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He Comes From Jaffna

Jul 08 2013.

The 2013 re-production of Professor E.F.C. Ludowyke’s timeless classic, ‘He Comes From Jaffna’ took to the boards this past weekend, from 5th to 7th July at the Lionel Wendt. Directed by veteran local thespian, Jith Peiris the play is a popular colonial masterwork, and a prototypical toil of the Ceylonese theatre.

E.C.B Wijesinghe who aced the role of Durai, during the play’s production in the 70’s and brilliant casts who from time to time brought to life the story of the man from Jaffna who visits the city of Colombo, have left traces of a somewhat demanding blueprint in terms of standard for any modern day cast.

A challenging ordeal this might seem, and the dexterous Anuruddha Fernando returns to his lead role Durai, and Kanishka Herat, great grandson of the adept E.C.B. Wijesinghe himself got back into the mould of Raju, the respective roles they played during the production back in 2011.

“He Comes From Jaffna” is E.F.C. Ludowyk’s outstanding masterpiece, like I said a prototype for what a colonial Sri Lankan story should be. Written in 1934 the play is appreciably adapted from the English play, “A Pair of Spectacles” (1890 by Sydney Grundy) which is in itself an adaptation of an existing French play.

Ernest Macintyre later updated the play mainly by placing the man from Jaffna in limelight and catering to typical Sri Lankan receptivity. This is also considered to be a faintly reticent version of the original.

The cast comprised of Anuruddha Fernando, Shehan Wijemanne, Michelle Herft, Kanishka Herat, Anuk Munasinghe, Shalini Mathngaweera, Chinthaka Fernando, Abbasali Rozais and Avishka De Alwis.

The paradox between a Tamil man from Jaffna (Durai) and his city-dwelling counterpart (Cleveland Rajaratnam), whom he is visiting, is the mainstay of the storyline. Their worldviews, attitudes towards economy, the trust they place in fellow human beings and treatment of their sons form the basis of building up this contrast.

While Durai, played by Anuruddha Fernando, is a stringent and exacting conformist, Shehan Wijemanne who got into the shoes of Cleveland’s character is gullible and impressionable.

The subject of finances was key in eliciting the differences in the two men of the same race residing in different part of the same country, and while Durai is penny pinching and eternally suspicious, Cleveland is the ‘undiscerning’ patron of needy townsfolk.

Although initially irritated by Durai’s unnecessary over caution and generalisations, the easily convinced Cleveland is soon drawn in to imitate Durai’s precision and cynicism. The play concludes in an all’s-well-that-ends-well tonality, with both Cleveland and Durai learning to trust and give more.

The play essentially plays around ethnic and territorial stereotypes. I believe the fact that it portrays these stereotypes, even generalisations, in an inoffensive manner, not in any way tampering with people’s sentiments and allegiances is noteworthy: indicative of coexistence being an absolute possibility inside the framework of diversity.

The play sends an unmistakeable signal that differences amid us are but a trifle (as related in the story) and are better dealt with light-heartedness and goodwill than with irate bias.

The play was decidedly not didactic (I don’t suppose audiences, including myself would be a fan of such material anyway), but was thought-provoking to some extent, and triggers a reflective process, that is of course swathed in rib-tickling laughter.

I found the humour to be somewhat repetitive, even dependent on certain replayed moments the audience would obviously react well to. The play was anyway built on stereotypes, so repetition might have been inevitable, but definitely not uncontrollable.

The first half of the play was slow to pick up on the plot, some may even say it was dragging, but the second half really built the momentum up rapidly and certainly made up for any loss of it in the first.

If the first half before the break was relatively dull, the second was one that barely gave time for the audience to take a rest between outbursts of jaw splitting laughter!

One other thing that caught my attention was that despite the obvious connotation of Tamils hailing from Jaffna, hardly ever was a dialogue said with a noticeable Tamil accent, except for certain catch phrases used by Durai.

Anuruddha Fernando (Durai), Shehan Wijemanne (Cleveland), and Anuk (Aru, Durai’s son) staged commendable, if not very satisfactory performances (at least as far as it concerns me).

On the part of the cast as a whole a good deal of effort and rehearsing was evident, and for the decent effort taken they deserve credit, since it is something I’ve seen rarely in plays staged as of late.

With all its ups and downs, I witnessed on the night I watched that the audience highly enjoyed the action on stage. Several moments ordered undisputed laughter, hilarity and applause. I also understand the audience was composed predominantly of a mature or former generation, and perhaps the play made them hark back to a time in Ceylon known and loved only too well by them.

To the rest, it was a glimpse of a side to our colonial past. With an eminent script, familiar cultural eccentricities, some theatre maestros, a veteran director, the recipe seems effortless and sure-fire. While opinions may of course differ on the degree to which they enjoyed the night, on the whole it may be agreed that it was worth attending.

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