Lankan-born Hiran in the Broadway spotlight
The New York Times Arts Section on Friday published a review on the new Broadway play “Life of Pi”--about a 17-year-old youth floating in the high seas on a boat with a tiger on board. This was also the subject of a movie in 2012.
The lead role of Pi Patel is played by Hiran Abeysekera, a Sri Lankan-born, former Nalanda College student. Though he was involved in English drama at school, he cut his teeth in drama in Sinhala theatre under the wings of Somalatha Subasinghe, Kaushalya Fernando and Chandana Aluthge.
His big break came when he played the role of Equus, in Peter Shaffer’s complex, disturbing, psychological drama about a 17-year-old youth who blinded six horses.
The British Council then discovered him after his role in Romeo and Juliet and he was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he read for his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Acting.
In an interview with the Sunday Times Plus section, he said the Royal Academy was a “scary” place as one had three minutes to impress three of the greats in the acting field.
The New York Times drama critic’s verdict comes in the final two sentences of the review: “That roaring you will hear at the show’s end? It’s the sound of a standing ovation.”
It is playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, formerly the Plymouth Theatre, a Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan in New York City.
Hiran is an active member of the Lanka Children’s and Youth Theatre Foundation and seems to be going from strength to strength in his acting career-now in New York’s famed Broadway.