Review of drama thalamala pipila of jayalath manoorathna

Abstract

With the playwriting and production of the “Maname” stage drama by Ediriweera Sarachchandra, there was a new awakening in modern Sinhala stage drama in the country. Many other dramatists pioneered him in writing stylized dramas. Jayalath Manorathna can be known as an exceptional dramatist who nurtured the Sinhala stage drama following the Ediriweera Sarachchandra. He entered the stage drama field as an actor, and later, he showed multifaceted skills as a producer of dramas and playwright. Thirteen dramas have been produced by this pioneer dramatist, who dedicated himself to the progress of the local stage drama field for more than fifty years. In almost all dramas, he diligently chose subjects that characterized the local culture and environment. The main objective of this research paper is to review the drama “Thala Mala Pipila” (1988) of Jayalatha Manorathana. Thala Mala Pipila was the second playwright of Jayalath Manorathana. It was staged at Lumbini Theater on 5th October 1985 for the first time. This drama is based on the economic, social and cultural changes that took place in a village in the country during the feudal economic system. The drama depicts the tragic destination of village and family cooperation, which had been preserved for a period of time due to the shocking destruction of the life professions, social ethics, and morals as well as the literature arts and cultural heritage of the village. In this drama “Thalama Pipila” is a strongly symbolic term. This implies that everything is changeable and destructive in a way that emerges as a philosophical thought. The importance of this research is that no significant research has taken place on the dramas of Jayalath Manorathna. The research problem is to look into what extent Manorathna’s Thala Mala Pipila is a successful drama. The qualitative data analysis method was used as the methodology of this research. Accordingly, the drama Thala Mala Pipila of Jayalath Manorathna was used as the primary source and academic books written on it were used as secondary sources. This research can confirm that Manorathna’s Thala Mala Pipila has been able to realistically depict the erosion of Sri Lankan Sinhala social culture and literacy art field in a very successful symbolic use. Furthermore, it also displays the challenge faced by the country in cultural and environmental aspects due to modernization and westernization, which were part of the open economic strategies with characters and incidents of the drama. From this point of view, it can be concluded that Thala Mala Pipila is a successful stage drama that is close to the deep realities of life and depicted in accordance with successful theatre rules.