Jith is hoping that the play will remind Sri Lankans that we once lived in harmony, and perhaps also that Sri Lankan playwrights can write timeless pieces of work
Veteran director and producer Jith Pieris will bring back a perennial Lankan favourite when he stages “The Return of Ralahamy”, a play written by H.C.N. De Lanerolle, in July.
In the return of Ralahamy, politics take centre stage when Ralahamy returns to the fore alongside a few other familiar faces. This time an election is abound and a young left leaning hopeful plots a plan to ride on the back of his uncle’s popularity.
The Ralahamy plays were written by De Lanerolle over the late 1920s to 1957, the latter a time when a newly independent Sri Lanka was just finding its footing and a culture of politics that amused was already in the beginning stages. The playwright is one of Sri Lankan theatre’s finest products. Satirical plays such as Ralahamy Rides Again, The Return of Ralahamy and Fifty Fifty propelled him to fame alongside collaborations with other writers on plays such as “Well, Mudliyar”.
Jith is hoping that the play will remind Sri Lankans that we once lived in harmony, and perhaps also that Sri Lankan playwrights can write timeless pieces of work. The director has repetitively chosen scripts penned a fair few decades ago for his plays over the last three or four years; when asked why, he says that they are still rele- vant but moreover that there is a dearth of good scripts written by contemporary Lankan playwrights. “Those that do write their own scripts are often directors; they also have to sacrifice a lot of time and money to stage a play with it,” he says. “Theatre is not easy.”
Jith will preserve the play in its entirety, staging it in the same period and setting envisaged by the playwright. There is actually very little that will not strike true even among younger audiences, he says. “Once upon a time we had theatre that everyone loved and attended regularly,” he notes. “These days attendance is a lot more irregular but plays like this continue to draw in old audiences and a younger crowd too.”