Written and directed by Chamila Priyanka, This Is Not a Gun will be staged at the Elphinstone Theatre today at 3:30 pm and 7 pm. It was the best play at the Youth Awards Drama Festival 2013 and at the State Drama Festival 2015.
It won the Best Drama Script award at the State Literary Festival 2022. The play was also selected by the Bharat Ranga Mahotsav International Theatre Festival 2022 to be shown in two cities in India.
Synopsis
One night, a lunatic young man looking for a job at a garbage dump meets a bhikkhu pushing a motorcycle. These two, who have different goals, get on the motorcycle and trust each other and begin their journey in search of liberation.
But along the way, they meet what they never dreamed of, what they didn’t want.
Director
A graduate of the University of Colombo, Chamila Priyanka is a theatre director introduced to the stage by Somalatha Subasinghe’s playhouse Kotte. He started his career by writing and directing the short play Oyai Mai Thaniyama, which won the Special Jury Award at the Youth Awards Drama Festival and the Merit Award at the State Drama Festival.
He won the best play award at the State Drama Festival for his short play Che and Juliet. The play Cricket Gahanna Enna written and directed by him won the best script award at the Colombo District Youth Awards. “This Is Not a Gun” is his first full-length play.
He wrote and directed another full- length play called Saga Veda Guru Govi Kamkaru. Chamila Priyanka won the American Fulbright Scholarship leading to postgraduate studies in theatre directing at Long Island University in New York, USA. He is working as an assistant lecturer at the University of Peradeniya.
Cast and crew
Award-winning and talented actors/actresses of Sri Lankan stage Mayura Kanchana, Thilina Perera, Pramod Edirisinghe, Anjana Premaratne, Xavier Kanishka, and Achini Madagammana perform in the play.
Makeup is by Palitha Abelal, lighting by Ranga Kariyawasam, set by Lakshani Amaratunga, Biyanka Hansini, K.V.D. Amrathunge. Kasun Rajeewa and Bhagya Ravishanka as stage managers.