• Sri Lanka’s biggest giant puppet used to convey a powerful message this Women’s Day

Storytelling is one of the most powerful mediums there is. It has the power to broaden the mind, challenge how we think, and give us room to reflect. It is on occasions like International Women’s Day that we often get to witness the power of storytelling. From relating the issues that women face to telling the stories of inspiring women who have been able to achieve great things, storytelling allows us to celebrate women on this special day. 

This year, CR & FC celebrated International Women’s Day against the backdrop of its centenary year, with a special performance featuring Sri Lanka’s tallest female puppet from Power of Play designed to empower the audience to #EmbraceEquity for International Women’s Day 2023. 

Power of Play (POP) uses the power of storytelling and mixes it with the even more powerful medium of theatre and puppets to create meaningful stories that drive social change. Founded in 2011 by Artistic Director Sulochana Dissanayake, POP is a company that utilises performing arts for communication, with a special focus on puppetry and theatre. As an organisation, POP has held empowering women and girls close to its heart since its inception. 

The Sunday Morning Brunch chatted with Sulochana about Sri Lanka’s tallest female puppet – Saama – and what Saama meant for empowerment. In a country where women have achieved massive feats but still face daily discrimination in private and public spaces, Power of Play believes that all girls can be giants if raised and supported to be so. 

Sri Lanka’s tallest female puppet

At 14 ft, Saama – the little girl giant – is the tallest female puppet of Sri Lanka. She pays homage to the females (both known and unknown) who have achieved herculean feats while facing equal challenges. Her presence is a reminder for every girl and woman to unapologetically tap into their full giant potential and for allies to extend their fullest support for them to do so.

Saama was inspired by Les Grandes Personnes (a giant puppet company from the south of France) and was built in Sri Lanka in 2018 by Felix Norgren, a Swedish puppeteer in collaboration with Power of Play (Pvt) Ltd. and Dilmah’s MJF Foundation as an income generation project for youth. 

Speaking on what inspired her to bring to life a giant puppet, Sulochana explained that she first saw giant puppets in 2009 as part of the Watson Fellowship programme in South Africa: “We took a turn and saw this family of giant puppets lumbering by and everything and everyone just stopped. I thought this was a fantastic medium with which to get people’s attention. The presence of a giant puppet is just fascinating. It delights people of all ages because they just feel tiny in its presence. I just knew we had to bring them down to Sri Lanka.”

Actually making this happen was easier said than done, however, and for more than five years, Sulochana worked on trying to raise funds to be able to bring down puppeteers who could make Sri Lanka’s first giant puppet. Eventually, in 2018, Swedish puppeteer Felix Norgren, at his own expense, visited Sri Lanka for three weeks to construct the giant puppet that would become Saama, in collaboration with the MJF Foundation. 

“You need a village to build a giant,” Sulochana explained, and Dilmah’s MJF Foundation provided that village. “We had a lot of adult and child volunteers; people who were part of MJF’s youth programme, part of the centre, other beneficiaries – they all came and volunteered and built Saama over three weeks.” 

In addition to being Sri Lanka’s tallest female puppet, Saama is also very sustainable – her original design comes from Les Grandes Personnes and 60% of Saama’s design comes from recycled materials. Her hair, for example, is made from recycled Dilmah Tea labels. 

The storytelling behind Saama

Through 2019 and 2020, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, POP created and implemented a powerful story on women’s rights and gender roles through the puppetry play ‘Why? Saama,’ a story that follows a day in the life of Saama, a little girl from a normal family. 

‘Why? Saama’ takes place as a tabletop puppet performance and throughout the performance, stereotypical questions on gender are cleverly intertwined and addressed, with Saama questioning stereotypes and looking to the audience for their views, creating a safe, inclusive space for children to enjoy, learn, and engage in the presence of their teachers. 

Symbolically, once Saama overcomes the fears ingrained into her by society and gender roles, she grows, becoming larger and transforming from a tabletop puppet into a 14-foot tall giant puppet, showing the powerful visual of a little girl towering over everyone else by overcoming her fears and defying stereotypes.

To date, with the support of British Council Sri Lanka, ‘Why? Saama’ has engaged with 8,870 students and teachers across the country. In 2019, it entered the State Children’s Drama Festival, winning second place in the Best Play of the Year category and awards for Best Stage Management, Best Costumes, Best Music Composition, and Special Jury Award for Best Choreography. 

Embracing Equity

POP’s Saama-centric performance to mark International Women’s Day with CR & FC focused around the theme #EmbraceEquity. For many reasons, including logistics and budget, the performance took a different approach than the traditional telling of ‘Why? Saama’. “This particular performance was not a performance of the story ‘Why? Saama,’ but a special short performance all about girls being giants,” Sulocana explained of the concept behind #EmbraceEquity. 

Instead of the usual cast of characters of ‘Why? Saama,’ #EmbraceEquity focused on the giant puppet herself accompanied by dances. “Because the budgets were limited, we could only afford four professional dancers (normally giants are accompanied by 40 dancers), but we reached out to the female rugby team and invited them to be part of the performance. They were happy to join and were incredible dancers. The female Police Performance Dance Troupe also joined in the performance. Unfortunately, the male rugby team had a match the following day and so they couldn’t attend.” 

#EmbraceEquity took place in the form of two interactive dance performance slots of 15 minutes each, one focused on Sri Lankan baila music and dance and the other on Indian Bollywood dance. 

“#EmbraceEquity was also about the importance of allowing support for both boys and girls to achieve their dreams and this came through from the start, with the visual of Saama the giant being carried by a boy,” Sulochana shared. “This Is a very powerful visual for youth and men to show that the men in women’s lives play a vital role in supporting those women to become their giant selves. We wanted everyone to visualise supporting the women in their lives to reach their full giant potential, just as we support boys and men to achieve theirs.”

For more information on Saama and giant puppets, visit www.powerofplay.lk