5 Questions with S. Shakthidharan
S. Shakthidharan is a western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director and composer of original music.
His debut play Counting and Cracking (Belvoir and Co-Curious), received critical, commercial and community acclaim at the 2019 Sydney and Adelaide Festivals. The script won the Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting; the production won 7 Helpmann and 3 Sydney Theatre Awards.
(Anandavalli (Gowrie) and Nadie Kammallaweera (Madhu) from The Jungle and the Sea. Credit: Provided)
NO.1
You say that The Jungle and the Sea is written in honour of those who survived the [Sri Lankan civil] war, and the ways they found to uphold their dignity even when everything else was falling down around them.’ Why was it important for you to tell this story?
During war, life goes on. Even amidst violence and degradation there is still love, determination, cheekiness and moments of delight. I wanted to write about a family and a community that held on to their agency; [a group of people] that refused to become objectified.
Thirteen years after the war, we have still not properly, publicly accounted for much of what happened during it. I hope this play can be one small part of a process which helps my community turn an open heart to its past; and resolve to not repeat those mistakes in our future.
NO.2
A lot of Sri Lankan migrants living in Australia have a complicated relationship with Sri Lanka and how they identify. How did that inform the creation of The Jungle and the Sea?
There is a character in the show that becomes part of the diaspora. She must then return to Sri Lanka in highly dramatic circumstances. But she is no longer connected to her homeland. What role do we play in the diaspora? How can we be helpful, rather than a hindrance? This is all explored in the play.
For both Counting and Cracking and The Jungle and the Sea, the cast and creatives team involve a mixture of diverse Sri Lankans from the diaspora and from Sri Lanka itself. We make these shows together, in deep and respectful collaboration, for a common purpose. That part is as important as making the actual shows, to be honest.
NO.3
Counting and Cracking had an immense amount of critical success, winning multiple awards, and has recently come back from touring the UK. How have the audiences in the UK differed from Australian audiences in how they received the subject matter of your work?
In Australia the show turned inward, justifiably. It was about engaging and celebrating the local Sri Lankan community, about celebrating this work as an Australian story with the wider community.
In the UK, I got to see the work on the global stage, in an international context. I was very proud to see this humble Lankan tale standing strong amongst all the usual western theatre, opera and dance. It profiled Sri Lanka and Australia as a critical part of the global story; it profiled these two countries as people who have something to say, something worth listening to.
With audiences of all stripes the work continued to have a profound impact. It was proof that this truly was a universal story. The more specific you are with a story, the more universal it becomes.
NO.4
The Jungle and the Sea is well-crafted in providing multiple political perspectives on the conflict in Sri Lanka whilst keeping humanity at its core. How do you communicate such complicated histories and experiences whilst ensuring that it resonates with the audience?
Firstly, I strive to make sure the show is accessible. You needn't have seen any other theatre to enjoy these shows.
Secondly, it's critical to me that every character in the play has a reason for doing what they do. Every character must be a complicated human being just trying to do their best according to the situation they are in, according to what they believe and think. This provides a diverse array of perspectives that includes a diverse range of the Sri Lankan and the broader Australian community in the story.
From there, it is up to the audience to think and talk with their fellow audience members about where they sit in it all.
NO.5
When Counting and Cracking had its run in Sydney, the show sold out very quickly but the South Asian community was not able to see the show. Do you think Australian theatre is accessible to POC audiences?
It's funny, you know. With Counting and Cracking I spent years before the show opened trying to convince the Sri Lankan audience to engage. Mostly they weren't interested—they didn't understand why theatre would be a useful thing in their lives. How could they imagine something that hadn't really been done before? I myself didn't know what we had created until we saw it on stage for the first time. By the time word spread in the community about how deeply the show was impacting people, the tickets were gone.
Now, with The Jungle and the Sea, that audience is super engaged. We have done pre-sales and special nights for those who can't afford tickets. It is a seismic change in audience perception and one that I'm proud of.
Audience development takes long-term thinking. You need to think in 5- and 10-year cycles. Our industry isn't set up for this; it's always focused on the next show. I think this is the primary reason Australian mainstage theatre hasn't yet properly and deeply engaged with POC audiences, apart from the obvious lack of diversity in the leadership of those organisations.
S. Shakthidharan / Provided
காடும் கடலும்
ගණ වන මුහුද
From the multi-award winning team behind Counting and Cracking comes The Jungle and the Sea.
A mother, in a time of war. Members of her family go missing, one after the other—but she never loses hope. A rich, sweeping new play that combines two great pillars of literature—the Mahābhāratha and Antigone—with the untold histories of the Sri Lankan civil war to forge a new story about surviving loss, discovering love and building a path to justice.
The Jungle and the Sea (written and directed by S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack) will run from 12 Nov to 18 Dec at Belvoir St Theatre. Tickets here.