Portrait

i went to see tracy holsinger’s play, fefu and her friends yesterday.

firstly, tracy is one of colombo’s most talented actresses and directors. as a student, i can safely and truthfully say that she is also an amazing teacher. from my very first class, i was totally besotted with tracy. she has charisma, eloquence and sort of laid back-ness that is really comforting, and riveting. i think i’m now bound to be in love with her, and her utterly beautiful offspring, neha, forever. i’ve seen tracy on stage a few times, playing a variety of roles and thought to myself ‘that is one gifted actress’. i must confess, i’ve never had the chance of seeing any of her directorial works before this, and what a first impression fefu and her friends was.

barefoot is always a great place to do this kind of thing at. we did a dance production in collaboration with barefoot two years ago, that remains to date my most memorable dance performance for me, as a dancer. it was a coming of age, for a lot of us that performed that night. heshma melvani’s (chitrasena’s oldest grand daughter) choreography and concepts were absoloutely stunning and thrilling. in collaboration here means that barefoot provided us with every privilege that performers should have, but rarely do. they pampered us, dominic took promotional photographs free of charge for the local media, all we had to do was rehearse, turn up and perform. the fashion and material designers there executed each one of our costumes over three weeks, they gave us a full set up of stage, lights and sounds, and a weeks worth of rehearsals on the stage there, all free of charge. however, the deal worked out well. we pretty much danced in their clothes, and every other prop we used if at all was a product of barefoot as well…so they got the sales and we got all the proceeds from the tickets.

anyway, the two most insaely good things about fefu were the script and the cast. every single member of the cast was absoloutely fantastic. they performed with feeling, understanding and a sense of real-ness, that made the whole play come to life. i drew favourites though, them being ruwanthi, ruhanie, piyumi, anushka and karan. well, thats almost the whole cast. karan’s monologue was mind blowing. i know ruwanthi, and i love her work as a director. i’ve never seen her act before, although after seeing her yesterday i think she should, more often. however, upon having told her this, she told me ‘this is the last time! i like directing men. i was shitting bricks the whole time today!’. i wont ruin the play for those of you who are planning on seeing it. those of you who aren’t, trust me, this is not something you want to miss. the multiple set idea was also refreshing and interesting. sometimes, the audience was really close to the members of the cast, making one feel almost a part of the set, and strangely involved in what was happening. the script was ingenius. as a woman, even one that is much younger than any of the characters, their qualities were relative and understandable. their playful-ness with each other, the binding closeness to each other, the being intimidated by each other, it was all so familiar. they are all complicated, yet simple women.

it brings out a woman’s best and worst qualities, shows that women are lovable, but also, as fefu says ‘loathsome’. they are fighters, friends, lovers. confused, sad, angry, hopeful, idealistic. but with such a zest for life and friendship.