Monday 28 January 2013
Rev.Galkande Dhammananda and Athulasiri Kumara
Samarakoon
“The
art of this epoch will be entirely under the
influence of revolution. This
art needs a new
self-consciousness”. – Leon Trotsky in Literature
and
Revolution Dhawala Bheeshana is back on
stage; and so does a renewed phase of
another
bheeshanaya (organized torture and violence)
in Sri Lanka. A timely
re-production of a play,
which first saw its dramatic advent in the
late
1980s and throughout history. Torture and
violence have become generalized
norms, and
there is no theatrical personality, in our era,
other than
Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, whose
entire theatrical enterprise has been
dedicated
to deeply excavating and enlightening our
spectator on this theme,
politically and
philosophically. His plays, Eka Adhipathi
(The Dictator),
Makarakshaya (The Dragon), Dhawala Beeshana (Men without Shadows), Yakshawagamanaya
(Arrival of the Devil) and Trojan Kanthavo (Trojan Women) have dealt, inter alia, exclusively, on the theme of political violence.
The
script of Dhawala Beeshana is translated by Cyril C. Perera from the play,
'Men without Shadows,' by
foremost French Marxist and existentialist
philosopher of the last century, Jean-Paul Sartre, whose philosophy
has
inspired generations of young revolutionaries and activists. Dharmasiri first
staged this play at a time
when the state sponsored counter terrorism had
been unleashed on two violent, anti-government youth
movements in the South
and the North of Sri Lanka. The entire public of this country were
experiencing the
fear of death and torture, and their lives were engulfed
with the uncertainty of seeing the next day’s light.
Therefore, the
frightening political context in which the play originated suited its theme;
death and life as
conditioned by political violence. Similarly, Satre’s
original play was inspired by Vichy Regime’s, headed by
Marshall Philippe
Pétain, merciless suppression of young revolutionaries in France.
The
entire performance of the play is set inside a torture camp of French
military and the spectator is
confronted by five revolutionaries being
tortured and inquired about the whereabouts of their leader.
The play’s
action entirely depends upon the discussion among the six revolutionaries and
the torturing acts
by the military. The play is a depiction of the
traumatized psychology of torturers and the tortured, their
self-reflection
on being victimized to a condition which they themselves have contributed to
create. The
performance of the play deconstructs the entire gamut of violent
politics and they psyche of the victims and
perpetrators of violence that it
makes no room for justifying the means of violence, despite the significance
of the goal to be achieved by means of it.
Consumerist spectator
Further,
the dramaturgy of the spectator, which the dramatist
and the performers
create is worth a bit of investigation here,
since it warrants us to reflect
on today’s spectator whose
choice of art consumption could be different from
the
previous generations. Since Dhawala Beeshana weaves a
philosophical text
of realist political behaviour by power holders
and those who challenge the
repressive power formations,
the spectator cannot just occupy its seat in the
theatre
and expect mere entertainment out of the torturing acts.
The
performers and the director do not provide a subjective
account of the traumatic
incidence, but throws up a new
window open to intellectual inroads in to the
play. To simplify
this idea; there is no single truth about politics and
one
dimensional characterization in this play; all characters
are made of flesh
and blood, emotions and desire for life.
Let’s take for example, the
character of Landrieu, military
Commander, played with less effort, but deep
indulgence
by veteren W.Jayasiri. Landrieu is the Commander of this
torture
camp, but he cannot stand seeing blood and torture;
so he always comes to his
real conscience that he is enslaved
by a regime of a dictator to torture
people. He is neither happy nor brave, fear of death and torture have totally
overcome him even though people are tortured under his command. The self-reflectivity of his own action makes him hate the dictator and instantly
he may fear that he will be tipped to be a
betrayer. Other characters; Lucie,
Jean, Henry, Sorbier, and Canoris, they all fight their own conscience to
live their lives and escape death. When the prisoners are offered that they
will be released on revelation of truth, they again begin to battle with
their real desires.
The play never hints that violence can be justified, but
it lives on the discourse of violence, both structural
and manifest in our
own society.
The
play tests the spectator’s viewpoints, they may come to view the play from
their point of views,
but instantly they are shown that torture on human body
does not know revolutionary aims, or
fascist power of the dictators, but only
the acute pain and suffering. This is why the torturers are trying
their best
to make the prisoners scream by increasing the intensity of torture.
Philosophy of the play
There
is something universal about human suffering and their existence. Every human
being’s existence
is bounded by desire for life and fear for death. You
cannot be victorious or save humanity from exploitation
or injustice by
bringing death on a section of people. But, if we can offer every human being
the guarantee of
its life, free of torture and exploitation, only then that
dictators in us can be defeated; has anyone of us been
unhappy when torture
was on the other?; we have feared that torture will come to us only, and not
that it will
give the same fear and pain to others as well.
Dharmasiri
has mostly trusted on young talent in his reproduction, only exception is
veteran W.Jayasiri as
Landriue in whom we see a human being in military
attire, with full of passion and resistance subdued by
professional
obligation to kill. Among the other cast, Oshadee Gunasekara shows every sign
of getting into
big roles made of flesh and blood. Jehan Srikantha (Henry),
Ishara Pramuditha (Francois), Nigel Raymond
(Jean), Jagath Chandralal
(Canoris) and Warnathunag Senanayaka (Clochet) have justified why they
are in
a play by Dharmasiri. All in all, casting is carefully done and other
artistic and technical aspects
have been rightly observed by the director.
Kemadasa’s music so deeply converses with the theme of the play.
Music has
vividly assisted the director to bring out the soulless lives of these men.
Dhawala
Beeshana achieves its success of performance with coherent understanding of
the philosophy of the
play; that is to say that, deeply driven great humanism
has no alternative in politics, relations of asymmetrical
power. The entire
crew of the play seems to have grasped this message, and they have
successfully challenged
and tested an audience of current day consumer
society. The biggest success of the dramaturgy of this play is
to make the spectators to bring out their own ideas of the play; or give them space to reflect on the corollary of
the politics, implicit or explicit endorsement of
violence, which authorizes dictators, directly and indirectly.
In
today’s measurements of the greatness of art, a true artiste could be one who
succeeds that
his work
of art, while opposing every aspect
of violence permeated through the
language of
politics or aesthetics. Dharmasiri has succeeded
in that endeavour
and he has passed that message
to a new generation. We wish that Dhawala
Beeshana will become the trigger for initiating
that bloodless revolution of
ending beeshana in our
society. And as Trotsky has said, the art of our epoch
influenced by revolution needs a new
self-consciousness; and both the
performers and
spectators need to cultivate that self-consciousness
in them
if we are to aspire for a real
transformation of exploitative and violent
social system.
(The writers are two PhD students at JNU – New Delhi. They watched the play in Abhimanch Theatre at National School of Drama when it was staged for Bharat Ranga Mahotsav on 11th January 2013). | ||
Friday, February 1, 2013
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