Interview with Feroze Kamardeen on ‘English theater as a means of social change in Sri Lanka’

by Lakmini Cooray



Feroze Kamardeen




Feroze Kamardeen has long been in the theater circles of Sri Lanka. In the recent years, he has endeavored in writing and producing a variety of plays. Very many of them have been satiric plays. Speaking with Feroze helped me further understand the nature and role of English theater in Sri Lanka.

LC: What are your current productions and how do you feel it relates to Sri Lankan society?

FK: What we are doing at the moment, is Henrik Ibsen’s Enemy of the people. . . which I am involved in the strategic level; The play is directed by Chamat Arambewela who makes his directorial debut with StageLight&Magic inc. It’s a play that highlights flaws of a democracy, as it were. The question comes up in the play: the majority rules, but is the majority right? Because the majority is also comprised of individuals who look after their own interests.

LC: So the play deals with an ideological question then?

FK: That is right. We believe that the majority rules and the majority decision holds sway, but sometimes, the majority decision may not be in the best interests.

LC: So the whole ideal of democracy is questioned here. . . so its essentially pertinent to the world. . .

FK: That’s absolutely right. It is pertinent to the world but to Sri Lanka it is even more pertinent. If you take a look at how the country is going about trying to solve the ethnic problem, they seem to take the majority view, they will always take the majority’s side because they say the majority rules, but is that right?

We are also doing a repeat of the plays that we did earlier: they are “Thank you for Voting” which deals entirely with Sri Lankan politics.

LC: Could you give me a gist of what happens in this play?

FK: Thank you for voting for part one also pokes fun on the “Thank You for Smoking” thing*. The play basically follows the political career of a politician by the name of Chaminda Pusswedilla. We follow his political career from the time he is an MP to becoming a minster, the leader of the opposition. and finally, he becomes the president! The first play was very direct because he talks about all the things that our people hate about politics. he questions, why is it just about education etc. he almost over-identifies all the issues that haunt Sri Lankan politics.

(One thing that we managed to do very successfully, was to keep the play “anti-government”. What we felt was, that in addition to the ruling party not doing their job, that the opposition also had the responsibility to do their duty).

LC: The Noir Theater Festival last year, addressed so many issues that were pertinent to Sri Lankan society. . .

FK: In Noir, the “Other Side”, was pretty close to the issues at home. We portrayed this old couple in a war-torn country. It happens that the borders are redrawn right in the middle of their house.

LC: When you dramatized the plays, at least in the case of the Noir Theater Festival, what were the factors that were emphasized that you thought were likely to affect the audience even more?

FK: One of the things we wanted to portray in the “Other Side”, was the absurdity of the situation; people were redrawing borders, without thinking of the people who were actually affected by these borders. In this play, we tried to see to it that the audience understood the ridiculousness of the couple’s situation.

LC: From the many plays you have been a part of, which is the one you felt affected the audience the most, because of its message?

FK: “Widows” really struck a cord with the audience because it was really fresh in all of our minds; mothers had lost their sons, not knowing where their children were, it was all very fresh in our minds. In fact, several mothers who had lost their sons, were in the audience. One mother hadn’t seen the body of her son. She actually thanked us for doing the play. Also, I felt that “Thank you for Voting”, was particularly effective because the audience had an absolutely ball, while relating to the contents of the play.

LC: To go along with that, do you believe that ‘satire’ can influence social change?

FK: Let me put it this way: it is a sad thing to say, but one thing is that English theater is somewhat elitist.

Some of the plays that were done in Italy, for example, did have a far greater impact on the population. If you look at playwrights like Dario Fo, for instance, who used satire to point out flaws; His plays continue to have a far greater impact. English theater audiences in Sri Lanka are not going to really go start a revolution merely because of a play.

Most of the audience have read enough about the situation and have their own political views. What I am trying to say, is that the English theater audience, are not usually the kind of people who would take part in a picket because we would try to sort it out in a different way. If we inspire some conversation, a debate within the members of the audience, or even with each other, that is enough. Of course, there were plays like “Widows”, which did move the audience to tears.

In the case of English theater here, however, the audience is a bit different. I am only comparing ‘Theater for social change’ with plays like Dario Fo’s “Accidental Death of an Anarchist”**, which evoked a huge response from the Italian people.

LC: Do you think that there is a chance of that ever happening in Sri Lanka?

FK: Not within the English theater in Sri Lanka. It can happen within Sinhala theater. There have been plays that can evoke mass response but the English audience, is, how shall I put it, somewhat distant from the meaning of the play: they will analyze it, they will discuss the merits and the demerits of the performance etc. Therefore, English theater is not as much a court for action as mainstream theater is or can be.

LC: I spoke to a Sri Lankan English dramatist once a long time ago, who stated that any sort of change in Sri Lanka cannot be brought about by English theater because the English theater-going population in Sri Lanka is so small. This is certainly a valid argument. Do you have any plans of bridging this gap with “Stage light and Magic”, say staging performances out of Colombo or even staging performances in Sinhala etc.?

FK: To answer the latter part of your question, the play “Thank you for Voting”, used a fair amount of Sinhala in its dialogue. However, English is our most proficient language and we prefer it this way. Are we actually willing to do a full Sinhala play? I don’t think so because it is not our forte. Going outstation and overseas is difficult because of the time commitments everyone has. Also, most of our big shows are configured to fit the Lionel Wendt.

LC: That was my last question! Thanks a lot.



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* The movie 'Thank you for Smoking' is a satirical comedy from 2005 (based on a novel by Christopher Buckley) that portrays the marketing strategies of the tobacco industry.
** The stage-play ‘The Accidental Death of an Anarchist' is a satirical comedy from 1970 by Italian playwright Dario Fo, which addresses issues of police brutality and law enforcement bureaucracy. StageLightandMagic's 1999 production set the play in a contemporary Sri Lankan context.

About the author: Lakmini Cooray is an undergraduate in the United States, who is deeply interested in the works of Dario Fo and other playwrights who have been successful in questioning not only the issues relevant to a particular society, but also the very structure of that society. She is also a wannabe itinerant and is currently busy trying to be one in China.
Want to share your ideas about the current and potential role of Sinhala and English theater in Sri Lanka? Write to Lakmini at mlscooray@gmail.com.