Theatre Of Srilanka
Intoduction
Theatre of Sri Lanka originated from traditional belief,rituals and folk dramas in the 19th century. Aims were different of them ex.give therapeutic effect,improve the moral characteristics of peoples etc.
History
Dramas in Sri Lanka began first with ritualist performances of early religions. Originating as masked dances interspersed with short comic scenes and improvised dialogues honoring gods and ridding demons, these gradually became free of religion and organised forms of entertainment.
Early dramas were introduced in different local names ex. kolam,shanthi karma,kohomba kankari,sokari etc., and wove together loosely-structured characters from everyday life,religious stories and belives in a society. The characters, for the most part, were jokes and figures of amusement, if not in their introductory song or chant, then in the designs of the masks and the miming of the roles. The loose-ness of the dramas allowed for varying characters that could be kept or removed as the performing group wanted.
i would like to give brief introduction about kolam and sokari.In kolams popular characters included a king, town crier, various officials like the mudaliyar, clerk, and the King's representative, and policemen; each different play yielded different forms of these roles. Also included were village characters such as the farmer and his wife, the washerman and his wife, and types of gods, demons and animals. Some dramas, after the arrival of Europeans, featured a white male character named "Sinho" (Senor) and a white female character named "Nona" (Lady). They would dance together unlike the other characters who performed dances individually, concluding with the Nona getting on to Sinho's back. The first written account of a kolam by Englishman John Calloway in 1829 also describes a scarred white soldier character. Other figures of satire included "Andi gura", a guru from India who tricks people into giving him money and a "landesi" (Dutch) couple. in sokari meets popular characters such as Paraya,Sokari,guruwa,weda mahaththaya and kaali amma.
These plays never grew beyond their initial crudeness, but contributed to the development of Sinhalase theatre.
PICTURES OF SOKARI
Modern theater
European and urbanization, the Sinhalese began to view theatre as a serious and secular art. At first, urban dramas were derivative borrowing heavily from English drama, or from Parsee musicals (nurti) and Bombay and South Indian operatic plays (nadagam). These catered to a small audience, and drew the ire of strict Buddhists who considered them worthless. They were further attacked by the development of a "Protestant" Buddhism, a revival of the religion that stressed strict adherence to its law.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Sri_Lanka
https://www.google.com/search?q=sokari&rlz
