"Secret files": Sinhala middle-class theatre and ethnic reconciliation

“Secret files: a musical melodrama”, a play by Indika Ferdinando, was staged at Elphinstone Theater on October 4th)

- BY DR. S. JANAKA BIYANWILA

With a cast of skilled actors, this play touches on a range of themes (death, disappearances, torture, family secrets, love, betrayals, loyalties, extramarital affairs, drugs, assassins, financial and political corruption, student unions, whistleblowers, aging, and elderly care).

Yes, there is a lot going on. It's mostly a Sinhala language play integrated with English expressions, situating the play within a mostly a Sinhala middle class social milieu, where Sinhala and English hybridity is practised in varying degrees.

The story telling with songs, music and dance, mainly in the beginning, gives way to creating the plot, centered around the main character, a businessman, who has arisen from the dead following his murder. He was an owner of a glass and mirror factory, and intends on correcting his past mistakes, by revealing all the secrets.

The main character is believed to be in possession of a briefcase full of secret files about crime and corruption among the political and business elites. These files are the reason for his death, and the person that delivered these files to him has also disappeared.

The secret files in the briefcase are not the only secrets because there are family secrets, between the father, mother, son, daughter, mistress and family friends. There is also an elderly couple, distant relatives that helped the main character hide when he was facing death threats.

The play is about two and half hours long, but the story broken down into smaller, digestible parts, keeps the audience engaged. Each episode is crafted with exaggerated emotions, and interpersonal conflict, revealing contradictions within each character. The daughter character who rejected her boyfriend in an earlier episode for his moral corruption and drug addiction, later makes compromises.