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STORIES OF THE SEA : VOICES FROM MANNAR
A world Oceans Day theatre & performance collaboration by Stages Theatre Group, Beru Art and Cultural Foundation(India), and the Community artists of Mannar
Event Details
A community theatre performance celebrating World Oceans Day, honouring the deep connection between people and ocean, and the urgent threats they face.
Event Dates:
📅 Sunday, 7 June 2026
⏱️ 5:00pm (Fully Booked)
⏱️ 7:00pm (Second show opened due to popular demand)
Location:
📍 BMICH Kamatha, The New Theatre, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Event Overview
Join us for a powerful World Oceans Day theatre event showcasing the lived experiences, wisdom, and creativity of coastal communities from Mannar, Sri Lanka.
Featuring stories of love for the ocean, intergenerational knowledge, and the challenges brought by climate change, destructive infrastructure developments, and ecological degradation, this performance invites audiences to witness the deep ties between community and sea.
Event Details:
- Date: 7 June 2026
- Showtimes: 5:00pm
- Venue: BMICH Kamatha, The New Theatre, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Entry: Free (Registration required)
Please plan to arrive 15 minutes earlier.
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Take the pledge instead to protect the environment
About the Performance
This special performance is created as part of World Oceans Day 2026, bringing together community leaders, fisherfolk, youth, and artists from Mannar to tell the story of their ocean, its beauty, its abundance, and its fragility.
Through movement, song, storytelling, and theatre, audiences will travel through memories of the coast, witness the strength of a community living with the ocean, and explore the threats that now endanger this precious place.
The performance asks:
How do we protect the ocean that protects us?
STAGES Theatre Company
One of Sri Lanka’s most long-standing theatre ensembles, known for creative storytelling grounded in social issues and community engagement.
Beru Arts & Cultural Foundation / Adavi Arts Collective
A multidisciplinary group working across South Asia to amplify local cultures, support arts-based activism, and work alongside communities facing climate and environmental injustice.
Adavi Arts Collective
A Bengaluru-based performance collective that works to revive and reimagine traditional folk arts through music, theatre, storytelling, and movement. Rooted in the history and spirit of the Parai drum, Adavi uses performance as a space for celebration, resistance, and social equality, bringing together artists across communities to create powerful contemporary cultural experiences grounded in identity, justice, and collective expression.
Community Artists from Mannar
Fisherfolk, elders, youth groups, women’s collectives, and local leaders who have shaped the stories and bring them to life on stage.
Together, these partners have co-created a performance that is rooted in lived experience and guided by local voices.