By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana

Hunchback of Notre Dame, a mega musical stage production, will hit Colombo’s theatre on Friday, October 9th and run for ten days. It is expected to fascinate thousands of English theatre lovers, who were waiting to witness yet another great play. 

Victor Hugo’s French gothic classic will be reintroduced as a grand-scale musical, as the Workshop Players, backed by Oxford College of Business, are to bring over 120 amateur artistes on a complex set at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo from October 9th to 18th to recreate 15th-century Paris.

The Daily Mirror Life met the lead cast of the dual-cast ensemble masterpiece directed by seasoned Sri Lankan theatre artiste Surein de Silva Wijeyeratne and the production team led by Artistic Director and Producer Jerome de Silva, Music Directors Nishantha Warnakulasuriya and Vindula Perera, with Choreographer Ayushka Nugaliyadda.

Nine of the ten principal cast members of the dual cast ensemble for the five leading roles of Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Dom Claude Frollo, Captain Phoebus and Clopin Trouillefou shared their candid views on their latest production and said how excited they were to be a part of it.

50 fresh faces introduced from Hunchback of Notre Dame  
Experienced Sri Lankan theatre artist cum Director of the Hunchback of Notre Dame Surein de Silva Wijeyeratne claimed his passion project took almost four years to come into existence, while the biggest problem he had to overcome was to obtain performing rights from Disney.

“It is one of the most technically and musically challenging productions we have ever done with a cast of about 80 people of singers, actors and dancers on stage to do this. And another crew of about 40 people was required for behind-the-scenes support. So to make the show work, we needed about 120 people, all of whom are amateurs, and they all do it because they love it.

We have a very exciting mix of experienced as well as new actors and dancers. This includes young people who want to get into theatre and also very senior workshoppers who have been performing for the past 15 to 20 years.

We had about 200 people coming for auditions, who all said that they wanted to take part. So from that, we picked the 80 people that we want to work with. Once these people join, they all become workshoppers, and from that, 50 new faces will be introduced as first-timers. It's a nice mix of experienced and young people together,” Surein said.

This is the first fully licensed amateur adult Disney production 

Incumbent President of the Workshop Players and the lead role actor for  Quasimodo of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dr Sean Amarasekera, said they were talking to Music Theatre International since last December to get the license to do the play in Sri Lanka.

“It took a long time for us to get confirmation of what we were going to do. Since December 2025, we have been mailing the MTI, and it is the first fully licensed amateur, adult Disney production in Sri Lanka.

And the reason why people don't do musicals quite often is that they are prohibitively expensive. So we needed sponsors to come on board, and thankfully this year we got Oxford College of Business to support us.

We have tickets ranging from Rs. 2,500 in the balcony to Rs.10, 000 and what we all expect with this kind of massive production is our lovely Sri Lankan audience to come and enjoy this play,” Dr Sean added. 

Quasimodo demands a lot of  physical preparation 
Renowned stage actor Rehan Almeida, who shares the lead role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Dr Sean Amarasekera, says the main character demands a lot of physical preparation when presenting it to the audience.

“From the time he is on stage, we have to show a lot of disabilities, from his limp to his hunch and his hearing impairment to his way of singing and speech impediment, as the outside world sees him in a different way. 

Also, there are lots of different elements to bring out of his character, like being somewhat naïve and then the embodiment of good as someone who was brought up in a sacred background. So it is very much a challenge, but it's a nice challenge to be able to do all that through song as well as through the spoken word,” Rehan said.

Priests also have temptations and vulnerabilities 
Seasoned actor Mario de Zoysa, who’s sharing the role of Dom Claude Frollo with Kanishka Herath, believes that justice has to be done to the role, as many have seen it through the Disney cartoon, the most popular of the hunchback story, as a one-dimensional character, who is a judge in the story, which is very wicked and evil.  

“But for me and Kanishka, we are trying to play Frollo as a flawed human, which is all of us. So he is the most relatable and realistic character for me from this whole story. He's a priest, and priests also have temptations and vulnerabilities. That is the truth. And the challenge in terms of an average person is to convince them that this guy is just human, which the audience may not be expecting,” Mario said. 

It is challenging to be a lead role and the choreographer 
Ayushka Nugaliyadda, who is the choreographer of the play as well as sharing the lead role of Esmeralda with Daniella Perera, said this will be her first lead role with the Workshop Players.   “I'm very excited for Esmeralda as she's a Disney heroine that I grew up watching and the perfect blend of kind, understanding and compassionate but also a very strong character. I think a challenge for me is to play the role and also to be the choreographer of the show. Fortunately, I've had immense support from Daniela Perera and the wonderful Assistant Choreographer Tricia Fernandez, who came in to support me during this production,” Ayushka said.  

Playing Esmeralda is fun and challenging 
This is my third production with the Workshop Players, and it is really fun to play the role of Esmeralda because she's an iconic Disney female character. For me, this is particularly fun and challenging because I get to learn the new skills of dancing, which I don't normally do as much.

It has been great to work with Ayushka, the other Esmeralda, who is also the choreographer of the play. It was a nice collaborative effort, and we're so excited for you to see what we have achieved so far, Daniella said.

This play pushes everyone to their limit 
I've been doing theatre for a long time since I was eight, and my first ever Workshop production was in 2012. I've been doing numerous productions with other theatre companies, and I’m a teacher as well, Sahein de Silva said.

“The character I'm playing is Captain Phoebus, who is the knight that wanders into the streets of Notre Dame, sees the beautiful Esmeralda and gets tangled up in a love triangle. This is a very challenging play because it pushes everyone to their limit with the three arts that mix in Music Theatre, which are acting, singing and dancing at the same time. I’m glad I said yes to this play 

I am originally from the Dominican Republic and was raised in the United States, and now I live in Sri Lanka. I do have a musical theatre background, and this is my first play in years as well as in Sri Lanka.
I hadn't even seen Hunchback before this audition. I have seen only the cartoon about ten years ago and had never even heard the soundtrack before. But I am so excited and glad that I said yes to be in the cast of this play, as I can educate myself overall in theatre again, Joel Alfonso said. 

Cast is brilliantly supportive 
This is actually my second production with the Workshop Players, with the first being Julius Caesar, the musical. I'm quite excited and privileged to be back here and acting with all these amazing people, Dhashen Musafar said.

“The cast has been brilliantly supportive right throughout this entire process. And it's so beautiful to see all these different, small bits and pieces of support that come together to form this amazing thing.”  

Excited to play role of mischief maker 
I'm playing Clopin Trouillefou, who is the king of the gypsies and the mischief maker. I started with the Workshop Players in 2008 when I was about 16 and did Sound of Music. Then I took a little break from the Workshop Players, and I did some other singing stuff as well. Then I rejoined the game in 2014 for Phantom of the Opera", Gyles Dharmaratne said. 

I've been cast as a romantic lead a few times, and the characters have always been very similar. But now I'm really excited to play this role because I get to have fun, and it has been a very interesting experience.