- How Clown Compass is redefining clowning in Sri Lanka
For many, the word ‘clowning’ conjures up images of red noses, oversized shoes, and slapstick comedy. But for Veena Jayakody and Thiwanka Ranasinghe, the Co-Founders of Clown Compass, clowning is so much more than comic relief. It is physical theatre. It is community engagement. It is a tool for education, healing, and storytelling.
As the visionaries behind Clown Compass, Sri Lanka’s first professional clowning company, Veena and Thiwanka are spearheading a campaign to drive impact through clowning and the power of embracing joy with all its imperfections.
“At its core, clowning is about authenticity. It’s not just about running around and dancing. There is storytelling and connection,” Veena, a professionally trained clown and physical theatre performer with formal training in the US, explained.
“As an actor, you get the chance to find out who you are. When it comes to clowning, we often think someone must be a juggler or circus artist. But your clown can be a pianist or a magician – you bring those elements in to build your own character. You can build your own character, and that character can be anywhere.”
Clowning, as Veena describes it, is a form of physical theatre. “It’s an art form. It is still part of physical theatre and there are so many other forms related to clowning like bouffon, miming, and even traditional Sri Lankan comedic styles and traditions that have many elements of physical theatre,” Veena shared.
She added: “We work with theories from French physical theatre artists. One of them developed the concept of entering physical theatre using masks. The clown mask is the smallest mask in the world – the red nose.”
Finding the funny
Clown Compass began as a series of grassroots ‘clown camps’ in 2023, where Veena and Thiwanka conducted workshops with children and young people in Anuradhapura, Mannar, Jaffna, and Galle.
The Clown Compass core team today includes artists Kasun Ukwaththa, Baskar Krushan, Chamudi Ishinika Ranaweera, Yoshi Perera, Ranidu Madushan, Tharindu Viduranga, Dikshan Ganegoda, Dinu Senewirathna, Erandi, and Kasun Banagala.
The Clown Compass journey has been shaped by a number of key supporters. “Nothing will work if not for my mother,” Veena shared. “Leena Seneheweera, our biggest supporter, gave us her house in Colombo to use as our artist residency and company house.”
She also credits Kokila Nissanka, her schoolteacher who recognised her unique path early on and encouraged her, and mentors like Sulochana Dissanayake of Power of Play and Seema Omar. Sulochana, in particular, helped Thiwanka realise the potential of theatre for healing.
Most recently, Clown Compass performed at the Kolamba Kamatha theatre festival, one of Sri Lanka’s biggest trilingual theatre festivals to date. Their performance, influenced by Sri Lankan folklore, was a chance for them to explore the power of clowning as a medium of performing art.
“When the organisers spoke to us, our first thought was, ‘what about a folk character moving around talking about the programme?’” Veena recalled. “We were already working on building folk trickster characters into clown characters. Clowning is so foreign to Sri Lanka, even though our folklore has comedians and tricksters. We wanted to bring all those cultures together.”
From that spark, Clown Compass developed four clown characters for their performance at Kolamba Kamatha, drawing inspiration from both Tamil and Sinhala folktales. “We had Andare, his best friend Moorthy who was inspired by Tamil theatre, and then two grandmothers – one was the traditional Sri Lankan grandmother we built last year, and the other was a Western grandma who speaks in English,” she said.
Veena also shared how this approach perfectly illustrated clowning as a form of performing art, noting that clowns were not necessarily random figures with a red nose doing silly things to amuse an audience. In actuality, every clown has a persona that is informed by their own skills, and of course, their taste.
Speaking about her own most frequent clown persona, a Western-style grandmother character she first developed during her physical theatre training in the US, Veena shared that this character was inspired by her own grandmother, who had dementia, channelling a mix of vulnerability, warmth, and cheeky irreverence into the role.
“She had birthed and raised six kids,” Veena recalled, noting how this image became a visual cue for her character’s physicality. While the original version had to be toned down for Sri Lankan audiences, the heart of the character – her tender unpredictability and her connection with the audience – remains central.
Veena’s professional training and lived experiences helps her bring nuance and emotional depth to the role, creating a clown who is both humorous and profoundly human.
Thiwanka’s character took shape more organically and emerged from his background in traditional Sri Lankan theatre and music. A trained actor and musician, he blends these disciplines into his clown work, writing and performing kavi (poems) that add a lyrical and cultural texture to his character.
“The poems don’t need to be perfect,” he said, reflecting the improvisational and inclusive spirit of his clowning. His character, initially created for the Kamatha performance, draws from folk storytelling and performance traditions, allowing him to bridge the past and present.
Although clowning is new to him, Thiwanka’s grounding in movement, rhythm, and Sinhala theatre gives his clown an earthy, musical quality that resonates deeply with local audiences.
More than just laughs
A key part of Clown Compass’s mission is using clowning for healing and education. “I found clowning to be very healing as an art form,” Veena said. “It was a brilliant form to express your feelings without hurting anybody or yourself. It’s an art form to engage with communities. Joy is a universal language.”
Their performances break theatrical norms. “We break the fourth wall,” Veena noted. “There is no audience – we include them in the show.” As teaching artists, Veena and Thiwanka use clowning to encourage self-expression and resilience.
“Our slogan is ‘embracing mistakes and spreading joy,’” said Thiwanka. “It’s the most basic way of learning – through making mistakes. If you’re going to do something and you make a mistake, say it’s my mistake and do it again. That’s what I wanted to do with kids. Kids get it. They learn fast and it’s good for them.”
One of the biggest challenges Clown Compass faces is the public’s limited understanding of clowning.
“It’s a challenge we face every day,” said Veena. “When we tell people we’re a clown company, they don’t understand the form, mainly because clowning is used to sell products. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the problem is that comedy isn’t well received. Folk theatre is based on comedy, but there’s still a huge distance.”
To counter that, the team makes a clear distinction. “We’re not clowns; we’re full-time artists and teaching artists. In our performance life, we’re clowns. That’s the first rule we follow in our workshops,” she said.
Clown Compass also draws inspiration from global clowning movements. “There are so many ways clowning is used in the world – medical clowning, hospital clowning, and activism,” said Veena.
“There’s this company called Clowns Without Borders, based in the US. They travel around the world, spread joy, and go to marginalised communities and war zones. One day, we hope to collaborate with them,” she added.
She also highlighted bouffon, a darker form of clowning used for protest. “Bouffon helps you talk about topics no one wants to discuss. Comedy comes from things we are not comfortable talking about. It helps make things easier to digest.”
“We want people to see Clown Compass not only as an entertainment company,” said Veena. “We’re rooted in education. We want to bring clowning into the education system and try to push change, especially with kids.
“Kids don’t have to be perfect. That pressure can be overwhelming. Through clown camps, we have had kids say, ‘This is the first time I have had so much joy in my life.’ That we are allowed to be who we are and make mistakes – that’s what we are pushing.”
Looking ahead, Clown Compass hopes to create a mobile theatre. “Our ultimate goal is to build a clown bus and travel to different locations in Sri Lanka,” said Veena. “There are communities that have never seen theatre. We want to go to them and bring them joy.”
Thiwanka noted: “Laughter is medicinal. Through clowning, we can bring healing to people and communities. Clown Compass is still a tiny baby, but we know it’s growing in the right direction.”
And in a world that often takes itself too seriously, perhaps we need more clowns after all.