Abstract:
This study examines the ways in which dramatic texts and their performances after 1930 employed two distinct theatrical tendencies: realism and anti-realism and investigates the factors that influenced their emergence. The research is based on selected dramatic texts as well as several theatrical performances observed by the researcher. The findings indicate that plays produced around themes such as class struggle and ethnic liberation often adopted anti-realistic theatrical forms. Such productions tended to seek immediate and generalized social effects, while also reflecting the influence of communist ideological perspectives. Furthermore, the militarized suppression related to the ethnic conflict created a context that demanded stylized theatrical modes. Furthermore, an examination of the content of the dramatic texts demonstrates how the emergence of the ethnic conflict undermined and ultimately marginalized the growth and influence of communism, which had previously been significant in Sri Lanka. The study also considers how Western literary and theatrical ideas contributed to the emergence of early realistic drama in Eelam. In contrast, the circumstances created by the internal war are examined to understand how they naturally fostered the development of realism in Tamil theatre. Over a period of nearly eighty years, the research questions how and why stylized theatre, realistic theatre, or hybrid forms combining both approaches were employed in practice. Data for the study were gathered through
textual analysis of dramatic texts and through the researcher’s experiential observations of selected theatrical performances. The analysis is conducted through theoretical perspectives such as poststructuralism and postcolonial theory, along with the framework of reflection theory, qualitative approach and is supported by narrative and discourse analysis. A key conclusion of this research is that the anti-realistic tradition has been employed as an effective means to generalize social issues and produce urgent social impact. Conversely, when individuals confront the pressures brought about by civil war, distancing themselves from collective representation, a realist theatrical mode tends to emerge. This study will be useful for literary scholars, theatre practitioners, critics, students and teachers in theatre studies, as well as scholars in the fields of politics, culture, philosophy, and psychology.