Hooray, Hiran!

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

Hiran Abeysekera, congratulations! I am sure the whole nation would join me in thanking you for bringing some joy to Sri Lankans who are in the depth of depression as never before. Not only you won the coveted Olivier award for the Best Actor but also, by what you said in your acceptance speech, demonstrated that fame has not spoilt you and you have your feet firmly rooted to the ground. You referred very affectionately to your Motherland, “My Sri Lanka is going through a bit of trouble, I think of you and wish I were with you”. Quite unexpectedly, then you stated in Sinhala “Machanla, Mang umbalata adarai, Jayawewa!” bringing tears to our eyes.

When people who achieved very little in life, unlike you, speak in acquired accents, often terrible cockney accents, and forget their mother tongue, it was totally refreshing to note that you spoke as if you were speaking to your Nalanda classmates! You were full of smiles throughout and it was, undoubtably, one of the most lovable acceptance speeches I have ever listened to. However, it did not lack seriousness either because, in a tangential reference perhaps to the prevailing situation at home and the unnecessary war in Ukraine, you ended your speech, hands clasped in our traditional manner, with “Sabbe Saththa Bhawantu Sukhithatha. May all beings be happy!” Though short, it was a heart-warming speech producing teras of joy. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPYzqffYO4)

The West End in London and Broadway in New York are considered the most prestigious venues for theatre in the world, the crème de la crème of productions emanating from these two sites. To recognise and honour the excellence in professional theatre, a series of awards were established in 1976 by the Society of London Theatre. It was initially called ‘The Society of West End Theatre Awards’ but the name was changed in 1984 to ‘The Laurence Olivier Awards’, or simply ‘The Olivier Awards’ in honour of the great British actor Sir Laurence Olivier. The Olivier Awards are recognised internationally as the highest honour in British theatre, equivalent to the BAFTA Awards for film and television, and the BRIT Awards for music. The Olivier Awards are considered equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards and France’s Molière Award.

It is held annually, giving awards across a range of categories covering plays, musicals, dance, opera and affiliate theatre. The 2022 ceremony, held at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, was of special significance as this was reflecting the resurgence of the London theatre following the inevitable dormancy due to the pandemic. The award for the best actor in drama, which Hiran, 36, won is considered the most prestigious. However, BBC had very little of Hiran and I had to do a search to find a reference to him. They focussed on ‘local’ British actors than on a Sri Lankan.

Hiran won this prestigious award for acting as Pi, Piscine Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry on his way to Canada who survives 227 days on a lifeboat, after a shipwreck, in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Wilson. The Booker Prize winning novel by the Canadian author Yann Martel raises questions about the nature of reality and how it is perceived and told. In 2012 it was adapted to a film directed by Ang Lee, starring Suraj Sharma as Pi, which won four academy awards, including the Best Director award. Obviously, in view of most of the action occurring in the sea it is an extremely difficult book to adapt to the theatre but playwright Lolita Chakrabarti achieved the impossible. Directed by Max Webster it premiered in Sheffield in 2019 with critical acclaim. Hiran won the UK Theatre Award for the best performance in a play. In view of this success the producers decided to move it to the Wyndham Theatre in the West End but this launch was delayed till 2021 by the epidemic.

Taking the lead role in a British Council production of Equus in Colombo in 2007, Hiran was spotted by the theatre director Willi Richards, who flew him over to the UK to audition for various drama schools. It is said that Hiran’s response was “What’s drama school?” when the idea was proposed. Within a month he was offered a scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and at the age of 23 his new life began in London, Richards and his partner offering shelter at their house in Deptford, in the suburbs of London. Willi Richards was in the audience shedding tears of joy when Hiran thanked profusely for changing his life.

Hiran made his professional stage debut with the English Touring Theatre in 2011, playing Valere in Tartuffe and in 2015, he played Peter Pan on the London stage. In 2016 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon and was cast in a number of roles. He played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was adapted for a TV Film and screened by the BBC, Posthumous in Cymbeline] and Horatio in Hamlet. In 2018, Hiran began appearing in the Hulu series Find Me in Paris, portraying the role of Dash Khan until 2019.

Hiran’s acting as a 16-year-old has been universally prised by critics. Therefore, it was no surprise he won the coveted Olivier award bringing credit to Sri Lanka. It is interesting that the team of 7 puppeteers won the Best Supporting Actor award. I am waiting for the day we can go to the Wyndham Theatre to see Hiran in action. In any case, this is just the beginning and maybe we would be seeing Hiran in Hollywood movies. We wish him luck, which he mentioned that he had already had in bucketsful. Three hearty cheers, Hiran!