Fund for theatre sans a burden to govt.

Open suggestion to Prime Minister

A request from Dr. Namel Weeramuni

Of all the arts in Sri Lanka, the theatre, is the most uncared for, neglected, considered unworthy of development. It is very saddening, regrettable and most unfortunate. This is because dramatists are a dying breed. They are unable to fully commit to theatre arts and the reason is lack of finances, poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made matters worse and there is no telling when we will escape from its subjection. The difficult and poor practitioners of theatre and the other partners as playwrights, actors, actresses, stagehands, makeup artists, and the whole gamut of involved personnel have become totally pauperised, with no way for them to survive.

To solve this problem, and to come out of this dilemma, I have a solution if the Prime Minister, as the Finance Minister and Minister of Culture, can approve and issue a directive to introduce a lottery titled ‘Natya Setha’ through the National Lotteries Board, in order to create a ‘Theatre Fund’ from which all the artistes, involved in the field, can be supported by a grant system with no encumbrance to the government. Furthermore, in the future, through this Theatre Fund, a separate department of the Ministry of Culture can be established to solely manage and support the propagation of theatre, promoting ‘theatre artistes’, as referred to above, a ‘professional trained group’.

If such a scheme is introduced, through the National Lotteries Board, it would certainly be sans a burden to the Government. I vouch the general populace, too, would support such a lottery since they know for whom the funds would be allocated. The buyers of the lottery tickets would spend only a paltry sum of twenty rupees with the personal aim of winning the lottery. The government, of course, would have its profitable share and the tax benefit, too.

Theatre is the strongest discipline and convincingly tameable of the art forms that exists in any society. It’s indirectly strongly persuasive, short of being a religion. All over the world theatre is the tool used to tame and discipline people and make responsible human beings through the process of understanding and comprehension. It’s not some media for someone to believe by tradition or by custom. But theatre is a mechanism that convinces what humanism is. By viewing meaningful heart-rending, serious theatre audiences become moved, sometimes to tears. So is when they are seeing good comedies. They break into sudden giggles. Theatre is a collective art, and most importantly and fundamentally it is religious for it moulds and guides the character of humans, imbuing in them better understanding and perception.

Serious theatre artistes are the carriers of this humane message to the society. This is very much felt and seen in developed countries, for instance, specifically England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia and the United States. Going to the theatre, in those countries, is religious like going to Church. It’s no doubt used for entertainment but indirectly used for wisdom, and ultimately for intellectualism. In those countries, a play production runs for years non-stop. Some even 30 to 40 years, daily, with changes of cast. Yet the houses are full every day. For instance after buying tickets some viewers wait for years (after purchasing) to get good seats, perhaps it may not be for the balcony. To exemplify, in the first year when Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Production of the Phantom of the Opera was opened, when I was in London, I and my wife waited for almost three years to watch it closer to the stage and for purpose of better understanding. This was around 30 years ago. Still this play continues its run. Still there is a play in London in a Soho Theatre in the West End named Agatha Christie’s ‘Mouse Trap’, gifted to her grandson on his 9th Birthday. This is the longest running play in the whole world, running since 1952, almost 70 years, continuously, with changes of castes. Theatre is an inherent part of their culture.

London is so famous for plays, mainly in the West End, which is within a radius of a kilometre, with 38 huge theatres. This is besides the suburb theatres right round the West End. There may be well over 50 middle range theatres. All of them are famous as experimental play production theatres. For instance, theatres at Hammersmith and West Hampstead and Kilburn, like the Tricycle Theatre, are known for such productions. Theatre is a source of income for the Governments, too, in those countries. In 1997 or 1998, I could remember from media reports on the Budget, the second best income generator in England was theatre.

Why I emphasize so much on theatre is because it can be converted into a decent source of income also for the annual budgets if it is encouraged by the Government, to prosper whilst providing a good employment scheme. This has to be well-designed and made a professional mechanism like any other business. In this respect a theatre fund certainly can be established as I requested and proposed at the outset of this penning. I repeat and propose that a lottery titled ‘Natya Setha’ be introduced, to be established by the National Lotteries Board for sale like any other weekly lottery.

In the present field of Theatre what artistes want is encouragement, availability of funds and freedom. It is also necessary to state here that there is a huge number of graduates who passout from the universities and particularly Aesthetic University. Besides, theatre and drama is also a curricular subject in all the Educational Institutions in the country.