In the play ‘The Jungle and the Sea’ at the Belvoir Theatre, the creators honours multiple languages, faiths, cultures and different philosophies, but never ventures into pointing fingers or siding with one.
Instead, it portrays a reality of war, one in which every individual is doing what they believe is right, and interrogates the systems which create the notion of “right” in the first place.
This play was written and directed by S.Shakthidaran and artistic director Eamon Flack’s text is informative and layered in its representation of the beliefs and experiences of Sri Lankan and Australian communities.
A rich, sweeping new play that combines two great pillars of literature – the Mahābhāratha and Antigone – with the untold histories of the Sri Lankan civil war to forge a new story about surviving loss, discovering love and building a path to justice.
It is a bitter truth in reality, over the past four decades is that the people in Sri Lanka have suffered a great deal due to the armed conflict, economic crisis, political instability and gross violations of human rights. Sri Lankan state was mainly responsible for gross and systematic violations of human rights during armed conflict, which occurred from 1983 to 2009 and negative peace prevailing thereafter to date.
Despite continued calls from the international community to address accountability, the Government of Sri Lanka has taken limited meaningful and concrete action to uphold its human rights obligations. This jeopardizes progress on justice for affected populations, and prospects for peace and reconciliation. Regrettable, to say the least is that the victims and survivors of gross human rights violations deserve justice.
Northern Breeze 