UNIQUE PASSION PLAY TRADITION OF SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka has had a rich and an unmatched tradition of Passion Plays enacted during the season of Lent although, unfortunately, in the wake of the recent pandemic situation in the country, not a single passion play, even the famous Passion Play in the fishing hamlet of Duwa, Negombo, could not be staged. The Sri Lankan Catholics received this tradition with the arrival of the Jesuit missioneries from India. It was the European Jesuit missionaries who had introduced the Passion Plays into Asia. 

The tradition of Passion Play has been in existence in Sri Lanka for over three centuries but its roots cannot be found in the island. According to Fr. Dr. Anthony Fernandopulle, Director of St. Nicholas’ International College in Colombo, even though some crude forms of folk drama such as demon and fertility rituals and mask dances and dramas were present in the Sri Lankan Buddhist culture, it was the Catholic Church that first introduced Drama in Sri Lanka in its authentic form, coming down to us from the Europeans.

Fr. Fernandopulle, who has earned his PhD at the University of London, writes in his enthralling book entitled The Origin and Development of Passion Play Tradition in Sri Lanka that there is no evidence of drama in the early history of Sri Lanka, stating boldly that the traditional religious idea of Theravada Buddhism viewed drama as an incitement to passion while some have equally suggested that dancing and acting too was not encouraged as lower caste people were involved in it.

In his book the priest scholar refers to various types of Nadagam, Jathaka (Buddha’s Reincarnation) stories, sokari, kolam, kavi nadagam, etc. He says that despite their abundance of dancing, drumming, feasting and public demonstrations at Court, there is a paucity of evidence of any development of literary drama at any time in the history of the Sinhalese literature. 

Dr. Edmund Peiris, the erudite late bishop of Chilaw (1897-1989), Dr. Ediriweera Sarachchandra (1914-1996), playwright, novelist, poet and literary critic and Professors Ashley Halpe, scholar, and Sunil Ariyaratne, scholar, film director and lyricist, have also accepted the fact that it was Frs. Joseph Vaz (1651-1711) and Jacome Gonsalves (1676-1742), Oratorian missionaries from India from St. Paul’s Jesuit University in India who brought with them the Passion Play tradition to Sri Lanka on their arrival from Goa, India. Goa has exerted a significant influence on Sri Lankan culture, politics and also the Church. 

This new Passion Play tradition emerged during the persecution of the Catholics by the Dutch. It was immensely helpful, enabling the faithful to visually reflect on the important events in the life of Jesus, particularly His passion, death and resurrection, and it spread rapidly to different parts of the island.

Passion Play in Duwa

The colourful Passion Play in the coastal village of Duwa near the traditionally Catholic town of Negombo, could be the oldest and the best known Catholic drama not only in Sri Lanka but also in Asia. It has come down from generation to generation with well-preserved traditions. It could be the second oldest Passion Play still performed (though cancelled recently due to the pandemic) after the world famous Passion Play in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau in Southern Germany. Originally, the Duwa pageant was enacted with statues alone based on the script of Fr. Gonsalves. When Fr. Marcelline Jayakody (1902-1998), musician, lyricist, author, journalist and patriot, known as the “Priest in the Temple”, and respected by the Buddhist majority, became the parish priest of Duwa in 1939, he introduced a new script and humans for most of the cast, replacing statues, counting over 250 actors, all from this fishing hamlet. In 1982 the State honoured the priest with the title “Kalasuri” (Master Artist) and in 1983 he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines, considered the Asian Nobel Prize.

Passion Play in Boralessa

In the 1920s and 1930s the village of Boralessa in the diocese of Chilaw became famous for its Passion Play staged by layman Lawrence Perera with a different approach. He modelled his drama on the technique of the world famous German Passion Play at Oberammergau, using human actors for all the scenes, but at the same time imparting traditional dramatic features to his drama with a blend of Christian and Oriental music played with Western instruments. Perera’s Passion Play, which fascinated even the foreign spectators, was a landmark performance at the time, but the Catholic Church banned it for using female actors for the play.

Passion Play in Halpe

The Passion Play, named Aho Mage Senageni (Oh! my people!), enacted in 2000 in the village of Halpe in the Colombo archdiocese, was unique in that the creators of this drama were given the opportunity for the first time to use costumes from the renowned Passion Play in Oberammergau. It was directed by Alexius Fernando from the village of Wadduwa, south of Colombo.

Passion Play in Thambakanda

For the first time in the history of the country, the Passion Play, staged in 2012 at St. Bruno’s church in the village of Thambakanda in the northwestern Kurunegala diocese, brought together many leading cinema and TV stars in Sri Lanka. It was produced by Prem Fernando and coordinated by veteran Sri Lankan film star Cletus Mendis. Jeewan Kumaratunga, a former senior cabinet minister and popular actor, played the role of Jesus and the music was composed by Dinesh Subasinghe. This drama on the passion of Jesus created history in the island: 1.) It was the first Passion Play in the world with the highest number of senior artists on the silver screen. 2.) It was the first time in any part of the world that a cabinet minister of a country portrayed the character of Jesus.

The late Fr. Ernest Poruthota (1931-2020), veteran film critic of the Sri Lankan Catholic Church, also known as the “Priest of the Sinhala Cinema”, highly lauded this presentation. The priest rendered a yeoman service to Sri Lanka’s film industry and founded the Sri Lanka branch of the OCIC (International Catholic Organisation for Cinema and Audiovisual), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Sri Lanka OCIC has been instrumental in moulding many who have become veterans today in the field of cinema and television in the country. 

Passion Plays have been staged in various other parishes in Sri Lanka as well in addition to the above venues for these religious pageants. ***