Expatriates and the Sinhala Culture
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
Picture Credit: Google
During
Ranasingha Premadasa's Executive Presidency, the Sri Lankan expatriate
community in the UK had grown excessively due to an exodus of 'genuine' and
'economic' refugees followed by the devastating situations that existed during
1971, 1987 and 1989 with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurgency, along
with the Black July (Kaṟuppu Yúlai) against the anti-Tamil campaign in 1983.
The
Black July was the result of a deadly ambush on 23 July 1983 by the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killing 13 Army soldiers. Due to the psychosis
that prevailed in society following brutalities and unmerciful killings of
innocent civilians became a common occurrence, probably the local folks were
under the impression that 'unaffected expatriates in the UK' were having a rosy
life abroad; and they were not concerned about their 'cousins' back at home.
The late General
Sepala Attygalle, upon assuming duties as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner for
the UK, believed in such imaginary fabrications about the expatriate community
abroad were true, which he promptly conveyed to the President (when he President) was in London.
Consequently, the President indiscriminately increased the dual nationality fee
from Rs 5000 to Rs 100,000 overnight as a reprisal. Minister of Defence Lalith
Athulathmudali opined about the unwise decision as "killing the goose that
laid the golden eggs”.
Expatriate
communities
Contrary
to such mindsets, the Sri Lankan expatriate communities around the world (not
only in the UK) came to the rescue of their motherland in various forms and
strategies to counter the LTTE propaganda machine that was said to be highly
advanced and operative at the time. In this respect, the expatriates in London
noticeably outperformed the Sri Lankan High Commission staff, when the supreme
government office in London did not have the calibre of officials to face the
LTTE propagandists or the dynamic British journalists, face to face, on British
TV and radio, but the President of the Sinhala Association in London has gone
on record being always the spokesman to appear on TV panels on face to face
discussions to crush fabricated terrorist arguments against Sri Lanka. Such
achievements certainly helped to save the skin of the High Commission's
reputation and as well as the bad image painted by the terrorists about Sri
Lanka.
Cultural
vacuum
With
the increase of the Sri Lankan population in London, those who were accustomed
to aesthetic and culture based lifestyles at home began to feel a vacuum in
their new surroundings. This very feeling managed to mushroom various social
associations in London for the welfare of the expatriate community.
Namel
Weeramuni, a popular film director and dramatist, was working at the time in
London as a Solicitor. He was totally committed to aesthetic principles and
drama from the time he was an undergraduate at Peradeniya University along with
H.H. Bandara. Prof. Ediriweera Sarathchandra, a connoisseur of art and a senior
lecturer at Peradeniya University, mentored Namel and Bandara in their aesthetic
latent talents, which made Namel as a popular dramatist, scriptwriter, producer
as well as a stage actor. In London, Namel and Malini set up a theatrical group
called Namel and Malini Art Productions and started to produce numerous stage
dramas starting from Nattukkari (Dancer) Kattadiya, The Bear, Lame and the
Blind and Raththaran and Elova Gihin Melowa Ava (two of Sarathchandra’s plays), where the writer too was absorbed into dramatics as the beggar in Elova Gihin
Melowa Ava. Namel Weeramuni has gone on record as the first Sri Lankan to
produce a Sinhala stage drama in London (Nattukkari). The late H. H Bandara,
who directed music for the latter plays remodelled his creative talents and
intensified into stylized dramas.
Household
name
Ediriweera
Sarathchandra thrust responsibility on Bandara to compose music for his
(Sarathchandra's) play Sinhabahu in Sri Lanka. With the professor's experience
and young Bandara's originality in music, Sinhabahu became an exceedingly
popular play and remained so, as a household name, for over three decades.
G.D.L.
Perera was Edwin Hewakapuge's pupil in dramatics. He walked into fame in 1960
with his stage show Sama. Later he formed a cultural group with Walter
Wimalaratne and five other enthusiasts called Kala Pela and produced several
stage dramas.
Considering
their individual backgrounds, the trio suited as the perfect combination to
revive the cultural scene in London, and to quench the expatriates' thirst for
Sri Lankan theatre. As far back as 1976, Namel Weeramuni became the first ever
Sri Lankan to produce a stage play in London called Nattukkari, which has gone
down the annals of Sri Lankan expatriate cultural history.
Iconic
teledrama
Subsequently,
GDL decided to produce the first Sri Lankan iconic teledrama, Rata Giya Aththo
in London. He advertised in a London-based tabloid requesting
interested volunteer expats to participate in a gathering at Namel's London
flat. It was during this gathering, the writer was introduced to Namel and
Malini Weeramuni.
GDL
chose Namel for the main role as a diplomat working at the Sri Lankan High
Commission and his wife Geetha as the diplomat's wife in the teledrama. The
story revolved on this Sri Lankan family where the elder daughter worked as a
nurse in a hospital and got involved with a Tamil doctor, and the second
daughter got hooked on drugs. The teenage son played havoc by pretending to be
sharing a flat with a college buddy, but cohabited with a white girl.
The plot
took a different twist when the diplomat's sister (Malini Weeramuni) came to
London on holiday and became inquisitive about the elder daughter's love
affair; her covert intentions being to get her brother's daughter married to
her son. The entire stratagem was based on the complexity of life centred on a
family living in London portraying both dramatic and non-dramatic scenarios of
day- to-day life of an imaginary Sri Lankan family; the moral being, when
disciplined children at home are brought to alien environments how children get
spoiled.
Combined
effort
Whilst
engrossed in a busy lifestyle in London, and devoting time for Sinhala
dramatics simultaneously, Namel Weeramuni had a single pointed dream, to
establish a little theatre in Sri Lanka for the benefit of theatregoers, as
Lionel Wendt theatre was the only venue available at the time. It took him 47
years to fulfill this dream, needless to say, with the rock-solid support from
his wife Malini, an equally talented and popular actress fully committed to the
practice of theatrical art.
Malini
maintains that, "Money alone cannot buy happiness. It is through such
deeds of kindness that we can attain a high level of happiness. The pleasure
you get when you see the joy on these artists' faces is immeasurable”.
Malini
named the building as The Punchi Theatre. Today, the fully equipped and unique
Punchi Theatre, with a seating capacity of 230, stands out prominently from
other stereotype buildings in the heart of Borella, as the most popular venue
for book launches, seminars, and 'muhurats' and of course for stage drama.
Theatre
drama is mainly about meeting and creating a bond between the performer and the
audience through acting, directing and set-design in different depictions and
performances.
Sep 2017 - The Ceylon Today - Saturday Column