Seni Seneviratne is a writer and an artist of English and Sri Lankan heritage who
collaborates with film-makers, visual artists and musicians. Her poetry is featured in the AQA GCSE exam
syllabus and she is published in anthologies and magazines, recently 100 Queer Poems (Penguin) and New
England Review. She recently co-edited Out of Sri Lanka, a newly published Bloodaxe anthology of
Tamil, Sinhala and English poetry and she is working on an LGBTQ project with Sheffield Museums entitled
Queering the Archive and her fourth collection, The Go-Away Bird was published in 2023. WORD! Team
members, Radiya Allom and Saira Mohan asked the questions…
1) What does togetherness mean to me?
If I were to give a broad brush answer it would include words like relationship, family, friends,
community, love, acceptance, inclusion, the joy of difference connecting in harmony, humanity and sharing
values that enable everyone to thrive and survive. Fo the finer detail a few recent moments:
gardening with the beloved woman I share my life with; having lunch with my precious daughter;catching up
with my darling granddaughters; talking with trusted friends; being part of an LGBTQ choir and
singing together; joining like-minded people on rallies and peace camps for Palestine; collaborating with
creative artists.
2) How do I feel about the show?
I’m very happy with the show – its turned out even better than I’d hoped. I think it
does justice to my father’s story and the history of my mixed heritage family. I love the way
we have managed to combine different elements to make the story more accessible. I’ve learnt a
lot in the making of it and worked with some amazing creatives.
3) What inspired me? How did I integrate multi-media elements..?
My book Unknown Soldier was born out of silences. Particularly my father’s silences about
his war years. At its heart an album of photos – the only surviving record of a friendship
between two signalmen who served in the Royal Signals Corps in the North African desert war. One of them
was my father a young man from colonial Ceylon, the other was an unknown photographer whose voice I
discovered in the writing of the book. After the book was published in 2019 I had this longing
to do more with the photographs and to create a piece of work that allowed the two men to speak for
themselves through the voice of actors. Melanie Abrahams at Renaissance One encouraged
me to apply for an Arts Council Grant and gave me a lot of help and support in putting the application
together. It developed from there into a one-woman show and exhibition.
The Arts Council funding enabled me to work with a very skilled team of creative artists to create the
finished work. It developed in a collaborative way. I was very fortunate to be able to work
with Amanda Huxtable on developing a script and storyboard. Gavin Repton the filmmaker and James
Waring the sound and design consultant were excellent collaborators. The three of us
talked through how best we could pull all the elements together. We tried various things out, experimented
with ideas. It took a lot of work to get the final elements working well together for the staged
performance. The whole project was held and supported by Melanie as curator and Renaissance One as
producers.
4) How do themes of togetherness, home and belonging manifest …?
I don’t approach my work with any kind of mission or desire to communicate particular messages.
I write from the heart, my authentic place and whatever is in there comes out on the page.
5) How do I navigate the challenge…?
My starting point is to maintain authenticity and honesty in my work. In this case staying
true to my personal narrative was important and it was very helpful to be able to discuss with Melanie and
Amanda how to present material that might be triggering for some members of an audience.
Seni Seneviratne 18/06/24
Seni Seneviratne will be headlining WORD! Renaissance One
and BrightSparks present Spoken WORD! Summer, this Saturday, 22nd June from 6pm at Attenborough Arts
Centre. You can book tickets by ringing 0116 2522455, by visiting the theatre website
www.attenborougharts.com or by doing so in person at the venue.
