East & West: Cross-fertilisation in Sri Lanka, 1940s et seq

Michael Roberts

An EMAIL Exchange with Vinod Moonesinghe recently prompted me to search for relevant literature and I came across this text from my hand in People Inbetween (1989, Sarasavi Publications, page 111).

“In brief, in the 1900s and 1910s the literati who engaged themselves in English drama developed no synthesizing link with the Sinhala theatre which was flourishing at the same time in and around the Tower Hall in Maradana, Colombo. The latter, as we know, had some awareness of the Western theatrical traditions [81]. Our speculative point is that the fertilizing influence, such as it was, moved in one direction only.      Pathiraja

 Sarathchandra 

Ludo

This contrasts with the theatrical scene in Sri Lanka in recent decades, that is, in  the 1960s and thereafter. By then, the cross-fertilization inspired by such individuals as E.F.C. Ludowyk and E. R. Sarathchandra and promoted by the political transformations of the 1940s and 1950s was bearing fruit. The theatrical activities of such individuals as Ernest MacIntyre, Bandula Jayawardena, Karen Breckenridge, Henry Jayasena, Irangani Serasinghe (nee Dissanayake), Haig  Karunaratne, Dhamma Jagoda, Dharmasena Pathiraja, Chitrasena and Gunasena Galappathi et al embody a flowering synthesis of Western and indigenous traditions. This creative fusion has also entered the film productions of Pathiraja, Siri Gunasinghe, Nihal Singhe among others. Likewise, in the poetical and literary domains, the works of such individuals as Martin Wickremasinghe, Wimal Dissanayake, Lakdasa Wikkramsinghe, Parakrama Kodituwakku, Patrick  Fernando, Punyakanthi Wijenaike and A. V. Suraweera signal a fertile articulation of East and West [82].”