Sri Lankan director and playwright. Carrying a string of local and international successes under his belt, Mr. Weeramuni now set his sights on producing The Outcry, a task which he acknowledges is one of the toughest projects of his career. One of his reasons for choosing this particular play from among all Williams’ repertoire of plays is admittedly the ambition of the over-achieving thespian wishing to succeed where so many others have failed. The other is that the message of the play is so resonant with him. “I believe The Outcry is about how dramatists become trapped in their love for the theater,” he says. “It is truly an addiction one must indulge at all expense. I myself came back to Sri Lanka after so many years of living in London just to immerse myself in my passion for drama and make my home in a theater.”
The team he has assembled to assist him in this task is a compact and tightly-knit group. Mark Hager is an American lawyer who migrated to Sri Lanka after his marriage. His boundless energy and thirst for new experiences and his life-long desire to act in a professional theater, combined with his extensive literary knowledge made him an ideal candidate to play Felice. His wife Upeksha is the official set designer for the production. Hasini Somawardhana is a former student of Musaeus College and has pursued higher studies at American National College. At 22, she is at first glance a very young and unlikely choice for the role of Clare. Namel Weeramuni disagrees, “She is very intelligent and dedicated,” he said, “I was very pleased with her interpretation of Clare at her audition, and in the months she has trained with me she has improved a lot.” It is the debut performance for both leads, who have not performed on stage since their school days. It is between the four of them that Williams’ story has been analyzed, edited, re-edited and reimagined, until the true essence of the script has emerged to the forefront.
The effectiveness of nearly the entire play depends solely on the two leads, which are themselves quite complicated. “The most prominent characteristic of both characters is madness,” says Hasini, “Clare, for instance, is a schizophrenic and a manic-depressive. She has so many fears and hallucinations that half the time she has no idea what is real and what is just in her head. She deals with her utter lack of control over her life through substance abuse and acting like an overbearing diva. Inside though, she’s still just a frightened little girl who can’t understand why her parents had to go away and leave her alone. That is the sort of character she’s supposed to act out in the play within the play, but it’s actually her true self. It’s an very difficult character to play”. Mark describes his character as ‘a goofball’. “He runs from the reality he cannot accept by hiding in the characters he plays and invents. He has so many different characters running through his head at any given time, that he gets lost in pieces of all of them to the extent that he has lost a large part of his self-identity.” The lurking element of incest is also subtlely threaded through the narrative. “Williams was fixated on his sister,” says Mark, “In the play he explores the concept of co-dependency; how being so confined can bring out incestuous desires.”
Re-imaging a script steeped in abstract dialogue and a strong flavour of turn-of-the-century Southern U.S into a production palatable for modern-day Sri Lankan audiences has proven an uphill battle – the crew have been at it since January. “We basically put the script on the chopping block,” laughs Hasini, “There were so many repetitions of the same themes, and the language was so experimental – we had to cut a whole lot of that out, and re-arrange it while remaining true to Williams’ vision.” Namel Weeramuni’s direction has also bought something unique to the table. His style of directing creates a cross-pollination between the English and Sinhala schools of acting, in this case juxtaposing highly stylized and advanced choreography with the dramatic dialogue, which sets off Williams’ own non-linear, image-heavy style of story-telling beautifully. Combined with Upeksha Hager’s sparse yet heavily-ambient set design, there emerges a production that has truly not been conceived of before.
So how have the months of grueling rehearsals, careful editing and extensive re-imagining been able to contend with the inherent difficulty of the script? “So far, we have had a few objective viewers,” says Mr. Weeramuni, “And their reaction has been quite positive. They found it fascinating.” Be warned though, this is not a play where you can leave your brain at home. “This is a play for serious theater goers,” says Namel Weeramuni, “There is a sad lack of serious theater in Sri Lanka in recent years. My objective, as always, has been to fill that void and give audiences something to think about.”
The Outcry will be performed on the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th of May, 7pm to 9pm at Punchi Theater, Borella.
- from The Colombo Spirit
Here are a couple more articles, if you want pictures.
We had a preview performance yesterday for the university and school kids. Some of them didn't quite get it, but they weren't bored or anything, and most people were positive about it. Tonight is opening night. I don't suppose I'll be very nervous tonight, since I was only a little nervous last night and I think I got it out of my system. But the critics are coming today, so I hope I don't gum up just the same.
It's going to be very strange on Monday, when I won't have any rehearsals to go to. I'll have to get myself partially lobotomized to stop myself reciting random bits of dialogue at intervals for the rest of my life.
Wish me luck.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-24 02:42 am (UTC)I wrote it under a pseudonym. XDTh opening night got cancelled at the last minute on Friday, because of the end-of--war victory parade and the ensuing traffic gridlock, but we performed yesterday and people seemed to really like it!