Veteran dramatist Lucian Bulathsinhala’s award-winning stage play ‘Rathu Hettakari’ will make a comeback as a new production after a lapse of two decades.

The 1974 play which won the State Drama Awards that year for the best original script (Lucian Bulathsinhala), best music direction (Austin Munasinghe) and best actor (Jayalath Manoratne) travelled non-stop to all parts of the country upto 1981.

With the beginning of Tharawo Igilethi with the same cast in 1981, Rathu Hettakari was not staged but its tuneful memories lived on for decades for many reasons including the melodious songs like ‘Deekiri Deekiri’ and ‘Yasa Isuru Pirunu Thena’ set to tune by Austin Munasinghe.

The new creation is produced by Bandula Ekanayake, Channa Fernando, H. D. Premasiri and Bandara Eheliyagoda on behalf of ‘Serenity Creations’.

Lucian Bulathsinhala told Impulse that the new production would be made to suit the tastes of the new generation especially exploiting the musical aspect of the play. Unlike today, dramas could not simply enter competitions in state drama festivals then. A panel first scrutinised the script, then watched a rough rehearsal of the play and if satisfied offered a small monetary contribution for sets and costumes. If satisfied further, we were offered another payment to perform the drama before the panel with lights on a stage. ‘Rathu Hettakari’ is a drama that came to the limelight following such a process,” he said. 

The cast of the new production will include Harsha Bulathsinhala, Niroshan Wijesinghe, Sumith Ratnayake, Ishara Wickremasinghe, Anura Bandara Rajaguru, Dulanjali Wijesena, Subuddhi Lakmali and others.   

- Ramesh Uvais