Eka Adhipathi - Next Shows

25th April 2010

3.00/6.00 p.m

@

Naiwala(Veyangoda) SANASA Auditorium

Then and now, enter ‘The Dictator’

Sunday April 04, 2010

 

 

Well-known maverick of the Sinhala cinema and theatre, Dharmasiri Bandaranayake shares his views on his politically charged play “Ekadhipathi” and the future of serious art in Sri Lanka

Dharmasiri Bandaranayake is not a man to mince his words. And his outspokenness is not confined to the fiery, controversial dialogues he delivers on stage. Seated at a table at the Cultural Foundation he set up five years ago in a quiet neighbourhood in Nugegoda, it takes little prompting to draw him into a conversation about his work as a dramatist and filmmaker and the wider role he feels his tribe has to play in Sri Lankan society if it’s to come out of the ‘cultureless’ pit it has got itself into.

“My medium is cinema /drama and I have a responsibility as an artist to express my views on what I feel is happening in our society and awaken the public to the dangers they face,” Bandaranayake says.

And what he has to say he says with passion and intensity be it in a stage play such as “Ekadipathi ”(The Dictator) that touches at the very political nerve of the country or via cinema through films such as “Hansa Vilak” (Swan Lake), which explores relationships that exceed the boundaries set by social traditions or norms.