DHANANJAYA KARUNARATHNE

_{This is an experimental play meant to be performed for only one day. The play starts in the foyer when the audience is waiting to be taken into the theatre. The audience is left waiting after the formal starting time of the show has passed and the play does not seem to start. As uneasiness generates among the audience someone (an actor) comes up to them and makes an announcement: Because the play could not obtain the licence from the censor board by the show date the theatre administration cannot allow the performance to proceed and commences to ask the producer to get some 'well known people' from the audience to sign a letter requesting that the show be allowed to be put on today. However the audience thinks this is also a real scene.}

_{^{After the audience has been seated a man (an actor pretending to be a spectator) from the back row stands and asks why the audience has been seated in this unfair way even though they have all bought tickets for the same price. Again the audience thinks this is a real scene and they commence applauding him. Then another actor comes on stage and says, “that’s what we all are asking too”, implying it was a part of the play. Suddenly a man panics and rushes into the theatre asking people for help: He says someone is running after him trying to kill him .This man who rushes into the theatre in a panic is an art lover who has seen the work of the artists and read the books of the authors who are seated among the audience. After explaining that he has paid a lot of money to see those art pieces and buying these books, he begins reciting some dialogues and poetry from those plays. He then begs, yells and cries out to these well known people, asking them to save him from the killer who could enter the theatre at anytime. After some time the killer, who is a thug, rushes into the theatre with a gun looking for the man. (His gun is a real gun and false bullets are used to make the smoke visible whenever shooting occurs while a realistic sound comes from the gun.) The man suddenly sits among the audience so the killer can’t find him. The thug warns everyone to show him where the man is or he will kill everyone like dogs. After a moment he starts shooting some people in the audience asking “is it you?” The people who get shot die in their seats saying some lines from some well known works of art. Those people are actors pretending to be members of the audience but the audience does not know that they are actors until they get shot. As things deteriorate someone (an actor) in the audience shows the thug where the man is. Then the man runs away and the thug runs after him. After some time the thug manages to shoot him dead on the stage. The thug, looking very relaxed and proud, goes up to the man and kicks his genitals and urinates on him (the urine is visible). He then comes up to the front row of seats, gazes around the audience, fires a shot up into the air and then sits down as if he too is waiting to see a play. And then there is a great silence with everyone looking at the man killed on the stage. The lights fade to dark.}}

^Cast
_{^{Victim :Prasad Sooriyarachchi

Thug :Kumara Thirimadura

Narator: Mohan Hettiarchchi}}
_{^{Other Characters: Thilak Roopassara, Mahesh Kumara, Amarajeewa, Bhanu Prasanna, Premakumara Disanayake, Tharanga Wiraj Hettige, Malaka Dewapriya}}

_{^{Music: Kapila Poogalarachchi

Make Up: Banu Prasanna

Lighting: Wasantha Kumara

Stage Managing: Anura Ekanayaka, Malaka Dewapriya & Lakshi Chandima

Assistants: Thilak Hettiarachchi,Buddika Damayantha,Prasanna RathnayakeCostume Design, Stage Design, Written and Directed by Dhananjaya Karunarathne Sponsored by Sunethra Bandaranayake Foundation & National Youth Council Supported by Lionel Wendt Theatre FoundationFirst performance was on 13th of August, 2000 - Lionel Wendt Theatre, Sri Lanka}}