Kalumaali - A fairytale for adults
One of the emerging truisms of modern parenting is that to be successful in life one must choose ones parents carefully. Gershwin’s classic line “Your papa’s rich and your mama’s good looking” has evolved in these postmodern times - to be successful today your mama needs to be educated - if she reads a lot that’s a definite bonus.
Artists have been inspired by the theme of motherhood with its overtones of perfect love, redemptive innocence and the immanent celebration of the glory of creation. But what do modern young mothers from Colombo’s middle class suburbs think of their roles. If Kalumaali - the latest venture of the Stages Theatre led by Ruwanthie Chickera is anything to go by – abysmally little.
Kalumaali is a series of short dramatized fairy tales told to protagonist Dil’s daughter Saki. The tales are juxtaposed between everyday scenes from Dil ( Lakmini Seneviratne) and her husband Kalana’s ( Peter D’Almeida) unraveling marriage. Kalumaali changes depending on the narrator. In Dil’s version Kalumaali keeps putting off her travels to the beautiful purple mountain to look after a baby bird. In the husband Kalana’s version Kalumaali becomes Bob Marley who sings ‘Everything is gonna be allright’. Gedara Achchi’s Kalumaali is a tiny ant labouring away in the background who saves the family from disaster. The Kalumaali story becomes a vehicle for each character’s expression of their self-concept.
Kalumaali is a cooperative effort by a group of recent mothers about their experience. The crisis for Dil is her lack of access to the world, her former career as a journalist, her lack of time for herself and the subsuming of her individual identity as she is overwhelmed by the burgeoning role of motherhood. In the background is a laid back husband and his obsolescent mother Gedara Achchi played with fine sensitivity by Kaushalya Fernando.
Motherhood is an isolating, arduous and transformative experience, but so is adolescence
Kalumaali is a cooperative effort by a group of recent mothers about their experience. It runs in a series of short dramatized fairy tales told to the protagonist’s daughter But, like the curate’s egg, Kalumaali too was good in parts - the highpoint of which must surely be the wickedly, hysterically funny cameo performance by Shenali Rajkumar, of a pregnant mother carrying her folding tent in order to change into her saree - a superb showingup of the sanctimonious trishaw-morality of schools like Royal College that require mothers to dress in saree when coming to school There were the typical gems - the punch line of the evening was Gedara Achchi’s flawless reasoning
and decrepitude.We are all circumscribed by circumstance throughout our lives from the ‘morning faced schoolboy’ to the middle aged corporate sarariman. Focusing on one particular and transitory phase of what is essentially a life work of motherhood was perhaps reductive. In that sense the existential dilemma presented by Kalumaali is thin at best; at worst it is self-indulgent; a public attempt at self-validation. The theatrical equivalent of a Facebook update.Perhaps, in its all too serious pursuit of capturing the immediacy of the experience,Kalumaali has sacrificed a sense of proportion and the self-deprecating laughter brought about by a dispassionate distancing of
oneself from the experience.
On the other hand, one of the finer ironies of Dil’s abandonment of her family is its parallel with the Siddhartha Gautama story…..and the sad inevitable and galling conclusion that leaving family obligations to pursue one’s destiny is another men’s only club….being said it is important to differentiate the scope of their respective endeavours.
But, like the curate’s egg, Kalumaali too was good in parts - the highpoint of which must surely be the wickedly, hysterically funny cameo performance by Shenali Rajkumar, of a pregnant mother carrying her folding tent in order to change into her saree - a superb showingup of the sanctimonious trishaw-morality of schools like Royal College that require mothers to dress in saree when coming to school.
There were the typical gems - the punch line of the evening was Gedara Achchi’s flawless reasoning that an increase in the number of robberies ‘means there are more robbers’. Despite the endearing panlike charm of Peter D’Almeida and the enchanting resonance of Kaushalaya Fernando’s voice, pleasing optics and a well oiled back- stage crew, the production was heavy handed and laden with a ponderous self-significance. The lighting though technically flawless was heavily atmospheric and the music was determinedly poignant.
Ruwanthie de Chickera is an exceptional dramatist and her evolution bears note. Her early (and better) work drew acute and psychological portraits of aching sensitivity. The hugely under-rated Jonie and Uravashi Show created – at least in this writer’s eyes - truly mythic fictional characters.
With The Mirror Making Factory came a slightly bitter didactism that has since hovered in the wings of her productions.The Forum Theatre interlude straddled the inevitable if commendable dabble with cinema. All along there were the oddly brilliant Shakespeare Competition pieces – as if the bard best brought out the muscular fecundity of her imagination and intellectual flair.
There have been powerful political pieces albeit in private and then came the big M. Motherhood. But all the while she has studiously avoided great works of the English theatre,choosing instead to experiment ceaselessly within the minimalist contours of Brechtian production values.As de Chickera has drifted away from writing into open ended workshop style collaborative outcomes she has at some point, one feels, sacrificed the economy and sanctity of words.
Words are precious to a playwright and a director and actor, they are the lamps that light the dark dank backstairs of motive and desire of the human mind, to be used sparingly. She must claim re-claim them
The Sinhala theatrical performance of ‘Kalumaali’ will be staged at the Lionel Wendt Theatre on Friday (December 7) at 3.30 and 6.45 pm as part of the Colombo Theatre Festival for Young Audiences. Tickets are available at the venue.