Analytical Study of the Oppressed Social Circumstances Depicted by Plays of Jayalath Manoratne (Through plays: Mahagiridamba, Kaneru Mal, Buruwa Mahattaya, Sellam Nirindu)

Abstract

Mr Jayalath Manoratne, a playwright who had commenced his productions in the 80th decade, made his contribution to upholding the drama industry. There are 12 plays which were solely composed by him, and out of those, Mahagiridamba (1980), Kaneru Mal (2000), Buruwa Mahattaya (2011) and Sellam Nirindu (2013) are a few plays which showed greater success traits. The objective of this research is to investigate the oppressed social circumstances depicted by the aforementioned plays. The research is significant as it distinguishes the approaches used by Manoratne to characterise the circumstances where different levels of society are oppressed. The main problem of this research focuses on identifying the playwright's definition of oppressed ideology and the extent to which the oppressed society is represented in aforesaid plays. Primary and secondary sources were used as the research methodology. The play scripts of Mahagiridamba, Kaneru Mal, Buruwa Mahattaya and Sellam Nirindu written by Jayalath Manoratne were used as primary sources while using few written sources related to the oppressed society and reviews related to Jayalath Manoratna's plays as secondary sources. Socio-economic difficulties faced by a young playwright is the subject matter of the play "Mahagiridamba" and the play "Kaneru Mal" signifies how the peasants of the country are oppressed mentally and physically. The tragic fate of labourers as well as their representative parties, are symbolised in "Buruwa Mahattaya" and the play "Sellam Nirindu" is based on the era of king Sri Veera Parakrama Narendrasinghe. This portrays how the foreign princess Sumithra, a queen of the king, is being oppressed because of her unfamiliar cultural background. The characters of the aforementioned plays had been oppressed for many reasons, such as social, cultural, economic and political. They tend to choose either death or struggle to get rid of the stress. This represents how physical and mental oppression rises despite the class gap. The attempt made by Jayalath Manoratne to illustrate the value of an unoppressed, fair society has been clearly identified by this research.