Shining example for the present generation

Iranganie Serasinghe made a unique and difficult choice by choosing to become an actress at a time when women of her wealthy background and social standing were expected to play ceremonial, maternal roles within their respective clans

Pieter Keunemann and Bernard Zoysa were her contemporaries, and Colvin R. de Silva was so impressed by her that he invited her to contest on the Sama Samaja Party ticket

Iranganie Serasinghe (nee Meedeniya) who celebrates her 95th birthday on Thursday the ninth of June is, culturally speaking, a many faceted phenomenon representing the values of a culture and a country so far removed from what it is today, as to be almost unrecognisable.

Everyone knows her as an actress, mainly in film and teledramas though she had a considerable career in the theatre, too. Few would know that she was long ago the editor of the Times of Ceylon, or that Iranganie as a young woman  was a militant left-wing activist inspired by the communist politics of the era. Pieter Keunemann and Bernard Zoysa were her contemporaries, and Colvin R. de Silva was so impressed by her that he invited her to contest on the Sama Samaja Party ticket.

That she declined, and chose a career in acting, shows a set of values and a personal ethic vastly different from today’s, when notable actresses unhesitatingly choose to enter the wrong kind of politics with no room for any kind of political idealism. 

The left-wing politics of Iranganie’s youth offered plenty of scope for that, at least at the start. But she saw clearly that her talent lay in acting, not in politics. Perhaps she learnt something valuable from a first marriage gone wrong. Her second marriage to actor Winston Serasinghe, whom she met in the English theatre of Colombo before acting in Lester James Pieris’ Rekhawa, proved to be as durable as her acting career. Her career choice also shows an ethical standard, with a determination not to seek a self-serving job in parliament to the detriment of her reputation in the arts. Today’s actors of both sexes can learn  valuable lessons from the life of Iranganie Serasinghe.

Well connected due to her upper class family ties, Iranganie Serasinghe made a unique and difficult choice by choosing to become an actress at a time when women of her wealthy background and social standing were expected to play ceremonial, maternal roles within their respective clans. According to some sources, Iranganie’s father wasn’t happy about her decision to attend university in 1947.

Acting wasn’t thought of as a career for either men or women and, with very few exceptions, actors came from middle class or lower social strata. Despite the popularity of Tower Hall and other theatres, acting wasn’t really respectable. One had to be brave to choose the perilous path of a career in the theatre. If successful, one could achieve a degree of fame, but there was little or no money.

After her graduation with a BA, she went to England and studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she was helped by actresses Flora Robson and Sybil Thorndyk

Iranganie Serasinghe began her acting career in the English theatre,  a closed world and hardly the place to achieve national fame. Her ambitions were artistic rather than socio-economic. After taking part in school plays such as George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, she studied dancing under Chithrasena and  thrived under Prof. E. F. C. Ludowyk at Peradeniya. 

After her graduation with a BA, she went to England and studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she was helped by actresses Flora Robson and Sybil Thorndyk. She’s the first Lankan actress to qualify academically in her sphere.

That she declined, and chose a career in acting, shows a set of values and a personal ethic vastly different from today’s, when notable actresses unhesitatingly choose to enter the wrong kind of politics with no room for any kind of political idealism

Back home, she was selected to act in the production of Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths by Austrian director Neumann Jubal at the Lionel Wendt theatre. She got her break in the Sinhala theatre with Henry Jayasena in the 1960s, followed by roles in Dhamma Jagoda’s plays, including the Sinhala version of Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire. 

When she started acting, the country had no film industry. That started in 1947 with Kadawunu Poronduwa, but Iranganie had to wait for the right filmmaker for her break in the movies. This came when Lester James Pieris selected the young actress for his debut film “Be Safe or Sorry” made for the Government Film Unit. But her big break came in 1956 with Rekhawa, Lester’s first feature which won her an award for best actress. Since then, she has acted in 42 films and 24 teledramas, appearing as recently as 2022. The output of the Lankan film industry is very uneven qualitatively, and you can’t be choosy if you want to have a career in acting. Also, it has a tendency to cast older actresses in stereotype parent roles. Despite this, she managed a number of memorable roles, winning best supporting actress in 1982 for her role in Sagarayak Meda, a film which satirised the politics of the 1970-77 era. Among notable teledramas she acted in is Yashoravaya by Parakrama Niriella.

Teledramas have busy schedules and backbreaking work. Despite this and her advancing age, Iranganie covered a lot of ground as an environmental activist over the past two decades, again without any desire to earn any kudos by jumping onto the environmental bandwagon, but genuinely saddened by the seemingly unstoppable deforestation of the island home she loves so much.