Boiled Boots

Last Thursday I asked the cast "How do you feel?" We had just run Mother Courage and her Children. The run went well. We have the beginnings of a professional performance. A lot still to do, but the cast changes and the work we had done together since the middle of January were beginning to make actors of this group of absolute beginners. "How do you feel?" Their faces glowed; they had applauded for ages at the end, lifting Anoja, then me, high onto their shoulders in celebration. "I feel good". "I feel great".

I asked them to think back a year, to this time last February, how did you feel then? There was a silence. The atmosphere changed. Someone said: "Desperate". Others agreed with this.

I told them that my aspiration was to form a group of actors than can inspire, entertain and move our audience. I do not want people to come with the idea that they are watching a group of victims: tsunami and civil war affected. Yes, that happened, and is a very important part of who you are, but now you are also becoming actors. Good actors. Artists. We have a lot of work to do, the songs have to be woven into the play, the costumes, set, lighting, a lot requires tightening up and everyone can travel deeper into your roles. This you can do, with the skills you are starting to absorb into your bodies and minds.

I am now back at The End of The Garden in the welcome cold of a British winter. Since the last time I visited this space things have changed, grown, matured. The last time I wrote about Mother Courage and Her Children we had hit the bottom of the rehearsal process. Since then, and a few more cast changes later, the play has started to come together. At one point Anoja did say that she had been very ambitious to do this play with absolute beginners. I agreed, yet I also agreed to direct it. We have a cast of people who had never been to a theatre before, who have only seen Bollywood films or local soaps on TV, neither of which demonstrate any depth or truth in the acting or writing. The Russian Cultural Centre in Colombo was showing Doctor Zivago, we took them to see this amazing film, so at least they can understand cold and spring, neither of which most of them have encountered in their life in tropical Sri Lanka. The British Council is offering to show them whatever films we wish, already they have seen Shakespeare in Love - and loved it. Education in art - we educate ourselves by witnessing good art.

During my short visit home the cast are having a few days break, then return to Belangwila to work on their songs and releasing the trauma which is still tied up in a lot of their bodies. It is held there like a tight spring. I taught some deep shiatsu massages to Anoja, Visaka (who has been beside me the whole time translating everything) and Murugan, the yoga teacher. These massages will enable the cast to let go the trauma safely, and eventually to breath easily. Slowly, slowly. Healing is a continuous process.

And boiled boots? The designer, Sweeny, took the cast out the previous Friday to buy them footwear. Most of the boots and shoes, due to budget constraints, were second hand. Good, very good, second hand. Sweeny told everyone to wipe down the outside of his or her boots or shoes, and to spray the inside. They boiled them. So before they had even worn them for one rehearsal the soles were flapping, the boots useless. They had to be taken to the cobbler to be re-glued. Fortunately Sweeny laughed when she heard this. But we learnt that we can never assume anything, especially with a cast of actors who might never have worn shoes before, only sandals. You wash them. Daily.

More Mother Courage Rehearsal Notes

Mother Courage and Her Children. A great, literate, theatrical and long play. It takes courage to stage this play in any language. Trying to stage it in Sri Lanka in a language that I don't understand is, I knew from the start, madness. Rehearsals have their ups and downs. Some days things go well, other days, depression sets in. These past couple of days we have all plunged into a deepening depression.

On Tuesday I risked a stagger through of the play. Immensely useful. I could see that the play was far too long. I know the theatre-going audiences here are not accustomed to sitting through literate and wordy dramas, so that has to be allowed for. I also saw during our very rough run that some cast changes were required. Cuts are being made, and cast changes in process. Both shocking for our budding actors, unused to the process of getting those words off the page and onto a stage.

I forget how inexperienced this cast is. Last year most of them had never had any drama experience. They live in simple fishing villages, come from very poor families. They have talent. They have been traumatised by the tsunami and civil war. Staging this great play of Brecht's is maybe one step too huge for them at this time. A few years hence, when they have more training, are more experienced: understand how to read a script, how to make choices as an actor and another milllion things that go towards making a performance. Then they might be able to confidently tackle such a writer. Yesterday my whole being wished to get on a plane, go home, and let this foolhardy project go.

Today is a day off. A day away from it all so needed. I am hoping this time will allow me to settle my heart, to find the courage to continue. I hope today will give the cast a rest. That tomorrow we will be pleased to meet again. Cuts are in process, recasting has been done. There is a glimmer of hope that we may not make fools of ourselves on March 31st. Whatever is the outcome of this project, ALL of us have grown and learnt. There is pain, but also a lot of joy. It is just that the joy has been behind heavy clouds these past few days.

Rehearsing Mother Courage in Sri Lanka

Working on this play here in Sri Lanka is a living experience. The actors know what Brecht is writing about. They are living it, they have experienced most of what he has put into this great play about the futility of war. Already we have lost several of the cast to the events unfolding here: the peace process between the government and the LTTE grinds on slowly, and families worried about the safety of their children remove them from our rehearsals and send them to Canada or India. To safety. In attempting to get the words off the pages, to understand and bring to life the view that Brecht has of war and human behaviour under pressure, I ask the cast: What was is like after the tsunami? What is is like to live in a danger zone? They know. They can show me.

One scene, after Mother Courgae has attempted to bribe officials to save her son and lost, and then refuses to identify her dead son's body in order to save her own life, we see her sitting outside a tent waiting to complain about how the army has damaged her cart. I asked the actors in this scene: What happened days after the tsunami, when you were still sleeping in the open and had nothing? Already people were complaining, were stealing, were being greedy for the aid that was pouring into the country, they told me. One described his anger at how some of his fellow villagers behaved. The cast had no problems improvising this scene, or understanding how Mother Courage, a day after her son's execution, can complain, not mourne. Survival. This cast of tsunami and war affected have no sentimental ideas about how to survive. They know.

Sometimes when I am away from home and loved ones for long periods I question this choice. Then I look at what I am learning. There is an assumption that when we teach or direct we are passing on knowledge we already have, something we own in perfection. But it is not like that. For years now I have had the priviledge to learn through being with groups of students, participants or actors, and I learn through their learning and their willingness to share their lives and heart journeys with me. I can read about war. I have had my own experiences of being in danger zones. I have no idea whatever what it is like to be affetced by a wave rising without warning out of a benign ocean and destroying lives and homes utterly. My cast know both, intimately. Through them my experience of being a human being can grow. Please come and see these new actors, with the great actress Anoja Weerasinghe playing the lead role, perform 'Mother Courage and Her Children'. The first perfomances are scheduled for March 31st, April 1st and 2nd at The Lionel Wendt Theatre here in Colombo.

Most of the cast have nothing. They and their families still live in tents or temporary accommodation. Being here in Colombo with The Abhina Foundation is educating them and giving them hope. Their food, clothing, accommodation and other costs accumulating during the rehearsal period are met entirely by generous donors. If you can help in any way please send your donation to:

The Abhina Foundation UK
C/O 8 St Johns Court
Isleworth
Middlsex
TW7 6PA

You can also visit: www.abhina.org.