from Design & People

Home | Design & People

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

IN CONVERSATION WITH RAVINDRA RANASINHA — II

The decorated entrance of the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka praising the Sri Lankan Army in a nation-wide campaign initiated by the Sri Lankan Government to boost the morale of the army. (Photo: Sethu Das)

Sethu Das:
Most of your plays are either translations of classics or theatre adaptations — like 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'The Physicists', 'The Fragments' or 'The Trail' by Franz Kafka. How effective are these adaptations and influential are these among a people who live in a war-torn island?

Ravindra Ranasinha:
I must say that with our first attempt — 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', we showed that it is the system that makes people saunter, because of the totalitarian regime. In the play we showed that individuals cannot fight back, there has to be a collective effort. Individuals — like with the JVP or worker's struggle — tend to get isolated, with no unity among unions. We conveyed that individual struggles very often result in failures and end up causing more damage to society. The play 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' was a hit and made people think once again. We recieved many positive reviews and feedback regarding how a similar Marxist revolution should take place in Sri Lanka. People had given up on the idea of revolution. Our play provided just the right jolt to awaken people from their stupor. I must mention here that the situation in Sri Lanka is very different from Russia or India. We are primarily a Buddhist country and our backbones are being broken by the Buddhist concepts.

We would have loved this discussion and dialogue to continue. But unfortunately this play came out in 1987 and two years later Sri Lanka witnessed a youth insurrection. All over again. JVP came to power through an armed struggle. This was much more serious than the earlier one and this time the JVP struggle was directed against the Tamils or the LTTE. They said that India should not be allowed to become a regional power and Sri Lanka should not support the Tamil cause. Not only did JVP go against the innocent Tamil people, but also against the state machine, resulting in the killing of soldiers and cops. There was utter chaos in Sri Lanka. In fact people stopped going to work — it made more sense to just sit at home. Just a notification by the JVP would lead to a total curfew in the southern region of the country. The country very nearly came to a stand still.

The theatre we wanted to revive so desperately collapsed entirely. No young person could go out after 6 pm. I was at the university at that time and I remember hiding the university identity card inside a radio cassette when they raided my house during the riots. I was planning to dramatise "Lower Depths" by Maxim Gorki. It dealt with utter depression of the people, which I wanted to show on stage. The army raided my house and took my father away. They came with guns and were suspicious of all my activities. They feared that "Lower Depths" was sponsored by the Soviet Cultural Institute. Just being in possession of Lenin's picture created horror for the state machinery and they branded us all as Marxists. But somehow we managed to stage the play and it was a huge success. Once again our play became a talking point. We were pleasantly surprised as we never thought that Sri Lankan people would be able to appreciate such a play. It showed social and economic degradation and the collapse of relationships. We made people realise that they were living in a den where one person was ruling and exploiting them. They were mere soul-less creatures on the earth hoping for salvation. So this play once again touched a raw nerve among people a became a hit on the stage.

Unfortunately, the situation was worsening in Sri Lanka. The country was going down economically and conflict was escalating. JVP was crushed by President Ranasinghe Premadasa, and the theatre scene had to face immense difficulties. After Ranasinghe Premadasa, came Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the war continued. But this time we had a better understanding about what was happening to the lives of the Tamil people. This was one area our artists were unable to ponder on. We felt that the Tamil people were deprived of their soul. When I say soul, it means everything — their economical, social, political and educational life and their right to politics etc. We are all familiar with a similar holocaust in Germany where a particular section of people were made to feel guilty for something they had not done, and had to accept the charges leveled against him by the system or the state.

All the plays that came out after 'Lower Depths' discussed the totalitarian state machine and how it suppressed individuals and society; and how the collectiveness and the unity of the people had collapsed. Finally in 1997 I thought of bringing everything to a climax by doing 'The Trail' by Franz Kafka. This play was an adaption which discussed how an organised state machine could destroy the complete culture or the complete soul of a society be it the Tamil community, or the Sinhalese or the Tibetan community or Jews, or Palestinians. This play roused people into thinking in a different way — because people had to think for themselves. They had to delve deep and ask difficult questions of themselves. Were they their own persons? Were they being blackmailed by someone or 'handled' by someone else? In Sri Lanka we always saw that the 'other' was handling or intervening with our lives.

There was a gradual decline of theatre from the 1980s and a serious drop in attendance soon after. At one point of time I even thought of doing street theatre. Going to the people with just one drum; I actually did it and found it effective. But the problem in Sri Lanka is that we cannot sustain such type of theatre. After ten or fifteen performances, we had to disperse. But we made an attempt. We did a Chinese opera which discussed how the powerful people with money and political power utilise others as slaves; this applied to the rural areas as well. We visited those regions and were able to discuss these issues. But we had to stop because towards the end we did not even have the money to travel in a bus.

For sometime I did some theatrical work with the Tamil people. In 1998 I was invited by a Catholic Priest from the Centre for Performing Arts, Jaffna, to conduct theatre workshops. Not only did we conduct workshops, we were also given the opportunity to go and perform in villages. The story we chose was about the psychological impact on a mother when her son suffers in the war. This was to make the people understand that war never gives you anything positive, but only takes away from you whatever good you have. Our attempt was satisfactory, but did not serve much purpose. I feel that by this time in 1998, the society was so steeped in the concept of war. It had become a way of life. They either wanted to fight the LTTE or the Tamil cause. Our attempts did not bring much positive results.

I left Colombo for about two-three years as the situation was worsening and there was no activity whatsoever in theatre. I had a long standing desire to do some research work — not only on theatre, but on social conditions as well. I worked as a teacher in a rural area and witnessed the difficulties of the people. I realised the fact that other than economic issues, war was the only other issue that affected most ordinary lives. In December 2005, the Principal of Holy Family Convent in Kaluthara wanted to do a play called 'Mission Everlasting'. I accepted the offer of directing the play. This was one of my boldest productions. It generated a serious dialogue about Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. Only one performance took place and an extremist group sent a death threat to the Principal, to the Director and all those who were associated with staging the play. The threat came from a group attached to Jathika Hela Urumaya, which comprised of Buddhist monks propagating chauvinism in a very dangerous manner. This play with nearly 70 school children raised the question of the possibility of transforming the conflict situation. It put forth our belief that negotiation is the most important aspect in conflict transformation. The children were on stage enacting their own experiences, and similar experiences from around the world — like the Beslan incident where Chechen guerrillas blew up a Russian Girls School, Martin Luther King's experience, to Rachel Corrie's experience at the Gaza border. All these were put up on stage and discussed in great detail. Was it possible to negotiate and have a much broader understanding of the conflict? We believe that conflict is not just the result of what transpires between two parties, it happens due to many other aspects like social, ethnic, political or religious influences. Conflict is multifaceted.

Negotiation is something that is extremely important at this moment. Unless you listen to the grievances of the other party, you'll never be able to resolve an issue. We believe that we must have thousand and one lenses to look at these issues. That's why we took issues from Martin Luther King to Rachael Corris and even some local incidents that inspired us. We were just amateurs crying out for peace, and whatever we showed had already been documented. Even then the elder statesmen in Sri Lanka — especially the politicians and the intellectuals, were unable to safeguard our play, to turn it into a valuable asset to bring about a change in the political scenario of the country. More than a hundred thousand young lives could have been saved if this play was performed in front of the people, so they could understand and know the real situation. It had the potential to change the cultural situation too. But this experiment was not accepted by our society.

However, we were not disheartened. We went for a serious production with real video footages of the war and combined it with Anne Frank's experiences. It was a play that discussed — rather demanded freedom. Because life is a given and the rights of children must be safeguarded — these two basic things one should not have to fight for. I remember a statement from one of the reviews of Sandra Fernando where she said "Colombo, why were you not present when 'The Shadows' was preformed?" Another opportunity missed as only 70 people came to see the play. But journalists and artists from Jaffna came all the way to see the play and shared their experiences with us. This is the plight of theatre and other cultural activities in Sri Lanka.

So I must say that from the very beginning of my work (since 1987) up to now, almost 22 years, I have seen theatre play a role and be influenced by the political game on the ground. Everything was dependent on how the political machine functioned. Unfortunately our politicians do not want to listen as they are in politics only for their personal gain and power. Our interpretation of the current scenario is that there will soon come a time when there will be no arts, no journalists and no young blood left... only old men and women remaining in this land. That will be the truth for Sri Lanka. In the near future you will only count the number of aged people left without any support as the young are being killed continuously in war. The new generation of Sri Lanka is growing up with war in their blood.

Sethu Das:
Like the new generation Beslan children growing up with toy guns in their hands and revenge in their minds?

Ravindra Ranasinha:
Exactly. Who created this situation? We need a political figure, someone who understands the situation and has the potential to change it. But we see no sign of such a president or a prime minister coming forward to save the country.

Sethu Das:
You've been a critic of totalitarian state and fascism. You are also a victim of censorship and the rule of the state. How do you think the Sri Lankan government looks at the themes of your plays advocating people to give up discrimination against culture and language — because these are the two factors which led to the present conflict in the country?

Ravindra Ranasinha:
Here I must say that politicians were completely unaware of our activities. They were not so concerned. If they had really paid attention, they would have learnt something. I remember when 'The Shadows' was performed, a priest who was part of the audience stood up and said: "This play must be performed in front of the Sri Lankan Parliament"— because the parliamentarians should know the plight of the children in the country.

Our question is not whether the war has actually ended or not. This conflict emerged in the first place because one party was not ready to accept the identity of the other. We all get hurt if someone interferes with our identity; all of us have our own social, religious and educational backgrounds. We have our own ways of thinking, social interactions, and we would like to safeguard our identity just as we we would like to be humble and cooperative with others. But when one group is not humble enough to accept the identity of the other, conflict arises. This is what happened in Germany, in Chechnya and it is happening in India, in Tibet under Chinese occupation, and at the Gaza border. It is happening everywhere — all due to the inability of human kind to accept the identity of the other. I don't understand why one cannot understand the other. When we come to this world, we develop a kind of organised system around us where we are the sole people who should live, others should not be permitted. Hitler wanted to wipe out the Jews, someone in the Middle East is trying to wipe out someone else, America is trying to wipe out someone else. Someone is constantly trying to take control of the other. But why worry too much about this? One day there is bound to be retribution for such deeds...

We the Sinhalese people accelerated a war killing thousands of people on the other side. We may feel happy that we have won the war. But if we turn around and look at ourselves, we will the price we have paid for this victory. We will see how many Sinhalese people have lost their young children — those who joined the Sri Lankan forces. How many of our children have lost their parents, how many of our mothers have lost their sons and how many women have lost their husbands. This is the retribution we get. Nobody thinks about them. This is the plight of war. In Sri Lankan society, there will always be people who are lonely and physiologically broken as they have lost their loved ones. Who has caused this situation? Did they ask for this retribution? No! They were compelled to send their children to the war fields by the Sinhalese forces and the LTTE.

We know that the Tamil people are now caught in the crossfire and are in the middle of a war. They are left without shelter, water, food, clothes or any other facilities. Who is going to talk about this and help them out? Why have they been made victims of this situation?

There were many opportunities in the past to change the situation. Though it was a a disaster, during the Tsunami there was an opportunity for the government to come to a settlement with the LTTE. But unfortunately the extremist groups were against talks. They wanted to go for a war as they wanted blood. Even the LTTE has made political blunders. They were having secret dialogues with the Sinhalese politicians. If they were candid enough they would not have fallen into a dangerous situation. Their actions were disastrous. They took money even from Mahinda Rajpakses' Office. Even the Sinhalese side, in the past, could have settled this issue in an amicable manner. Now it is very clear that it is the chauvinism which gradually grew and led to the present situation.