Thrithva Ranga is the annual talent show organized and performed by the School Officers’ Guild of Trinity College, Kandy. It is a show combining all forms of entertainment: drama, songs, dances, skits… you name it. It’s all there. A show with the likes of Thrithva Ranga 2010, staged on 19th November at the Trinity College Main Hall, has perhaps never before been witnessed in Kandy. The Hall was completely packed and the atmosphere was simply electrifying.
Sponsored by Axe, Coca Cola, Peo TV, Etisalat, E-Soft, and several other companies, Thrithva Ranga had the necessary financial backing to become the show that it was.
The drama was based slightly on the storyline of “Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time”, and was set in the sacred land of Serendib. The royal family of Serendib had the supreme duty of guarding the kingdom’s treasure, the Vup Knife (a vup pihiya), from its enemies. Correctly handled, the Vup Knife could be used to travel to the future. In the drama, the Vup Knife makes its way into the hands of a king-coconut (thambili) vendor and eventually, into the hands of the royal family’s enemy, the Thalapiyannawa Gladiators. The Chief of the Thalapiyannawa Gladiators, played by Mithra Kulatunga, uses the Knife to travel to the future. A highly thrilling episode in the drama was the performance of the vattakka version of the haka by the Chief and his team of Gladiators; the combination of seriousness with humour here was such that the crowd erupted during its performance. The drama, directed by Sarith Bandara and Randika Nanayakkara, was rife with action, humour and suspense throughout. The Chief of the Thalapiyannawa Gladiators, after arriving at the future, recruits an army of Futuroids, alias the B-Team, which includes various fictional characters and action heroes from films and real life. The Chief returns with the B-Team to take over Serendib. The royal family of Serendib, having no army themselves, hires the ESF (Extra Special Forces) to quell the assault. Though the ESF is no match for the B-Team, the ESF and the royal family are saved by the mere chance that the time allotted for the B-Team in the past ends. The royal family then rescues Princess Paba, who was kidnapped earlier in the drama by the Thalapiyannawa Gladiators. The drama ends with the Chief of the Thalapiyannawa Gladiators losing everything he had. Harindra Seneviratne, with his truly feminine grace as Princess Paba, and Mithra Kulatunga, who brought a great degree of comic relief to the drama as the Chief of the Thalapiyannawa Gladiators, kept the audience spellbound with their superior acting.
The skit was the other feature of the show that increased the pulse rates of the audience. Directed by Vidushan Suresh, the skit had exciting moments such as a dance to “Zoobi Doobi”, a love letter written by a nerd in terms of mathematical formulae, and other eye-opening instances. The climax was when the nerd won over the pretty girl by his “mathematical” letter and thus ridiculed the two other macho characters, who would in everyday terms have stood a better chance to attract the girl.
Additionally, the show was brightened by the excellent voices of the singers, who sang to the hearts of the audience, and the skills of the musicians. The Tamil and English dances, choreographed by Vidushan Suresh, SR Pratheeb, Dilshard Farook and Isuru Bandara, also brought life into the show. The night was sparkled further by a display of martial arts and gini sisila, which literally fired the night. All events of the show were smoothly connected by the eloquence of the comperes Shane Foster, Shameera Wijesooriya and Gayantha Niyangoda.
This year’s Thrithva Ranga saw a lot of new concepts in its making. The Thrithva Ranga poster, designed by Kovida Bakmeedeniya, used the actual drama characters in a professional “DVD-cover” formation. Videos for the drama and skit were edited to perfection by Darren Madasekera, Yashwanth Dahanayake and Sanjay Bandare, who also experimented on a previously untouched technique known as greenscreen.
The Senior Prefect of the School Officers’ Guild, Choliya Bandara, did the most arduous and needed task of coordinating all activities of the show. This year’s show raised the bar for all other Thrithva Rangas to come. The humongous challenge to the School Officers of the years to come is to raise this bar even higher.
Article Written By: Sarith Bandara
*Thrithva Ranga 2010 DVD is finalized and is now available at ‘Videomakers’ – No. 196/1/1, Kotugodella Veediya, Kandy. (In front of Flower Song Restaurant). For more details, contact Dilshard Farook on 0779700978.
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Published 13 years ago by Sarith Bandara
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