Playwright Ernest MacIntyre at the Department of English

Ernest MacIntyre, an internationally acclaimed and well known Sri Lankan playwright, who has been active in the Sri Lankan English theatre for the last 50 years presented a talk on his work at the Department of English on 26 July 2013.   His work has been performed in many countries including Australia and Sri Lanka.

During the 1960s Ernest Macintyre was one of Sri Lanka’s most prolific and successful playwrights in English. His early plays included ‘The Full Circle of Caucasian Chalk’ (1967), ‘The President of the Old Boys’ Club’ (1970) and ‘The Education of Miss Asia’ (1971; later performed at the Playbox Theatre, Melbourne, 1979). ‘Treated to the sophisticated craftsmanship of his productions and provoked by the thematic relevance of his plays, the expanding English-speaking audience [of Sri Lanka] developed a taste for political and social drama’ (Frontline: India’s National Magazine vol.6, no. 4 1999 (http://www.flonnet.com/fl1604/16040690.htm).

Macintyre emigrated to Australia in the 1970s and has since made a name for himself in the Australian theatre, particularly with his plays Let’s Give them Curry (1981), Rasanayagam’s Last Riot (1993) and ‘He Still Comes from Jaffna’ in which he explores the effects of the conflict between Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka. His work engages with issues relevant to contemporary Sri Lanka. Rasanayagam’s Last Riot (1993) is on the curriculum of the 3rd Year Course Introduction to Contemporary South Asian Literature ashe is a playwright who “… explores the emotional, socio-political and intellectual trajectories of a nation enmeshed within a web of ethnic and cultural complications.” (Silva 2008)

The talk was well attended and the students who participated in the discussion found it insightful, leading to thought provoking questions.