The book will be released on 2nd June 2012 in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.
It was a collective creative process facilitated by S.Jeyasankar and the scripts in English and Tamil were written down by Mr. S.M. Felix and V.Gowripalan respectively in year 2000.
The play was directed by S.Jeyasankar with the participation of Undergraduates represents all the Faculties of the Eastern University Sri Lanka, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.
Too
much reality and too little dreams
By Nllika de Silva
“The Flightless Butterfly” by the Eastern
University, finally let the audience in on the evening’s entertainment. The
wide –eyed innocence and idealism of Ambi the protagonist was more like what
the battered Sri Lankan society of today would reach out for. But realities
being realities, society beats down his inquiring mind demanding the
stereotypical youth of today.
The fact is that Ambi with echoes of the protagonist of ‘Vikurthi’
finally loses touch with reality, in this case not only due to the ambition of
his parents but even more so due to their caring and over protectiveness. And
doors are slammed even on caring hands that reach out to pull Ambi to safety.
The use of music and stylized dance took the play to the realms of
dreamland and the butterflies that go on pilgrimage each year guided the
audience as they did Ambi to a different plane, one his contemporaries would
never understand.
Daily News: September -2000
Creative
drama at the universities
By Ruana Rajepakse
By the common consent of all, including the other students, The Eastern
University’s production of “The Flightless Butterfly” stole the evening. Here
was a production that was not only very relevant in its theme but brilliantly
presented with nature’s beauty and an ancient legend being used to highlight
the realities of contemporary life in the Eastern Province.
As in Somalatha Subasinghe’s “Vikurthi”, the protagonist – this time a
boy, “Ambi” – cannot reconcile his own dreams with the demands of the
competitive world around him. His parents, both over-ambitious and
over-protective, are upset when he fails to get good grades, while his
schoolmates taunt him when he asks ‘Silly’questions about the droves of
butterflies going to pilgrimage to the sacred mountain. Later when Ambi reaches
marriageable age, his mother rejects a proposal because, in her view; the girl
would not make a good daughter-in-law.
Ambi, in the meantime dreams of a beautiful
princess of legend and, he a hallucinatory moment starts climbing onto the
bound of the tank, believing he will meet his beloved there. This being the
real world however, he is promptly arrested under police on suspicion of trying
to poison the water tank. However, the play avoided becoming polemical and,
while Ambi’s arrest by Sinhala speaking soldiers is carried out with inevitable
roughness, the next scene shows State Counsel in Court moving for the release
of the young man back to his parents on the grounds of his mental unfitness.
The final scene show a completely disoriented Ambi at the Kovil, still
chasing butterflies and dreaming of his princess, with the head priest and
worshippers turning their backs on him.
The drama was professionally presented, with on-stage music, and a
well-trained group of actors. Like the Sabaragamuwa team, all the actors
remained on stage throughout, Using slight but effective costume changes to
convey the different characters.
The
Island :September – 2000
