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Ernest MacIntyre
Ernest MacIntyre
Born	Ernest Thalayasingam MacIntyre; 26 September 1934 (age 90); Sri Lanka
Nationality	Sri Lankan/Australian
Education	Peradeniya University
Alma mater	Aquinas University College (as director)

Ernest Thalayasingam MacIntyre, (a.k.a. Macintyre, Ernest Thalayasingam),^[2] (born 26 September 1934) is a Sri Lankan playwright of the English language, who has been active in the Sri Lankan English theatre for the last 50 years.^[3]

Early years

MacIntyre was born in Sri Lanka on 26 September 1934.^[4]

Career

MacIntyre attended Peradeniya University where he was a Dramsoc member.^[1] During the 1960s, MacIntyre was hailed as the most prolific and successful of Sri Lankan playwrights in English. He was a member of the performing group 'Stage and Set', which presented established international plays as well as those written by him.^[4]^[5]

MacIntyre is known for his absurd style, although Rasanayagam's Last Riot is written in a realistic mode.^[6] His plays were usually performed at the Lionel Wendt theatre in Colombo. During this time there was cross-pollination between the English and Sinhala theatres, primarily due to MacIntyre.^{[citation needed]}

MacIntyre served in the Sri Lankan Air Force from 1961 to 1967, acted as the Director of the drama school at Aquinas University College in 1968 and 1969. From 1969 to 1973, he worked as UNESCO project officer.^[1]^[4]

In 2005, MacIntyre revived E.F.C. Ludowyk's He Comes from Jaffna in a production in Sydney, Australia, updating the script to reflect changes in social values.^[3] His version of this play, together with the scripts of Rasanayagam's Last Riot and He Still Comes From Jaffna, was published in the anthology Jaffna and Colombo.^[3]

In 2009 Macintyre wrote "Antigone in Sri Lanka as IRANGANI" A tragedy of our times derived from the ancient play of Sophoclese.^[7] It was performed in 2010 at the Belconnen Theatre in Canberra and the Riverside Theatre, Sydney.^[8] It was translated into Tamil in 2011.

In 2009 a PhD thesis on "Diasporic Longing and the Changing Contours of Resistance in The Plays of Ernest Thalayasingham Macintyre" was successfully submitted to The University of Madras by T. Sumathy.

Emigration

MacIntyre's emigration in 1973 brought a lull in creativity in the English theatre in Sri Lanka.^{[citation needed]}

Works

1967: The Full Circle of Caucasian Chalk^[4]
?: The President of the Old Boys' Club^[4]
2000: He Still Comes From Jaffna^[3]
1981: Let's Give Them Curry, An Australian-Asian Comedy in 3 Acts^[9]
1971: The Education of Miss Asia^[1]^[10]
1990: Rasanayagam's Last Riot^[3]
1991: The Loneliness of the Short-Distance Traveller'^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ekanayake, C. "An asian comedy". Sunday Observer. Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Sriskanthadas, Bhagavadas (20 May 2007). "Jaffna and Colombo". The Nation.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Macintyre, Ernest". The Australia Literature Resource. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
^ Chandrarathne, Ranga (27 July 2008). "Impressions on the sand of time". Sunday Observer. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012.
^ Marasinghe, Walter (2 April 2006). "Review of Sri Lankan English Literature and the Sri Lankan People 1917-2003". Sunday Observer. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008.
^ "Irangani: It's 5th century Antigone set in 80s Sri Lanka". The Sunday Times. 16 September 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
^ "Antigone in Sri Lanka as IRANGANI". Riverside Archives. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
^ Migration, Dispossession, Exile, and the Diasporic Consciousness by Nandan, Satendra in Mohanram, Radhika (2000). Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures: Diaspora Writing of the Indian Subcontinent. Rodopi. p. 19. ISBN 90-420-1271-4.
^ The Don (22 June 1997). "Where subtlety, stagecraft held sway". Sunday Times.