Somalatha Subasinghe Play House presents 2-day theatre festival for children and youth

Somalatha Subasinghe Play House presents a two-day theatre festival for children and youth during school holidays in August. Three very popular plays are on board on 5 August. ‘Vikurthi’ is on 5 August and Punci Apata Den Therei and Toppi Velenda are on 6 August at Lionel Wendt at 3:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. All plays are written and directed by Somalatha Subasinghe.

Vikurthi (Distortion) is a satirical exposure of hapless generation of youth whose lives were dominated by incessant struggle between the parents’ aspirations and the youth’s abilities and preferences. 

The play discusses in depth how this anti-social process denied youth of their own life, which in turn deeply affects them in many ways. The production is a semi-musical which is a familiar theatrical experience to the local audiences. 

Vikrthi was first performed in 1982 in Colombo and since then had performed more than 1000 performances in Sri Lanka. The play is considered a land mark theatre production and as a result Vikurthi became a trend setter of new style of modern theatre in Sri Lanka. It is also considered as a pioneering effort of youth theatre concept in Sri Lanka. The professional theatre group of the Play-House-Kotte has performed ‘Vikurhti’ in English in major cities in India and Australia in 2000. The play has received well by the foreign audiences.

​Vikurthi is a prescribed text for drama and theatre for GCE O/L and the performance on 5 August is a good opportunity for ​​students to watch the play with their parents. ​

‘We Know it Now’ and ‘The Hat Seller’

‘We Know it Now’ and ‘The Hat Seller’ are based on famous international folk tales. They are semi musicals based on Sri Lankan folk theatre tradition and produced with the objective to instil in children, a sense of basic art forms and a pride in our own culture as well as to promote the importance of the institution of family and its values. In addition, the lessons of love, humanity and world awareness are refreshingly presented in these plays. In the adaptations, new characters and situations have been incorporated particularly to facilitate an intellectual and entertaining discourse with the Sri Lankan child.

These two plays were first produced in 1979 and they marked a beginning of the new wave of theatre for children in Sri Lanka. Since then these two plays became all-time favourite children drama in Sri Lanka. We Know it Now is​aprescribed text for Grade six drama and theatre Grade nine Sinhala Language and literature while The Hat Seller is a prescribed text for Grade seven Sinhala Language and Literature.

‘We Know it Now’ and ‘The Hat Seller’ have participated in International Children’s Theatre Festivals in France, South Korea, Bangladesh, India, Australia and the Netherlands.