Ernest MacIntyre

{{Infobox writer

| name = Ernest MacIntyre

| birth_name = Ernest Thalayasingam MacIntyre

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1934|09|26|df=y}}

| birth_place = Sri Lanka

| nationality = Sri Lankan/Australian

| education = Peradeniya University

{{cite news

|title = An asian comedy

|first = C.

|last = Ekanayake

|newspaper = Sunday Observer

|location = Sri Lanka

|url = https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2007/01/28/mag06.asp

|url-status = live

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110805181426/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/01/28/mag06.asp

|archive-date = 5 August 2011

|df = dmy-all

}}

| alma_mater = Aquinas University College (as director)

}}

Ernest Thalayasingam MacIntyre, (a.k.a. Macintyre, Ernest Thalayasingam),{{cite web |url=http://ariel.synergiesprairies.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/3010/2955 |title=Archived copy |accessdate=30 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706205030/http://ariel.synergiesprairies.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/3010/2955 |archivedate=6 July 2011 |df=dmy-all }} (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.{{cite news|newspaper=The Nation|last=Sriskanthadas|first=Bhagavadas|title=Jaffna and Colombo|date=20 May 2007|url=http://www.nation.lk/2007/05/20/eyefea4.htm}}

Early years

MacIntyre was born in Sri Lanka on 26 September 1934.

Career

MacIntyre attended Peradeniya University where he was a Dramsoc member. 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.{{cite web|title=Macintyre, Ernest|url=http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A%23h;|publisher=The Australia Literature Resource|accessdate=4 October 2010}}{{cite news|newspaper=Sunday Observer|title=Impressions on the sand of time|first=Ranga|last=Chandrarathne|date=27 July 2008|url=https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2008/07/27/imp03.asp|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011175347/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/07/27/imp03.asp|archive-date=11 October 2012|df=dmy-all}}

MacIntyre is known for his absurd style, although Rasanayagam's Last Riot is written in a realistic mode.{{cite news|first=Walter|last=Marasinghe|title=Review of Sri Lankan English Literature and the Sri Lankan People 1917-2003|newspaper=Sunday Observer|date=2 April 2006|url=https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2006/04/02/fea30.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201022718/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2006/04/02/fea30.html|archive-date=1 December 2008|df=dmy-all}} 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|date=October 2010}}

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.

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. 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.

In 2009 Macintyre wrote "Antigone in Sri Lanka as IRANGANI" A tragedy of our times derived from the ancient play of Sophoclese.{{cite web | url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120916/plus/irangani-its-5th-century-antigone-set-in-80s-sri-lanka-12196.html | title=Irangani: It's 5th century Antigone set in 80s Sri Lanka | publisher=The Sunday Times | date=16 September 2012 | accessdate=30 March 2016}} It was performed in 2010 at the Belconnen Theatre in Canberra and the Riverside Theatre, Sydney.{{cite web | url=https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/antigone-in-sri-lanka-as-irangani/ | title=Antigone in Sri Lanka as IRANGANI | publisher=Riverside Archives | accessdate=30 March 2016}} 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|date=October 2010}}

Works

1967: The Full Circle of Caucasian Chalk
?: The President of the Old Boys' Club
2000: He Still Comes From Jaffna
1981: Let's Give Them Curry, An Australian-Asian Comedy in 3 ActsMigration, Dispossession, Exile, and the Diasporic Consciousness by Nandan, Satendra in

{{cite book

|year=2000

|publisher=Rodopi

|isbn=90-420-1271-4

|title=Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures: Diaspora Writing of the Indian Subcontinent

|first=Radhika

|last=Mohanram

|page=19

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=on1uZNcdsScC&pg=PA19

}}