Irangani: It’s 5th century Antigone set in 80s Sri Lanka

Irangani, a two-act play by Ernest Macintyre, will be launched tomorrow, (September 17) at the Dutch Burgher Union Hall in Colombo 4. Irangani has been successfully performed in Australia with the Canberra Times hailing its content as “Fascinatingly cross cultural,” the reviewer adding, “The outcome is moving, the tragedy of a country at war with itself…..but at the heart there is still the issue of a sister trying to give a proper burial to a brother” .

Macintyre uses the central situation of Antigone, the 5th century BC play of Sophocles in a modern Sri Lankan plot in which Irangani Jayaweera whose brother has been killed in the Sinhala youth uprising of the 1980s finds herself in the same plight as her ancient Greek predecessor Antigone: Prohibition of family funeral ceremonies, by the state. From this central plot the play traverses significant areas in Sri Lanka’s modern history.

The book will be launched by veteran actress Irangani Serasinghe who first gave Sri Lankan audiences a version of Antigone. Jean Anouilh’s 1942 play written in the environment of Nazi occupied France was directed by Professor E.F.C. Ludowyk for the University Dramatic Society. It was performed in Colombo in 1950 with Irangani in the title role.

Macintyre’s Irangani has been translated into Sinhala by the State Award and Gratiaen Translation Prize winning writer and translator Vijita Fernando and will be published in Colombo later in the year. A Tamil translation too has been done by Kulanthi Shanmugalingam.

Dramatised readings from the English original as well as from the Sinhala and Tamil versions will be performed at the launch by actors Wijeratne Warakgoda, Namel Weeramuni, Kaushalya Fernando, Ruwanthie de Chickera, Evelyn de Zoya, Nicholas Mariyathas Kirutharshan and other well-known names.