As the global pandemic takes its toll on the vibrant theatre culture of Sri Lanka, with little opportunity at present to give the art of theatre life on stage, the Sunday Observer brings to its readers a series of weekly pictorials of past theatre productions which can be appreciated for their ‘Visual Splendour’. Thus it is hoped these pictorials will contribute at least in some small way to keep alive the thirst for theatre among our readers and drive the ‘spirit of support’ for theatre artistes to return once more to the stage and enliven the country’s cultural life.
In this second instalment of the ‘Throwbacks to Theatre’ pictorial series, the Sunday Observer brings to sight, moments on stage from the spectacular production “Ravana Seethabilashaya”, which was jointly written by erudite Sinhala academic Prof. J.B. Dissanayake and veteran theatre practitioner Dr. Namel Weeramuni. The production, directed by Weeramuni, had its debut at the Punchi Theatre in Borella in October 2018.
The photographs featured in this pictorial were provided by The Namel and Malini Punchi Theatre, and are accredited to Udeni Alwis who himself, it must be said, is a talented thespian and screen actor of great repute. The talents of Alwis as a photographer must be applauded for the remarkable skill in ‘theatre photography’ evinced by these photographs.
Maestros of music Jayantha Aravinda and Lionel Gunathileke were involved in composing the music for this production.