It was an eye-opener, and an open invitation to other ethnics – indeed, the ethnic other – to similarly turn the lens of scrutiny upon themselves
English-Language Theatre (ELT) in Sri Lanka has great potential as a tool for civil society to engage critically with the political powers that be when our elected representatives get uppity or let us and themselves down.
It is a pity then that since 1994, when a humble arts editor (ahem) proposed a consortium of the creative and critical arms of the performing arts to this end, there have been few takers and even fewer serious contenders where ELT has dared to ‘speak truth to power’.
Many attempts were made – from politicised staging of Shakespeare and Orwell, through slapstick masquerading as satire, to original pieces in the shape and form of existential plays, stand-up comedy and (O, Dario Fo!) even musicals.
But most fell by the wayside because they sought more to please their primary stakeholders – cast and crew, families and friends (ELT is quite tight-knit) – rather than raise the volume of citizen protest theatrically speaking, and perhaps anticipate an Aragalaya.
Society suffers if and when ELT and its ‘management and staff’ (some amateur dramatic companies are like corporations) make a splash with amusements and entertainments, and (where feasible in these straitened times) make a handful of shekels – rather than make a change to the state of the nation (there is something rotten etc.).
Sinhala theatre, to its credit, is typically far more subversive and serious about their stagecraft – and some of its doyens have paid the price in blood, as well as illiquid box offices, because ‘Colombo’ doesn’t do or go for ‘serious drama’.
In a new year ahead, we hope for a sea-change into something rich and strange. A feeling-thinking society buffered by its artists’ fervour and fuelled by am-dram fire and brimstone.
Today, we close the chapter on the re-run of a play that went on the boards in November 2024 and saw Feroze Kamardeen (FK) reprise his eponymous role – he’s Nana in Grow Up Nana (GUN) – in early January. NOTE… the essay here is based on the original draft of a script – plays vary in their production ‘ad libitum’ (at the performer’s pleasure).
Smoking Gun – Part III
Nana essays a political gambit: “SLMs have a love-hate relationship with the UNP: there is no other way to describe it. It’s not like ALL Muslims vote UNP, OK? You get SLMs who vote SLFP; SLMs who vote Pohottuwa [SLPP]; SLMs – mostly in the East – who vote Muslim Congress; SLMs who are thinking of voting for Maalimaawa [JVP/NPP]? And the 70 percent who vote UNP or SaJaBey [SJB], and [the latter] will quickly come back to UNP!”
This is funny yet true… This year will be an acid test… And if there is a community that may help the GOP to resurrect, here it is.
“Talking of the UNP, all the ones who left and went to Sajabey – sin, no? I mean, for twenty years they were under Ranil wishing they were under Sajith. Now, they are under Sajith wishing they were under Ranil. Can’t catch a break, men; sin! Now, when they go back under Ranil, I hope they won’t start wishing they were under a Rajapaksa!” continues FK in jocular vein.
Easy money for a comedian; but the true commentator reveals where his or her real sympathy lies… satire must punch above its weight – standup does so below the line…
Nana surmises: “The Rajapaksa family have been both the most popular and most unpopular political family in the nation’s history. They have been at the very top and have been at the very bottom too, a little bit like Sri Lanka Cricket. And just like Sri Lanka Cricket, they are still participating – but I think they have better odds than our cricket team!”
TBH I’m still torn about making failed politicos sound funnier than they really were… that is asking a nation to forget – and forgive – their often heinous sins…
“Okay… granted, one person in the family is a great politician, whether that is a compliment or an insult, I will let you decide. That doesn’t make EVERYONE in the family a great politician. No! Even if you have a father, mother, and sister who are good politicians, that still doesn’t make you one, as Anura Bandaranaike found out – as Sajith and Namal are finding out on a daily basis. The golden rule: ‘Oba obagey piyaanan nowey’ (‘You are by no means your father’).”
Or so FK pokes the bear. Easy laughs; uneasy wriggling in the front row is all well and good… Theatre must hold up a mirror and help the audience to lower their masks.
Nana is on a roll: “But Sajith is very different to his father. President Premadasa had grand plans: Gam Udawa, the 200 Garment Factory Project; he was a man on a mission. Ranasinghe Premadasa may have had his faults and foibles but he knew what it was like to be poor. Sajith, on the other hand, knows a lot of English words! He can drive a bus, Sajith can sing well, he can play many musical instruments, Sajith can play cricket – pity he can’t play a decent opposition leader!”
Sorry to say that we throw the easy targets under the bus and miss the point about satire biting if it is to provoke a salutary reaction from the political black sheep being roasted in society’s interests. If it is dark horses you want to do, your ambition must be made of sterner stuff than wit and wisecracks.
Moral compass
“There was a time when quite a few SLMs in Colombo were actively pushing Maalimaawa as a choice. That’s how sad it is. That’s how bad our so-called main political parties are. Shame on you UNP, SLFP, Pohottuwa and Sajabey! You are so bad that Muslims – who are, if anything, the epitome of capitalism and open market; rich, Colombo Muslims – were willing to look at the socialists as a viable option! Turn up in their Mercs and Beemers and Armani belts and go, ‘sa-odaraya, api aawa.’ But that love affair is now over, thanks to Ranil Wickremesinghe.”
This ‘machine-gun spray’ of targeted bullets from FK brings home the bacon without making a pig’s breakfast of political critique.
Nana is unstoppable: “SLMs joined the Aragalaya with a lot of gusto. I am talking about the real, peaceful, citizens’ protest. That one time we all united as citizens, exercised our constitutional right to peaceful protest, THAT Aragalaya. And if anything, the peaceful Aragalaya taught a valuable lesson to all future governments of this nation. Anybody can protest against you: that’s fine. We are a democracy, or at least aspiring to be one: getting out on the streets, braving the sun and rain, carrying placards – that’s a sign of a healthy democracy. But if ever the middle-class Muslim women of Colombo are on the streets, call out the National Guard – that’s ‘DEFCON 5’ [the US state of alert or readiness level for ‘peacetime normal’] for you, that’s your ‘dead canary’!”
Although I suspect Nana meant ‘DEFCON 1’ – the highest level of readiness: for nuclear war!
Pain & poignancy
Funny as these issues are made out to be, there is real pain in this poignant one-man-show. As Nana has it: “But vote for them or not, we SLMs can never forget – and we pray that we get the strength to someday forgive – the ‘Pohottuwa’ for forcing cremations on the Muslim community. … Our funerals are regimented, specified, we have no option – because our faith gives us none. Please understand that burial is specified – there is NO OPTION of cremation for us. Pork is not an option for us, neither is cremation. I know ‘you guys’ (Nana means the ethnic ‘Other’) might find that hard to process or understand since it is a common practice – and that’s fine. But please understand that for Muslims it’s not ‘fine’ – it never was and never will be. And if you are looking for a monumental historical mistake that would be it.”
Takes courage to say that in public, so take a bow together with it Nana… I mean, FK.
Also, equally courageous, was this stand on divorce under Muslim law: “Another common misconception ‘you guys’ (code: the Other) have is around Islamic divorce. Some of you guys have been through divorce; it can get painful, draining. ‘Easy for the Muslims: talak, talak, talak, and done.’ Well, it’s not that simple. What you guys, and maybe more Muslims than we think, are unaware that there has to be an interval between those words. And the interval is specified: three menstrual cycles. A total of six menstrual cycles between first and last. And since the children are carrying the father’s name, yes, it is the father’s responsibility to provide for them. With divorce rates rising in my community, men who gladly use the ‘talaks’ completely forget the duties and responsibilities obligatory on them. I think it’s time that everyone stopped pussyfooting around this issue and made the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act [MMDA] not more favourable, but more equal, to our women. It’s time. And shame on all our so-called leaders, that I had to drag myself out of my self-imposed retirement to come here and say this, it shows that all of you have failed, you have failed your sisters, you have failed your daughters, you have failed.”
Hats – and gloves – off, Nana!
Mirror, mirror
Nana AKA FK amidst all this hilarious finger-pointing is able to turn the spotlight of scrutiny on self… “You have to understand something about us thespians. If you say, ‘You were good’, we hear ‘You were amazing, your performance was incredible!’
You were good, FK. Hear this: not amazing except the creativity and energy levels required to sustain two hours of rapid patter single-handedly. Not incredible; but that it has taken so long for an ‘ethnic’ – a person who is a member of an ethnic group – to present, parody and perhaps salvage the reputation of the same group by speaking truth to its power centres.
It was an eye-opener, and an open invitation to other ethnics – indeed, the ethnic other – to similarly turn the lens of scrutiny upon themselves. If we cannot laugh at ourselves, we will not be able to bring healing to our wounded society.
Now FFS, rather than retiring prematurely in a foreshadowing of that great equalizer – an SLM funeral – please milk more of our thrice-blessed and once-bountiful island home’s sacred cows… some of us have become a tad bit more uppity than is tolerable, and could do with a good takedown.