MEET VISHESH
ART IS A LIFELINE
Vishesh Abeyratne, playwright of Teesri Duniya Theatre’s new production, White Lion, Brown Tiger, Oct. 14-23 in Montreal.
Name: Vishesh Abeyratne. My first name is the Sanskrit word for “special”. Thanks everyone – no pressure!
Currently: The world premiere of my play White Lion, Brown Tiger is at Teesri Duniya Theatre in Montreal, October 14-23, 2025. I am working on a science fiction-horror tragedy called The Agony Market, as well as editing my first collection of poetry. I am also trying to put my play Blood Offering on more stages across Canada after putting it up in Ottawa last year.
My life in 50 words (or less!): I’m a playwright, poet, aspiring librarian, and budding anarchist. I adore literature and theatre. I believe that art, along with free and equitable access to information, is a lifeline in a world that insists on making us dumber and meaner.
The playwright in me took flight when: I was in high school, taking drama as an optional course. As an assignment, my whole class had to write a play together and perform in it. I wrote all the scenes where my character was on stage. When parents and friends came to see it, their reactions made me feel like a live wire had been run through me in the best possible way. I was hooked.
The creative in me wishes: To make good trouble.
My favourite line in poetry: They dance best who dance with desire / Who lifting feet of fire from fire. / Weave before they lie down / a red carpet for the sun. – Irving Layton
Favourite colours: Pitch black and blood red.
Favourite designer: Hirbawi – the last kufiya factory in Palestine.
Favourite movie: Pan’s Labyrinth – darkly beautiful, fiercely political, timelessly existential.
Favourite books: Invisible Man, The Fire Next Time, Beloved, Things Fall Apart, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Frankenstein, The Metamorphosis.
Favourite TV shows: Black Mirror and The Good Place.
Favourite ice cream flavour: Mint chocolate chip.
Favourite cuisine: Mexican, Greek, Italian, Lebanese.
Favourite restaurant: Too many to name.
Favourite activities: Reading, writing, acting, cooking, hiking.
I hang out: Lately in the libraries on the Western University campus, where I am studying for my MLIS.
I’m freaked out by: Wildfires. Rising sea levels. Melting permafrost.
I need: creativity and love – I’m fortunate to have plenty of both in my life.
My role models: James Baldwin for his moral clarity, Oscar Wilde for his wit and irreverence, and Franz Kafka for his nightmarish sense of the absurd.
Tips to save the planet: Direct action against corporations statistically responsible for the most environmental destruction is the only way to go. Recycling your plastic straw ain’t gonna cut it anymore, if it ever did.
In a perfect world: We would have no need for utopias.
CHANGE THE WORLD ONE PLAY AT A TIME
The world premiere of Vishesh Abeyratne’s White Lion, Brown Tiger roars with humour and powerful themes. This is the first Sri Lankan-Canadian play produced in Montreal.
For Abeyratne, as fascism and far-right racism run rampant in the US and begin to gain ground in Canada, staging White Lion, Brown Tiger means participating in an act of creative rebellion. Continuing the company’s mandate of all-women directors, Michelle Soicher is at the helm. Rahul Varma, artistic director of Teesri Duniya Theatre is proud to present this thought-provoking show playing at Rangshala Studio at Cité-des-Hospitalières from October 11-23. Continuing their mandate to encourage dialogue, the company will hold post-show talkbacks after each performance. The play contains strong language.
This darkly witty and action-packed piece takes place in 2019 in a thrift shop, where a heated exchange between two Sri Lankan employees – Lasantha, a Sinhalese-Canadian, and Rishan, a recent Tamil immigrant – breaks out into a fight. Their manager Tiffany tries to defuse the situation, bringing intracultural tensions and racial politics to the fore. However, there is more to the conflict than the two men are letting on... Audiences will shift from laughing at the absurdity to shocked silence.
“This play asks audiences to consider its racialized characters as human – sometimes deeply flawed and at times quite unlikable – and not in the warm, fuzzy, heartwarming and dare I say, ‘Canadian’ sense that eases the liberal conscience,” said Abeyratne. “I grew up isolated from the larger Sri Lankan community in the suburbs of Côte Saint-Luc; for much of my youth race was not terribly significant to my identity. I however became drawn to the damaging effects of the model minority myth and the burden of representation.”
White Lion, Brown Tiger is a charged exploration of workplace, systemic and internalized racism; toxic masculinity; sexual harassment; the complex nature of male friendships; performative allyship; and the ripple effects of inherited, unprocessed and weaponized trauma in the aftermath of the 26-year civil war which finally ended in 2009.
Twenty-five per cent of Quebec’s visible minorities are foreign-born, carrying the scars of war, human rights abuse and exile. White Lion, Brown Tiger honours the contribution of Sri Lankans in Canada, showcasing a marginalized community.
One of director Michelle Soicher’s challenges was how to level the playing field. “We worked on how to have the characters swap from hero to villain throughout the play,” she said. “The script presented the opportunity to discuss sexism in the context of other cultural issues rather than in a vacuum. I am fascinated with how these two men hold multiple truths at once the way all people do. For a precious few moments in the play these combatants relate and empathize with one another. When they stop fighting between each other they can focus on the real forces working against them.”
Soicher stylized the fisticuffs having the characters fight with the clothing around them, “It’s like a food fight but with socks, bras and sweaters,” she reveals.
From Natasha Fagant (Tiffany), “Everyone will see something they probably don't like about themselves in this show and it’s something we need to talk about.”
Keith Fernandez (Lasantha): “In the Western world people from Asia are often homogenized into one clump. This piece is a reminder that South Asian cultures are extremely diverse, nuanced and rich.”
Matt Lacas (Rishan) identifies deeply with themes in the play, “Although over the years I’ve worked hard to learn about the culture, I grew up without a true connection to my heritage and still fear I’m not brown enough to authentically tell these stories.”
When and where: Teesri Duniya Theatre presents White Lion, Brown Tiger. Written by Vishesh Abeyratne, directed by Michelle Soicher, performed by Natasha Fagant, Keith Fernandez and Matt Lacas. October 11-23 at Rangshala Studio, Cité-des-Hospitalières, Montreal. Tickets: $22-$28, discounts for students, seniors and groups here, 514-848-0238, tickets@teesriduniyatheatre.com