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 first instalment of the ‘Throwbacks to Theatre’ pictorial series, the Sunday Observer brings to sight, moments on stage from the spectacular production ‘Rag, The Musical’ by Jehan Aloysius. The photographs featured in this pictorial were kindly provided by Centre Stage Productions and are accredited to the talented photographer Shehal Joseph who must be applauded for his remarkable skill in ‘theatre photography’. An original English musical play, written, choreographed and directed by Aloysius, ‘Rag, The Musical’ must be noted for both its original music and music score. The photographs by Joseph are moments of the performance that went on the boards at the Lionel Wendt in November 2017.
The music was performed by Dr. Avanti Perera and the choral arrangements were by Deshan Cooray and Eshantha Peiris. This production was supported by numerous sponsors among whom the principal were Cargills Magic, The British Council, Knorr and Comfort World.
