From S.Shakthidharan:
Counting and Cracking is dedicated to Lingamani Rajarayan (1933 -2018), affectionately known to me as “Chinni”. Chinni was the first person in my family to open up to me about Sri Lanka. We sat in her kitchen in London and over several days of Scrabble and curry she talked and I listened. Her spirit is woven into the fabric of this story. My only disappointment in the making of this work is that Chinni is not here to see it.
Counting and Cracking features direct quotes from a diverse array of people: Sri Lankan politician (and mathematician) C. Suntharalingam (with the permission of his family), Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge (with the permission of his brother Lal), Yolngu women and artists (and dear friends) Rosealee Pearson and Rarriwuy Hick (with the permission of their families), and my mother Anandavalli. Counting and Cracking is a work of fiction and there is no intention for any of its characters to represent or reference anyone in real life. Nevertheless, real life has occasionally worked its way into the story, as it almost always does.
Anjalendran is an architect and my grandaunt’s son. We sat at his dining table in the first house he built – his own home, in Colombo. Over lamprais and Chindian takeaway we read aloud my great-grandfather’s public articles and private letters. These were bold and confronting missives. Anjalendran’s resulting frank and honest thoughts on our troubled history did not diminish his pride or sense of belonging to Sri Lanka. I continue to be inspired by his fearless approach to a truthful reconciliation with our past.
Anushya took my wife and I to Jaffna before my mother was ready to go back there. To go to Jaffna for the first time is like an exhalation. There is an impossible amount of expectation before your arrival, and then a slow release as you cross over to the peninsula. You witness a region that is re-building and re-imagining itself, and amidst all that you glimpse the remains of the life that your family once had, long ago. The temple they once helped build and now only donate to. Their old home with its new occupiers. It was on this trip that I first started to understand our ancestral homeland and the fullness of the Sri Lankan picture. Anushya guided us through this complexity with endless patience and a quiet, deep intelligence.
My mother did not talk to me about Sri Lanka in any deep way for the first thirty odd years of my life. She had closed her heart to the country. She has witnessed the development of this work – been a quiet presence for many of the research conversations, attended each of the readings and the showings. The process of making this work has changed her. She is reconciling with her homeland, and has started talking about Ceylon again. In doing so, she has made the choice to be vulnerable. I am grateful for that. It is the hard choice, but we are immeasurably better for it, as artistic collaborators on this project, and as mother and son.
My wife Aimée is the only other person who has known about this play since the beginning. She has seen it as a series of placards pasted up on the wall of a little hut in Tasmania. She has seen all the alternate versions that no one else will ever see. She knew what this work could be before I did. It is through her I found the confidence to write a story like this.
There are many other people who can’t be mentioned publicly – people who would be labelled things like bureaucrats or prisoners, but who spoke to me with a sense of shared humanity across all of society, no matter their individual position. These people shared at length their most private thoughts and I can only hope that I have adequately honoured their generosity with this story.
A number of unusual and unlikely opportunities were strung together to make writing a work like this a possibility. The years of research and the first scenes were supported through an Australia Council for the Arts Young Artists Initiative grant in 2008 – an opportunity that is no longer available. The first drafts were written during my time as Associate Artist at Carriageworks, where absolutely no restrictions were put on what I might do with my time there, from 2013 – 2015. But the infrastructure of an independent artist alone cannot support a work of this size. Since 2011 Counting and Cracking has been shepherded by CuriousWorks and Co-Curious, forming a part of their program. It is a long time to have a work in development – but without that kind of longevity works like this simply cannot happen. Since 2013 Eamon Flack and the Belvoir team have done everything in their power to make this story reach our mainstage. Eamon did not try to change this work to fit into pre-existing structures. Instead he took a leap of faith to make something new, in a new way. We have made this work together.
Counting and Cracking was made through ongoing collaboration between Belvoir and Co-Curious, and S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack – across writing, producing and direction.
Translations
Tamil – Kulasegaram Sanchayan
Sinhala – Nadya Perera
With the support of Ahilan Karunaharan, Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Nipuni Sharada and Nadie Kammallaweera
The 2024 Season of Counting and Cracking in Melbourne, Sydney and New York is supported by:
Visionary Producer
Playking Foundation
Kim Williams AM & Catherine Dovey
Arun Abey, Sophie & Stephen Allen, Dan & Jackie Phillips, and Shemara Wikramanayake & Ed Gilmartin, with Macquarie Group Foundation
Nelson Meers Foundation
Lead Producer
Karen Moses
Major Producer
Penelope Seidler
Bob & Chris Ernst
Thomas & Ingeborg Girgensohn
Victoria Taylor
Producer
Bill Hawker & Mary Bolt
Marion Heathcote & Brian Burfitt
Linda Herd
Sri Lankan Airlines
Toni Wren
Supporter
Fiona Menzies
We also give our heartfelt thanks to our Gamechangers Producers’ Syndicate of visionary individuals whose support for Counting and Cracking since 2017 has made a landmark contribution to Australian theatre. This support includes creative development, 2019 seasons at Sydney Festival and Adelaide Festival, 2022 international tour to Edinburgh and Birmingham.
Visionary Producers: David Gonski AC & Dr Orli Wargon OAM, Macquarie Group Foundation, Simon Mordant AO & Catriona Mordant AM, Neilson Foundation, Nelson Meers Foundation. The Thyne Reid Foundation is acknowledged for their support of Counting and Cracking through Belvoir’s Western Sydney initiatives in 2017.
Lead Producers: Patty Akopiantz and Justin Punch, Sophie and Stephen Allen, Doc Ross Family Foundation, Oranges and Sardines Foundation, Rob Thomas AM, Naomi Milgrom Foundation, Shemara Wikramanayake and Ed Gilmartin, Kim Williams AM and Catherine Dovey
Major Producers: Max Bonnell, Jane and Andrew Clifford, Sue Donnelly, The Horizon Foundation, Dan and Jackie Philips, John Pickhaver, Mark and Jacqueline Warburton
Producers: Sophie and Steven Allen, Mehrdad and Roya Baghai, Jessica Block, Andrew Cameron AM and Cathy Cameron, Bob and Chris Ernst, The Hand Up Foundation, Ruveni and Craig Kelleher, Victoria Taylor, The Wales Family Foundation
Supporters: Anne Britton, Knights Family Jabula Foundation, Lisa O’Brien, Belinda and Steve Rankine, Rob White and Lisa Hamilton, Frank Willenberg
