DCS Rwanda-Sri Lanka Collaboration
part of the “Dear Children, Sincerely…” project
Directed by Ruwanthie de Chickera
SYNOPSIS
DCS Rwanda-Sri Lanka Collaboration is an ensemble-based production that offers a
parallel reading into the colonial and post-colonial histories of Rwanda and Sri Lanka.
The play is based on the interviews of the DCS project.
July, 2015
Ubumuntu Festival of Humanity
Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre
Running time – 50 mins (no interval)
Language - Multilingual (English, French, Sinhala, Kinyarwanda)
The opening show was supported by Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company,Rwanda
Esufally Foundation Sri Lanka,Rohith Peiris
The Sri Lankan community in Rwanda
Ubumuntu Festival of Humanity
Azra Jafferjee and Christoph Feyen
Avanti and Murtaza Esufally
Out of gallery
Production
DCS Rwanda-Sri Lanka Collaboration is a devised play created by Sri Lankan and Rwandan artists.
It is based on the DCS project which interviews the generation born in the 1930s and converts their stories into performances for contemporary audiences. Senior
citizens of both Rwanda and Sri Lanka were interviewed for this production.
The play opened at the 1 st Ubumuntu Festival of Humanity in Rwanda in 2015. It
was later toured to Sri Lanka, India and Jammu-Kashmir in 2016.
Poster
Reviews
‘“The actors conquered the stage and the audience by flaunting the flexibility of their bodies and their measured, energetic movements. They became symbols of history, of a generation, whose value is often forgotten; whose memories are not well documented or archived.’”
Anila S. K., The Sunday Times
More Reviews
Looking Back
Artists involved in creating this play reflect on the creative process; explaining how the idea came about, how it grew, changed and what finally made it to the production.
Read the Resource Pack and watch the Stages Looking Back Video to gain insight into the process behind creating this play.
Resource Pack
Devising
The artists met for the first time, only six days before the show opened at the Ubumuntu Festival in Rwanda. So, the devising process began remotely, initially through analysing the DCS interview material, then through Skype meetings and finally through the creation of stem scenes by the Sri Lankan artists before they left for Rwanda.
The devising process didn’t end with the first performance. The artists continued to
develop and devise the play after they met in Rwanda for up to a year later.
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Rehearsals
Rehearsals for this play were extremely intense, exhausting and challenging, as the artists had to produce a play six days after they met for the first time. The writers, designers and composers worked closely with the cast throughout the rehearsal process, structuring, developing and refining the play through daily experimentation in the rehearsal room.
The Sri Lankan team travelled to Rwanda a week before the Ubumuntu Festival opened. There, together with the Rwandan artists they worked the next six days, up to 18 hours a day.
It was a baptism of fire as some of them were not even able to speak each other’s language.
Cast
Jerry King
Guest Artist
Gehan Blok
Guest Artist
Nilmini Buwaneka
Ensemble
