‘Madai Tommiya Shooting Giya’ the newest addition to Indu Dharmasena’s Tommiya series will be staged this weekend at the Wendt. A man who always gets in to trouble is once again making chaos on the sets of Zara Shan’s film ‘Sus sus gala ei’. While Tommiya tries hard to get involved in the film, a series of events turn up as the cast finds accommodation at Kapila’s ‘Sihinaya’ guest house. 

The cast comprise of Indu Dharmasena as Tommy, Sanwada Dharmasena as Suranie, Sashini Wakwella as Zara Shan, Ruwendi Wakwella as Manushika, George Cooke as Kishan, Yasal Ruhunage as Kapila Kotagaha, Anushan Selvarajah as Andana Silva, Sulochana Perera as Nimalka Udawattegedara, Sharini Mendis as Melody and Jaliya Wijewardene as Mohan. 

Following are an insight to the roles that they play: 

Suranie played by Sanwada Dharmasena 

A notorious character on screen. If she gets troubled for the slightest thing she fusses a lot about it. If she can get advantage out of something, she will definitely go for it. Suranie has a small ‘thing’ going on with every leading man that acts in her plays although she has a permanent fiancé. 

Zara Shan played by Sashini Wakwella 

She is a not-so-successful director who gets her cast to stay in a low budget guest house. She is a director who doesn’t take much authority but pushes all the work on Melody. She also use the same cast in all her films even though they are drama queens. 

Manushika played by Ruwendi Wakwella 

She is a famous actor but stays low-key. She doesn’t create havoc like Suranie but helps others who require her help and is nice to everyone. 

Kishan played by George Cooke 

The male version of Suranie and is a boy who wants the best of everything. He wants quality productions and wants to look good in front of everyone. He also gets involved with the co-star behind the scenes. 

Kapila Kotagaha played by Yasal Ruhunage 

The owner of ‘Sihinaya’ Guest house which was his former ancestral house. He rents it out for the cast of an upcoming film. My neighbor Nimalka Udawattegedara is against the setting up of this guest house. So she gathers all the neighbors and protest in front of the guest house. So as a result he cannot get any business. In the mean time he also helps out Tommiya in his acting because his forte is acting and he is teaching Tommy to act like a minister. 

Andana Silva played by Anushan Selvarajah 

Tommy’s mentor and a permanent fixture in this play. He works as the hairdresser and Tommy is brought in as the assistant. 

Nimalka Udawattagedara played by Sulochana Perera 

Kapila’s neighbor who is against the idea of him setting up the guest house. She gathers the rest of the neighbors to protest in front of the guest house. However she gets confused with another member in the cast and believes that he is that character in real life. It is from here that she starts to get cool. 

Melody played by Sharini Mendis 

She is a production manager in this setting and working closely with Zara Shan. I make sure everything happens on time. But then she witnesses every other thing that happens behind the scenes and tries to settle things then and there. 

Mohan played by Jaliya Wijewardene 

Suranie’s fiancé who is very possessive and jealous. Suranie keeps telling about Tommy who is doing funny things on the sets and then Mohan plans to visit the location. 

The play will be staged on October 21, 22 and 23 at the Lionel Wendt from 7:30PM onwards. The proceeds from this play will be in aid of establishing the Operation Theatre Complex at the Homagama Base Hospital. As such the show on October 21 will be presented by the Bamunuarachchi foundation which is a private charity focused on the development and modernization of the Homagama Base Hospital. 

Photographs by Damith Wickramasinghe