The Lionel Wendt was buzzing with excitement over the weekend with the much anticipated Jean Paul Satre’s thriller “Men Without Shadows” directed by Sashane Perera. Sashane had added an eerie feeling to the Lionel Wendt from the moment the doors opened, with dim lighting. Did the play meet my expectations? To a certain extent yes, but certain areas could have certainly been improved.
Let’s start with the plus side. The set was magnificent - it was made to fit in two levels, on the top where the captives were tortured and below the cell where the revolutionaries were held which resulted in a magnificent view for those of us who were seated in the balcony.
Speaking on the acting overall it was quite commendable - Chamath Arambawal who played Henri the prisoner and Rajeeve Ponweera who played Clochet the Sadistic Officer proved to be my favourite roles of the night.
A minor role played by the director himself seemed to not be on par with the other talent on stage. With all due respect to Sashane who did a fantastic job directing the play, I feel he should have left the acting to the actors. It seemed to be quite a simple role that he had to play - in which he had to beat up Henri - but the act ended up having the audience in fits of laughter instead of horror.
Gehan Blok playing Sorbier was also brilliant in his portrayal of the cowardly revolutionary and I was quite disappointed to see the character killed off earlier in the play.
Gihan de Chickera, another versatile actor who portrayed the role of Jean the leader of the revolution did not seem to be comfortable with the role; however supported by Bimsara Premaratne who played the role of Lucie his lover, he did manage to pull off the challenging role. Other actors included Chalana Wijesuriya, Dino Corea, Feroze Ahmed and Dominic Keller who all did a very good job of keeping the play going.
The level of torture that the captives were put through was actually not that hard to look at considering the fact that it was supposed to be really violent, this does not mean that the writer was sadistic, I was just prepared for more.
Overall it was a play that was directed quite well and I certainly can’t wait to see more from the talented bunch of individuals.
Review by Reihan Stephen
Pics by Nisal Baduge
Comments from some members of the audience
Good stuff, brilliant acting – Amesh
Very good - Natalie
Pretty intense, Rajeev and Dominic did their job well – Avishka
Really good acting but too much torture - Pricilla
It was well paced and overall quite a good production – Adam
I am really proud of Sashane, you see good actors coming up but not many good directors and Sashane has done a brilliant job with the direction - Shanuki
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