Translations and theatrical adaptations of greek plays in sri lanka from 1990 to 2005 for the Sinhala readers and (multi-ethnic) audience

Abstract

Despite the historical relationship between Sri Lanka and Greece via the ancient Silk Road on the sea, the classical Greek play has been introduced to monolingual Sinhala audiences only since the mid-twentieth century. This paper examines the play texts and cross-cultural performances of ancient Greek dramas in Sri Lanka between 1990- 2005. This paper also analyses effective theatrical practices and textual modification of the Greek plays in Sinhala, which are adapted by local academics and practitioners for different intentions. Furthermore, it examines enculturation, adaptation and translation effectiveness in the examples to provide a theoretical introduction to the translation and theatrical adaptation projects in the future.