Arts
Bringing back an all-time favourite
Most anyone will agree that songs such as ‘Wouldn’t it be loverly’ and the ‘The Rain in Spain’ transport them back to their childhood, when they watched Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in Lerner and Loewe’s ‘My Fair Lady’. The 1964 film captured people’s hearts and half a century later, still has the power to move an audience.
The two Doolittles: Sulakshana Dias Amaratunga and Vishan Gunawardena
This October The Workshop Players for their 25th anniversary will recreate the magic of the Broadway version of ‘My Fair Lady’. Known for staging many well-known musicals, The Workshop Players (WSP) seek to introduce a whole new generation to ‘My Fair Lady’, and take all those who fell in love with it years ago down memory lane with this production.
The cast will feature mostly seasoned Workshop Players taking lead roles, with the exception of the role of Eliza. Founder director of the WSP, Jerome L. De Silva is out of the director’s seat and on stage as Col. Pickering. Surein De S. Wijeyeratne, Assistant Artistic Director of the WSP will be directing and tells us that the production will be based on the Broadway musical rather than the film, which was in fact adapted from the musical. But he assures audiences that the differences between the musical and the film aren’t many and that everything people loved about the film will be in the musical. “Watching (the musical), you see why the movie was made,” he says.
Taking on the all-important role of Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl, are Daniella Perera (19) and Amarsha Tissera (20). Daniella, who just completed her A’Levels, at Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya and Amarsha who schooled at Lyceum, Wattala and is now reading for her LLB, are both newcomers to the WSP. They have modelled their portrayal on the unforgettable Audrey Hepburn, having grown up watching the movie.
“Audrey is our bread and butter. We absorbed it all,” says Daniella. They seem not to be too daunted by the fact that their first major role outside school is the iconic Eliza and that this production marks the 25th anniversary of the WSP. “I’m just trying to take care of myself and learning to focus on my part,” says Amarsha. Daniella says that she feels a sense of responsibility knowing the significance of the production but yet is still excited to go up on stage. And as for Eliza’s cockney accent, the duo found it relatively easy having grown up watching the film. “You go against all the rules of English you’ve learnt,” Daniella jokingly adds.
The use of accents in Sri Lankan theatre has always drawn mixed reactions, but in a play where the accent is a key element in the story, how does one approach it? “You need to balance things out. If you affect a full cockney accent, people won’t understand, but the play is about the accents,” says Surein, adding that regardless how they approach it people will have an opinion about it. But with such a familiar script, there is an advantage that most people will understand it, he says.
Having played Iago in WSP’s production of Othello, Javert in Les Miserables, and Eddie Carbone in A View From the Bridge, Kanishka Herath (26) is used to taking on abrasive and slightly misogynistic male characters. So it’s no surprise that he’ll be playing Henry Higgins, the eccentric professor who takes a bet with his best friend (Colonel Pickering) to transform the lowly flower girl Eliza into a ‘lady’. Kanishka considered the portrayal of Higgins as one of his childhood favourites but admits that quite a few women will cringe when his character sings “Hymn to Him” and “Ordinary Man”.
“Ev’ry duke and earl and peer is here; Ev’ryone who should be here is here...”: From the Ascot scene. Pix by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
Kanishka who’s in WSP’s organizing committee is not awed by it being their 25th anniversary show. “We take the play on its own. We just want to make sure it’s a good show,” he says, a sentiment shared by Surein who says there is no added pressure but the fact that the film is well loved and much watched means that it will be a challenge to meet people’s expectations but they are confident they can. “Obviously there will be comparisons made, but people have always walked away happy afterwards,” says Surein.
The role of Eliza’s father Alfred Doolittle, an opportunistic dustman, will be played by Vishan Gunawardena (27) and Sulakshana Dias Amaratunga (25). “He’s a man of the street,” explains Sulakshana. “The beauty of the character is that he and Higgins are two sides of the same coin,” he says, explaining that like Higgins, Doolittle thinks little of middle class values. In fact the character of Doolittle was a device used by George Bernand Shaw (on whose play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady is based) to make a jab at the class system in Edwardian society. Like Eliza, Alfred too speaks in a cockney accent, which Vishan, who’s acted with a cockney accent before found easy to adopt. Sulakshana initially found it difficult to bring out both the age of his character while simultaneously using the accent but with help from experienced cast members like Shanuki De Alwis, he has learnt to do both. Continuing the tale of two Doolittles, where Vishan was comfortable in acting, Sulakshana was well versed in dancing. Thus where one had to sharpen his dance skills the other had to up his acting. But sharing the role it was easier to help and learn from each other, they say.
Kanishka Herath as Prof. Higgins and Daniella Perera as Eliza. On our Magazine cover is Amarsha Tissera as Eliza
The familiarity of the play made it seem a deceptively simple production to the team, with no large battle scenes like in Les Miserables or falling chandeliers as in The Phantom of the Opera. But it has its own set of challenges. “It’s pure theatre. There are no gimmicks to hide behind,” explains Surein. Add to that the Wendt being smaller than stages that hosted the original production, and the fact that they are on a shoestring budget all required a lot of re-imagining in terms of sets and choreography. “A few months down the line you realize it isn’t simple after you see the amount of work that goes into it,” says Kanishka, who now has a newfound appreciation for the musical.
“My Fair Lady has been referred to as one of the greatest pieces of musical theatre,” Surein says, noting that the last time the musical was performed in Sri Lanka was in the 1970s, when the Wendy Whatmore Academy staged the production. Jerome acted in that production too, playing Freddy, the young man who falls in love with Eliza.
A definite must-see, ‘My Fair Lady’ is the perfect way for the Workshop Players to mark their Silver Jubilee.
| “My Fair Lady” goes on the boards from October 6- 15 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre.Tickets priced at Rs. 5000, 4000, 3500,2000,800 are available at the Lionel Wendt. The principal sponsor is Cargills and co-sponsor Cargills magic. | |