Nodutu Aes/Unseen Eyes, an experimental multi-media play, based on Kumari Kumaragamage’s poems in Ureippu Sappada/Noasu Kanwalata and Bertolt Brecht’s poems on war, violence and power.

Kumari Kumaragamage’s poems capture the day-to-day lives of women, children, and men affected by the 30-year long war in Sri Lanka and illustrate the fragmented nature of life in a conflict-ridden context while drawing attention to the workings of class and gender. Bertolt Brecht, while probing the economic and political underpinnings of war and violence, shows how ordinary women and men become the ultimate victims of such destructive events. Nodutu Es transcreates Kumaragamage’s and Brecht’s poems into a multi-media performance; it uses movement, stillness, sound and silence to capture and comment on the consequences of violence on human beings. Nodutu Aes also poses questions about the ways in which we relate to the spaces we live in by examining the relationship between space, memory, bodies and violence.

This piece was created collectively by the students and faculty of the University of Peradeniya, collaborators from the Theatre of the Melting Clock and artists from the Kandy community. The play received support from the Arts Council of the University of Peradeniya.