A fresh face to passion play culture

The Passion play features over 100 member cast representing Catholics and Buddhists from Kotte and neighbouring parishes like Rajagiriya, Nugegoda and Malabe

The passion play is produced to strengthen faith and devotion and to experience Jesus’ suffering, death and glorious resurrection

The burning issues, especially the struggle for power has not changed from the time in which Jesus lived and the present day in the world

A novel presentation for the traditional passion play which features the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,  ‘Alokayano’ (Light of the World’) is performed at 7 pm on Sunday, March 26 at the  St. Thomas’ College Kotte playground as an open-air performance.

Presented by Parishioners from and around Kotte, ‘Alokayano’ is scripted and directed by award-winning tele director Sunil Costa and it features renowned names in cinema and the stage. Popular actor Jehan Appuhamy plays the role of Jesus Christ while veteran cinema actress Veena Jayakody plays Mary Magdalene.

The Passion play features over 100 member cast representing Catholics and Buddhists from Kotte and neighbouring parishes like Rajagiriya, Nugegoda and Malabe. 

Started by the former Parish Priest of St Thomas’s Church, Kotte, Rev. Dr. Anthony Fernandopulle, the first ‘Alokayano’ passion play was performed in 2015. Following the success eight years later ‘Alokayano’ is to be performed with the guidance of the present parish priest Rev. Fr. Indrajith Perera. 

With over 300 years of history, the tradition of performing passion plays in Sri Lanka was popular in the western coastal belt, especially in areas like Doowa, Pitipana, Boralessa and Chilaw. 

 
Started with the world-renowned Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany, the culture of enacting passion plays was introduced to Sri Lanka by Fr. Jacome Gonzalvez. Originally the play was enacted with statues and this tradition received a new facelift with Kalasoori Fr Marcelline Jayakody who as the Parish Priest, Church of Our Lady of Good Voyage, Doowa introduced humans and performed in 1948.

‘Alokayano’ the passion play scripted and directed by veteran teledrama director Sunil Costa and presented by St Thomas’ Church Kotte under the guidance of Rev. Fr. Indrajith Perera and is produced capturing the social, political and economic crisis our country is going through and placing them juxtaposing the time of Jesus Christ in Judea and Jerusalem. However, the passion play is produced to strengthen faith and devotion and to experience Jesus’ suffering, death and glorious resurrection.

Sunil Costa who started his artistic career directing the passion play ‘Yaagaya’ at Kandawala in Negombo years ago says that the burning issues, especially the struggle for power has not changed from the time in which Jesus lived and the present day in the world. More than 2000 years later, the world needs an exactly similar mass struggle or a revolution to end this power struggle.  

“In this world, leaders are trying to win this struggle by defeating others through wars and destructions,” the director said.

He said that passion play is a cultural heritage that needed to be preserved and in this regard, Rev. Indrajith Perera and the devotees of Kotte and neighbouring parishes have taken a commendable endeavour.

“Another important feature of the passion play performed in Kotte is the entire cast and crew are comprised of Buddhists and Christians and also different ethnic groups like Sinhalese and Tamils. This cultural, religious and ethnic combination is a blessing to this project,” he said.

Behind the screen, ‘Alokayano’ is joined by well-known artistes from Sri Lankan theatre, mini-screen and cinema.  Experienced actor Malith Peiris is the Production Manager of the passion play while Ajantha Alahakone is the art director.

Veteran choreographer Manubandu Vidyapathy handles the choreography of ‘Alokayano’ while Ajith Kumarasiri, Namini Panchali and Gayan Ganakadhara handle music, award-winning makeup artiste Wasantha Vittachchi joins the project while Jayantha Amarasinghe handles stage management.

‘Alokayano’ (Light of the World’) is performed at 7 pm on Sunday, March 26 at the  St. Thomas’ College Kotte playground as an open-air performance