'Thatta Gaayikaawa', Sinhala adaptation of Romanian-born French dramatist Eugène Ionesco’s one-act “anti-play” La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano, 1949) to be launched as a book. Thatta Gaayikaawa is translated by Kanchuka Dharmasiri and Lohan Gunaweera. It has being staged nearly 15 years in Sri Lanka.

The launch of the book will be held at the National Library and Documentation Services Board Auditorium, Colombo on September 2 at 3 pm. A discussion forum on Thatta Gaayikaawa, and a theatre translation in general will follow the initial talks by Prof. Asoka de Zoysa, Prof. Sivamohan Sumathy, veteran photographer Hemantha Arunasiri and Prof. Arjuna Parakrama. Thatta Gaayikaawa is published by Star Plus Publications.

The book also includes Sinhala translations of three articles that Eugène Ionesco wrote, namely, The Bald Soprano, Martin Esslin’s ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’, and an essay by Kanchuka Dharmasiri that reflects on the process of translating for the theatre.