This performance is the product of five weeks of drama workshops, building acting technique for the 30 participants and exploring a clutch of 12 British plays from the past 75 years celebrating the 75th anniversary of British Council’s worldwide operation and the 60th year of the British Council in Sri Lanka.
The group represents a wide variety of background, language, age and experience. It is bound together by one common understanding - we understand that we do not always understand one-another! Understood?
Woven together, in this 90 minute performance, the 12 plays represent a diversity of writing and reveal a changing world - politically, personally, ritually, emotionally, philosophically…….
The production is a cascade of ideas and images sometimes expressed in the language of the original playwrights and sometimes in a complex weave of language- physical and vocal. Language, in all its forms, divides and unites us depending on whether, and how, we want to listen and engage.
As we rehearsed the scenes and questioned what they mean for us now, here in Sri Lanka, we explored techniques of the actor simply performing the actions as him or herself (rather than 'getting into character'), in order to deliver the truth of the situation.
If I Were You…? Is firstly a celebration of human behaviour, language and belief and secondly an exploration of NOT ACTING!
William Scott Richards with his 22-year association with British Council Sri Lanka was invited to develop a unique, collaborative theatre piece that will appeal to a wide audience and ‘If I were you..?’ is the result! The production is expected to tour to cities outside Colombo in the next few months.
The production has been devised by the group of actors comprising of:
Anoop Kapukotuwa, Chamila Priyanka, Chathura Dayananda, Chinthaka Fernando, Dilum Buddhika, Hasini Haputhanthri, Indika Adhikari, Jagath Manuwarna, Jake Oorloff, Jayan Jayasinghe, Nadeeshani Padmasiri, Nilanka Dahanayake, Nishara Prasangi, Newuni Dayanga, Palitha Silva, Pierre Samarasinghe, Poopalasingam Pratheepan, Prasanna Mahagamage, Razia Esufally, Ruwan Wickramasinghe, Sabina Omar, Shanaka Amarasinghe, Sulochana Weerasinghe, Surangika Fonseka, Thilina Perera, Thusitha Laknath, Venuri Perera and Visaka Jayaweera
with the assistance of:
William Scott Richards and Luis Gallo Mudarra
using scenes written by:
Alan Bennett, debbie tucker green, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Noel Coward, David Hare, John Osborne, Joe Penhall, Harold Pinter, J B Priestley, Arnold Wesker and Timberlake Wertenbaker.
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