‘Nodutu Aes’ (Unseen Eyes) to be staged on 10 October

‘Nodutu Aes’ (Unseen Eyes), an experimental multi-media play directed by Kanchuka Dharmasiri, will be staged on 10 October at 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Namel-Malini Punchi Theatre, Borella.

‘Nodutu Aes’ (Unseen Eyes) is based on Kumari Kumaragamage’s poems in ‘Ureippu Sappada’/’Noasu Kanwalata’ and Bertolt Brecht’s poems on war, violence and power. 

This piece is created collectively by the students and faculty of the University of Peradeniya, collaborators from the Theatre of the Melting Clock and artists from the Kandy community. 

‘Nodutu Es’ is a devised theatre production where the actors, musicians, dancers, directors and videographers work together to create the performance. Different members of the team bring in their own expertise and creative and technical ideas to the rehearsal floor thus making the process vibrant and exciting.

Kumaragamage’s poems capture the day-to-day lives of women, children, and men affected by the 30-year long war in Sri Lanka. Her poems illustrate the fragmented nature of life in a conflict-ridden context and draw attention to the workings of class and gender.  Bertolt Brecht, while probing the economic and political underpinnings of war and violence, shows how ordinary women and men become the ultimate victims of such destructive events. 

‘Nodutu Es’ transcreates Kumaragamage’s and Brecht’s poems into a multi-media performance. It uses movement, stillness, sound and silence to capture and comment on the consequences of violence on human beings. 

‘Nodutu Aes’ also poses questions about the ways in which we relate to the spaces we live in by examining the relationship between space, memory, bodies and violence.