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Breaking
the silence
By
Uditha Jayasinghe
Forum Theatre is by the people, of the people,
for the people. It has transcended the bounds of elitist
intellectualism and all other isms, for that matter,
to arrive at the forefront of social change. Here is
a theatre that one need not dress up for; in fact it
thrives on leaping straight into the gut wrenching,
tear jerking heart of a problem and stripping it of
all norms so that we are forced to question the validity
of our own beliefs and actions. Perhaps, the moist poignant
aspect of Forum Theatre is that at its strongest, it
forces us to face our own prejudices and pre-conceived
platitudes, leaving us paused and exposed.
A feeling of trepidation assails me every time I watch
Forum Theatre because it concentrates on getting one
to face ones worst fears. Forum Theatre thrives on putting
the worst possible scenario on stage and then getting
the audience to suggest solutions to the problem. Even
acting it out and launching a ‘forum’ for
discussion. This is precisely what the Beyond Borders
group did last week when they presented ‘Censored’
themed on ‘freedom of expression at a time of war’
at the British Council. Needless to say, the topic alone
made me run to the show.
The situation under the lights was of a Tamil youth
named Kumar, who forwards a message to his Tamil friends,
simple enough at first glance. The plot deepens with
the subject matter of the SMS, which turns out to be
a request to ban movies of South Indian movie stars
that boycotted a protest calling for the Sri Lankan
Government to end hostilities with the LTTE. A government
watch dog called ‘Bureau of National Security’
storms into Kumar’s office and hauls him off for
‘questioning’ and friends and family are thrown
into a quandary.
Based on a true incident, the drama touches on all the
concerns of society gripped in war. Despite the political
correctness of being patriotic, what happens when the
same laws orchestrated to ‘protect’ you are
used as a tool of repression? Can the issues of security
and suppression ever be separated without collateral
damage? Are we to be blamed for these events or are
we victims? Is constructive action possible? Or, at
the end of the day, are we trapped by language, ethnicity
and religion? Do other people always have to pay the
price for our idealism?
These and many more questions rushed through my head
and were clearly shared by others in the audience. Feedback
was fearsome and people freely got into the spirit of
‘freedom of expression.’ Since Forum Theatre
is based almost entirely on the audience, it would be
interesting to see the reaction of a slightly less urbanised
audience. Judging by the general apathy to freedom of
expression, one would not expect vehemence from them.
The extreme sensitivity of the issue was further emphasised
when the person who came up with the idea for the drama
refused to be quoted, but insisted that security should
not be used as an invisibility cloak to hide abuses.
Sadly, more often than not, instead of protecting people
it simply gives the power’s that be a chance to
consolidate their presence on the back of other people’s
suffering.
In an interesting twist, the person who first received
the SMS was a Sinhalese named Ashan Jayawardene, who
then forwarded it to Kumar. When requested to come to
the Bureau of National Security and exonerate his friend,
he is trapped between obligations. Those to his friend
and the threat to his family brought on by his father’s
business connections in the east.
Torn apart by the contradictory commitments, he chooses
his father and ends up estranged from his girlfriend
who is a journalist. The multi-layering of relationships
was well done and ire was directed at the girlfriend
for not using her professional contacts to get more
help for Kumar rather than expecting her boyfriend to
assist. Focus was given to how many of us prefer to
pass judgment on others rather than take action and
be responsible for the consequences.
Then the challenge of dealing with consequences. If
Ashan defends his friend then what happens to his family?
The choices in life rarely get harder than this. Regardless
of the apparent ‘toughness’ of Forum Theatre,
the idea is to motivate people to discuss possible courses
of action. Certainly that purpose was served at the
show, however whether the forum continues outside the
auditorium remains to be seen.
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