Kelani Palama: 40 years on
‘Kelani Palama’ -- a play about the plight of poor keera kotu settlers who face the threat of floods -- still strikes a chord among today’s audiences as it did 40 years ago when it first hit the stage
When the curtains went up on October 25, 1978, to reveal darkness over a bridge with makeshift huts at the Lumbini Theatre, no one was to know that the premiere would herald a living legend -- a play that would hit audiences like teargas. It would run successfully for 40 years (as of today), and have more than 5,000 standing ovations.
No one, that is, other than playwright and Director R. R. Samarakoon, who with paternal fondness would have recognized his magnum opus as he watched from the wings his handpicked new cast create history.
For ‘Kelani Palama’ was born of torrential floods and pathos. In a 154 bus, R.R. was heading towards Kelaniya to visit his friend, the actor Ravindra Randeniya. The Kelani Bridge
would be sunk in gloom with lowering clouds, brimming with masses of people, huddled there with their belongings.
They were the settlers of keera
kotu, the cultivations of leafy greens thriving on the urban waste of Colombo. The Kelani River overflows and forces these people poised between water and metropolis on to the bridge, where they strive for some dignity and try to control naked children darting about.
The gentle thespian would have no respite till he confided on to paper the confused pangs of guilt and pity. His sensitive imagination would snake into the damp makeshift huts and weave the tragic story of the people of the Kelani Bridge.
Forty years have passed and many who were part of the original cast and crew are gone, including R.R.
Ramya Wanigasekera, R.R’s wife who has been playing the hobbling old mother, a central figure, has kept the classic going as Producer and Director, touching audiences time and again.
Here unravels the lives of the
louche Chutte, an aged slum daredevil not without charm and a colourful turn of phrase, old Matilda his wife, their son Saranapala who rebels against his father and dreams of a better world, their neighbour Rupawati who gets seduced by the ‘member’ come to help the destitute and a colourful cohort who fill the stage with their sharp ‘bon mots’ like so many fire crackers whizzing about.
The play’s biggest sympathizers oddly enough have been Colombo’s English-speaking middle and upper class who took to this poignant tale that aimed its cannon at the elite, its direct (though absent) target those in power and their minions.
It has to do with the deep unsettling experience they would undergo. Of course the ‘ tem
paradu’ wit of the slums delights, but the catharsis the audiences felt at the deep pathos of the poor is profound, rude and electrifying. The wider the social chasm between stage and audience, the more shocking the catharsis.
The first show launched a spate of new faces -- among them Ramya herself, also Neil Alles, Pathmini Diviturugama, Menike Attanayake and Geetha Kanthi Jayakody -- stars who would go on to forge glittering careers.
The 40th anniversary will be marked with a triad of events -seeing as 2019 also marks Ramya’s 45th year on stage -- and the late R.R’s 50th. Senior journalist Kuruwita Bandara will reflect on R.R’s career (he left a legacy of novels and a collection of poetry apart from his plays) while Saman Athaudahetti will wear his critic’s hat looking back on ‘Kelani Palama’.
A new book on Ramya and R.R’s odyssey on stage will be launched titled, ‘ SamarakoonRamya: 40 Wasaraka Ranga Prathiharya’. All artistes who were part of the four- decade journey will be felicitated.
The R.R. Samarakoon Foundation invites friends, fans and the public to the Panibharatha Auditorium at the University of the Visual and Performing Arts, on October 26 at 3.30 p.m.- to mark a milestone of modern Sri Lankan theatre.