News
A drama cast with a difference
View(s):This year the prestigious ‘State Drama Festival’ which show cases the talents of the country’s best dramatists, actors and actresses will feature a cast with a difference.
Story and pix by Amila Gamage
A drama featuring a mix of prisoners and prison officers of the Welikada Prison has been selected for the final round of the festival.
The drama titled ‘Sinhaya Saha Wahalla,’ based on Greek story teller Aesop’s fable ‘Androcles and the Lion,’ and dramatist Bernard Shaw, has made it to the final round of the contest.
The cast -a team of 18- comprises 16 prisoners and two prisons officers.
With backing and encouragement of the prison authorities, drama practices were held within the Welikada prison complex, with both inmates and officers practising together.
The achievements of the mixed group will go a long way to improve relations between those charged with the security of the prisons and the incarcerated inmates.
It also highlights the truism adorning the front wall of the Welikada prison… “Prisoners are human beings” and is an example of how the system could develop into a correctional centre rather than the commonly held belief of being a punishment oriented centre.
Projects like this contribute to the most important aspect of the prisons system:’Rehabilitation.’
A member of the cast being made-up
A prisoner officer helps dress a member of the cast who is a prisoner
A scene from the drama
Prisoners and guards practice within the Welikade prison
A closing scene from the drama ‘Sinhaya Saha Wahalla,’