R. R. Samarakoon

Ranasinghe Rajapakse Samarakoon (17 July 1939 – 1 August 2010; ) [Sinhala]), popularly known as R.R. Samarakoon, was a Sri Lankan dramatist, playwright, translator and author. One of the earliest pillars of Sri Lankan drama, he is well known for several stage plays directed and produced in 1970s including Kelani Palama and Ahasin Wetunu Minissu.

Personal life Samarakoon was born on 14 August 1939 in Dekinda village, Nawalapitiya. He started primary education from St Andrew's Girls College, Nawalapitiya and secondary education from Kingswood College, Kandy. He worked as a teacher of Kingswood for a brief period. Later he moved to Colombo for clerk post of co-operative wholesale corporation Sathosa. Later he worked as a translator and also held the post of Institutional Manager. In 1982, he was transferred to Jaffna for a political revenge. Instead, he quit his job and returned home. In 1995 he got back to work.

Samarakoon was married to Molly Srima Samarakoon and the couple had their first daughter born in October 1978. Her name was Niluka Tharangi Samarakoon. Unfortunately his marriage didn't last long and after 7 years he separated and lived together with a popular artist Ramya Wanigasekara She was born on 17 July in Kotiyakumbura, Kegalle as the fifth child in a family with seven siblings. Her father from Hettimulla, Kegalle was an estate superintendent and mother was from Eheliyagoda. Ramya has two elder sisters, two elder brothers and two younger brothers. She started primary education from Ampe Maha Vidyalaya, Kotiyakumbura. After attending to many school, she completed education finally from Ruwanwella Royal College.

The affair started during the stage play Kelani Palama. The Samarakoon and Ramaya Wanigasekara had their daughter in 1989, her name was Buddhika Mudithani. Buddhika acted in Kelani Palama in little age as "Surangani".

Samarakoon died on 1 August 2010 at the age of 71 following a brief illness. His remains were kept at his residence, No 45, Dibbadda Road, Thalpitiya, Wadduwa North. The funeral was held at the Wadduwa cemetery in August 2010.

Career During school times, Samarakoon played a female role in the school play Vidura. However, he quit from acting since then and started to script writing. He wrote a detective story while in the school, which was later published as a novel Wes Muhunu. Samarakoon enters drama as a pioneer in bringing together Sathosa artists and creating Sathosa art in 1967. His first play was produced in 1968 under the direction of Sathosa Drama Circle.

In 1965, Samarakoon made his maiden stage play Ledak Nethi Ledek. Samarakoon's second play is Charitha Dekak which came on stage under the direction of Sathosa Drama Circle in 1967. The play is considered to be a psychoanalytic work on gender relations. He went England, France, USA and many other countries to stage the drama as well. His award winning novel Ge Kurullo won the award for the best work of fiction in 1971. The book was also translated into Russian and Tamil languages. Earlier he selected actress Chandra Kaluarachchi for the main role "Matilda". However she was pregnant at that time, where Samarakoon shifted to popular radio artist and his future wife Ramya Wanigasekara for the role. Still after his death, Wanigasekara produced the play and acted in the role for 41 consecutive years. The play is considered as a milestone in history of Sri Lankan theater. In 1994, he wrote the novel Eka Kuse Upan Evun which is considered as one of his best publications. His only poem collection was Rathriya Awadi Nowe released in 2002.