Dear Children, Sincerely: Rwanda–Sri Lanka Collaboration

An eclectic ensemble performance recounting the tragic post-colonial histories of Rwanda and Sri Lanka

Dear Children, Sincerely: Rwanda–Sri Lanka Collaboration is an ensemble performance that takes audiences back into colonial and post-colonial Rwanda and Sri Lanka, in a kaleidoscopic journey exploring the parallel histories of these two countries, set continents apart.

Directed by acclaimed playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera, this production - a collaboration between Stages Theatre Group, Sri Lanka, and Mashirika, Rwanda - opened the very first  Ubumuntu Arts Festival, created by Hope Azeda in Rwanda in 2015. Artists of both countries interviewed senior citizens born in the 1930s, who had experienced colonization and journeyed out of it. They then turned these interviews into stories.

The play comprises three such stories.

Story One – Seven Decades Deep - a parallel historical journey that moves between Rwanda and Sri Lanka from 1930 to 1990; snapshotting stories of colonization, independence, exile,  insurrections, and genocide.  

Story Two – Marriage, Sex and Love - a humorous merging of traditional wedding customs between the two countries, exploring how older Rwandan and Sri Lankan generations experienced family and matrimony. 

Story Three – Upside Down Land - delves into the complete physical and psychological collapse that a society can fall into when subject to prolonged periods of anarchy and terror. It draws from Rwanda’s and Sri Lanka’s dark histories of genocide, pogroms, and civil war. 

DCS Rwanda-Sri Lanka Collaboration was the first play created under the broader Dear  Children, Sincerely (DCS) theatre research project, initiated in Sri Lanka in 2015, which gathers stories from elders born in the 1930s and presents them to younger generations through live performance. More than 70 senior citizens have been interviewed through the DCS project, and to date, 25 stories have been created. 

The international cast of this show has reunited after ten years for this performance. The show was previously shown in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, India, and Kashmir.