Around the World with Royal College thespians
By Purnima Pilapitiya
Thushara Hettihamu has become an integral if not always recognisable face behind many a Royal College theatre production. Directing plays for his alma mater since 1999, “Hetti” as he is affectionately known, is gearing for a play of massive theatrical and geographical proportions with the Royal College production of Around the World in 80 Days.
Based on the Jules Verne novel, the story follows the rigid Phileas Fogg and his animated valet Passepartout as they attempt to circumnavigate the globe in less than three months. Whether it was a childhood favourite, drilled into you as a school text or caught your interest in the 2004 Jackie Chan blockbuster, Verne’s seminal novel based in 1872 Victorian England is a classic. Putting his adventurers in precarious escapades atop elephants, steamers and encounters with Red Indians, the novel is an insight into the English empire and the emergence of revolutionary inventions like the steam engine.
Getting the elephants, hot air balloons and other fantastic props on stage, not to mention cramming 80 days of adventure into less than two hours, hardly cracks Hetti’s infectious smile. Away from the stage since 2011 save for the annual Shakespeare Drama Competition, the need to reawaken the school’s drama community came from the Old Royalists’ Association of Dramatists (ORAD). The body behind previous school productions including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2006) and the last school production, Lord of the Flies (2011), ORAD has also put on performances of The Government Inspector (2007) and Othello (2010); courtesy of the old boys themselves.
“We found that the school was suffering from Shakespeartitis,” smiles Hetti. The president of ORAD, Hetti along with some of the old boys, also seasoned actors and directors started the school year with a resurrection of the school Inter House drama competition with the boys writing their own scripts as well. For Hetti, the inter house performances found him fresh raw talent to work with, with almost 70% of the cast being newcomers to theatre.
The cast of 12 to 20-year-olds never stops surprising him. When we catch Hetti and the troupe at practices, there’s an un-Victorian crooning of Jason Mraz echoing from the boys as they huddle up before starting the evening’s practice. While they refuse to dish out their ‘top secret’ plans for the elephant and other mammoth sized props and scenery, the boys’ energy and enthusiasm have been at the helm of pushing the play forward. Backed by Laura Eason’s hilarious script, Hetti has no hesitation with getting his young actors used to thick, exaggerated accents and vaudeville style acting which echo his more recent comedic adult productions - “Divorce Me Darling” (2016) and “Dracula” (2015). But “Around the World in 80 Days” is more than two hours of sightseeing and laughs. For Hetti-a lover of Jules Verne, this unusual choice “explores the new age of discovery. It’s about transformation.” The book has only very recently taken to the stage abroad, making its debut last year. The boys got to see the film versions only recently, allowing them to make their characters their own, “it helps them nuance it better.”
With less than two weeks for the curtains to go up, the young thespians are still prone to unexpected laughs at the now expected punch lines and show a spring in each movement, giving Hetti free rein to broaden their limits in physical theatre. Bringing to life a story that has never been staged in Sri Lanka before, the boys are proving that Verne was right when he said ‘Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.’
Royal College in association with the Old Royalists Association of Dramatists present Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne on August 12,13,14 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. The novel is adapted for the stage by Laura Eason by arrangement with Nick Hern Books.
Tickets are priced at Rs. 2000, 1,800, 1,500, 1000, 600 and are available at the Lionel Wendt and online at lionelwendt.org