Lightly lampooning Lankan politics: Well said, Fred!

DOES IT HURT? “Only when I laugh!”

By Will E. M. Tell

Well, now. I never thought I’d be saying this. But pun by painful pun and joke by juvenile joke, the Freddy franchise is slowly but surely starting to make sense. And if you’re politically savvy, which is but another way of saying “I am alive and aware in Sri Lanka today”, then you’re bound to have found ‘Get Rich Quick’ making politicos look all the poorer in the run-up to Presidential Polls.

I caught the fourth instalment of the show on opening night. To be sure, there were a few hitches and glitches: a flubbed line here, a forced laugh there. But in-between fresh new faces and forgetful old impresarios, what shone through was that thespian companies and theatre audiences alike are becoming increasingly sensitive to the nuances of satire; or perhaps, simply, parody. Also that – where once lampooning was all about the cheap laughs – it is clear now that theatregoers suspect they’re laughing at their own plight and predicament.

Old hat 

The critics had long been at pains to point out StageLight&Magic’s promise and pitfalls in embarking on this barking mad adventure. As far back as December 2016, Daily FT arts writer W. O. R. D’Smythe said of Freddy’s first outing: “Congratulations again to FK for discovering or inventing a new vehicle for satire and sociopolitical commentary...” – the FK here being veteran showman and inveterate showboat Feroze Kamardeen. 

Then W. Izard – perhaps a pseudonym for Waiz Izardeen (maybe a relative of the playwright?) – endorsed this idea when Fred & Co. played to a packed house at Temple Trees, by dint of a ‘One Night Stand’ there in July last year, by essaying this: “There was more potential in this explosive art form than many staid productions plodding across Colombo stages.” 

Shall we forget this trenchant comment from shadowy commentator Wil E. O’Dysseus, on Freddy’s third outing, which was optimistically titled ‘A New Hope’? He – or she – wrote: “Hope also that audiences took note of all that was said and that eventually, stand-up as a genre will come to critically engage society profitably – where parents and pundits and political leaders have failed to conscientise a lost generation of adult children – who still laugh inanely at war victims losing limbs, think poking fun at ‘outstation schools’ is acceptable, or fall over themselves hysterically when there’s the slightest sexual innuendo. It is to Kamardeen’s credit that he is willing and able to take on sacred cows, even if he seems like a bull in a china shop to his elders and betters!”

A SWOT on stand-up

Strengths: 

• a writer who is politically aware and socio-culturally savvy to tackle society’s burning issues  
• an admixture of hi-tech production values and lowbrow performers unafraid to ‘let it all hang out’ in a good cause 
• the captive audiences, often elites, that the Wendt houses 

Weaknesses: 

• a tendency to preach rather than insinuate and allow audiences to infer
• an abominable absence of ad-libbing (it’s stand-up, not standard comedy.)
• the penchant of the producers to ride pet peeves hard or flog dead horses 

Opportunities:

• a superbly poised vehicle to deliver home truths to naïve audiences 
• an admirable example of theatre’s ability to critically engage socio-political and cultural evils 
• the happy combination of the performing arts, entertainment and national interest

Threats:

• a danger that vested interests might hijack the vehicle to drive personal agendas 
• an inability of audiences to tell satire and parody apart from speaking truth to power; and, therefore, jump to the wrong conclusion
• the possibility that entire franchises could be not more than a Trojan horse for hidden hands such as unscrupulous powerful politicos or unethical press barons

New hope

Eventually, it would seem, stand-up as a genre has come to critically engage society profitably. To be sure – like the scurrilous politicos that these entertainers undercut so hilariously – the temptation is to ‘get rich quick’. Our elected representatives often promise the sun, moon or stars on the campaign trail; but fail spectacularly to deliver once ensconced in office! Then again: the sun, moon or stars is usually what admission costs to sundry stand-ups that are mushrooming around the Wendt these days as budding impresarios may seek to ‘get rich quick’ themselves? 

Which reminds me that a brace of performers whose genius was berthed with Freddy et al. went on to become big names in their own right with Blok & Dino. While other alumni of this franchise such as Dominic Kellar are more than holding their own in other ventures, one wonders whatever happened to that irascible but loveable rascal Daminda Wijeratne  (and Shannon Misso is missing!)?

Fresh faces

Not that these performers in Freddy’s “fourth estate” weren’t magnificent in their own way. But that they weren’t magnificent as much as meaningful, sincere and a lot of fun to listen to as they carefully – and sometimes, carelessly – spoke truth to power in their own inimitable way. (I liked the female stand-up who poked fun at the weaker sex – yes, men! – in her skit on menstruation. But maybe the author missed his cue to send up the lameness of the maleness that mistakes women for mere chattel? Since he mentioned the ‘pad man’ angle but was silent on the penchant of ‘pohottuwa’ types!) And who’s to say that laughter isn’t the best medicine, as long as it treats the disease rather than naively salving the symptoms? 

Isn’t that often the issue that light entertainment’s critics have with this genre? Not that stand-up isn’t funny; but that it’s not serious enough: and that in the limit we’re only laughing at ourselves for what suckers we are for sinister politicians! There was a substantial toning down of the more egregious type of humour in this episode in favour of delivering a thinly veiled critique of the sordid caricature that barely passes muster, with that said, as so-called civics and governance in Sri Lanka today. Just bite the bullet as the ensemble onstage wades through schmaltzy song-and-dance routines to underline their point.

Despite the flubs, flaws, minor failures and mini-fiascos of opening night, one hopes the three-night fourth-outing of Freddy and friends made their point. Coming as it did on the eve of a hotly contested and pivotal presidential election, Feroze Kamardeen’s appeal for cleanness, kindness, honesty and tolerance – over and above the towering development and thundering strengths of faux-leaders that ends in tears, dust and ashes – is bound to resonate with an estimated million voters: do the math – courtesy the multiplier effect squared by a social media matrix. Even if it won’t make a dent in a contender’s majority, don’t ever again scoff at the impact theatre can make on shaping the national psyche; for we can’t leave it to elected officials, and self-appointed armchair critics and keyboard warriors alone, to shape the destiny whose ends are meaner by the minute.

Will you excuse me for a minute while I quibble a bit? While the more egregious ogres got a (ha ha, pun there) well-deserved beating, one salient presidential aspirant seemed to get off the hook. Shall we not expect even the lesser of the two evils among the frontrunners to be critically engaged in the same light as the MSs, MRs and RWs received short shrift and brutal lampooning? However much we might not be afraid to speak truth to political, social, cultural and religious powers when they stray from the straight and narrow, we must also endeavour to deal the cards fairly by our friends and the candidates we might support in private.

Well, now; now that all’s well that ends well, or so it may seem, Izard and O’Dysseus and D’Smythe may rest easy. Stand-up has stood up and delivered a sobering message – that Mother Lanka deserves a clean new deal – in suitably smiling tones. Despite darker undertones – plutocratic politicians pumped up by blatantly partisan press barons – may the lightness of the last best hope (satire, not Sajith!) prevail over all our fortunes. Especial kudos to Kamardeen for coming out of the shadows, so to speak, to focus the message of the franchise with his first ‘attention speech’. Can I be the only one who hopes this won’t be Feroze’s “last hurrah”? 

Freddy 4: Get Rich Quick

Featuring seven stand-up artistes

Produced by StageLight&Magic

Written & Directed by Feroze Kamardeen 

13-15 November at 7 p.m. daily

The Lionel Wendt Auditorium