A taste of what it was!
“It’s the Galle Road feeling,” Upali Katunayake intones about Lankan politics and life a good 80 years ago. Nothing much has changed from then to now, laugh Jith Peiris and Indu Dharmasena who will stage S.J.K. Crowther’s ‘The Dowry Hunter’ next week.
A vintage comedy for the young players. Pix by Indika Handuwala
“Times may change but people rarely do,” says Jith having last staged Crowther’s farcical comedy a good 19 years ago. Indu, who had already performed in the play twice by then was on board as well, and played the same character he’s taking on this time around. He will direct this adaptation with Jith producing and says “it’s good to be working with Jith again”.
The Dowry Hunter’s protagonist is Upali Katunayake, a young man who wins Rs. 500,000 (it was a monumental sum in the ‘30s!) in the Irish Sweep. Before Katunayake knows it everyone from State Council member Amaraprasada to his snobby aunt Juanita is on his tail, for money draws politicians and long-lost relations out of the woodwork fast enough.
Into the fray enters Basnayake, marriage broker par excellence. Together with Katunayake’s secretary Steven de Silva, Basnayake masquerades as Juanita and her daughter Hemara to save their friend from the schemes of those around him and needless to say, hilarity ensues.
Crowther wrote the play pre-independence when the State Council was at its heyday and politics in Sri Lanka was more a gentlemen’s game-although the mechanics of it remained the same. Alongside Ludowyk’s He Comes from Jaffna and Sooty Banda Joseph’s Well Mudliyar, The Dowry Hunter is a perennial favourite in Colombo theatre and draws in nostalgic crowds whenever it returns to the stage.
Jith Peiris
The script for The Dowry Hunter has been in the Wijesinghe family (E.C.B’s) for decades and Wijesinghe’s great grandson Kanishka Herat himself will take on Katunayake’s role. Kanishka says he has audience members and theatre-goers come up to him all the time, regaling him with tales of his great grandfather E.C.B.’s stage presence. “It’s hard to make a connection to my great-grandfather because I never met him,” he says. “But it feels good to be involved with something he was part of, and it definitely means something to my family as well.”
Jith Peiris
His character, Katunayake, may be poor but by no means is he gullible. “He’s a very straightforward kind of guy,” we’re told. “So even when he comes into all this money he knows that his aunt is only after him for the money along with the politician.” The politician is Don Alexander Amaraprasada, member of the State Council with one paltry achievement to his name.
Amaraprasada is in significant debt and must swallow his pride and drag himself down to the level of “the commoners” to solve his troubles. Yasal Ruhunage, embracing the role of the pompous politician with gusto, notes that Amaraprasada “is essentially a good man with a significantly sized ego.”
Katunayake enlists the help of close friend and newly appointed private secretary Steven to fend off the admirers and new-found friends. “Steve is a good friend,” affirms Avishka de Alwis. Steve has his fun, especially when he gets to impersonate the lovely Hemara to fend off Amaraprasada’s attentions. “I’m looking forward to getting in touch with Steve’s feminine side,” Avishka laughs.
Joining Avishka in his antics is Indu as the marriage broker. “Basnayake is quite a character,” he says. He is willing to go to some lengths for his friends but as mercenary as ever, expects his return too. Basnayake is impersonating Juanita, who will be played by Sanwada Dharmasena. “Juanita is a mother on a mission,” Sanwada laughs. “She’s a snob too, because she wouldn’t have anything to do with Katunayake’s family when they were not well off. But now that he has money she wants to marry him off to her daughter.” Ruwendi Wackwella plays the lissome Hemara. She says, “Hemara is incredibly embarrassed by her mother so naturally refuses to participate in anything.”
As for Jith, for whom taking on The Dowry Hunter again is akin to a reunion with an old friend, familiar and guaranteed to deliver a good time, he hopes to introduce Crowther’s play to a new generation. “I want to remind our audiences that we had excellent English theatre back in those days as well,” the veteran thespian says.
‘The Dowry Hunter’ will go on the boards of the Lionel Wendt on June 12, 13 and 14 at 7.30 pm. Tickets priced at Rs. 2000, 1500, 1000, 850 and 500 (balcony) are available at the Wendt.