{{Short description|Sri Lankan writer (1934–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox writer | name = Ernest MacIntyre | birth_name = Ernest Thalayasingam MacIntyre | birth_date = {{Birth date|1934|09|26|df=y}} | birth_place = Sri Lanka
| death_date = {{Date of death and age|2025|12|17|1934|09|26|df=y}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Obituary |url=https://tributes.smh.com.au/au/obituaries/smh-au/name/ernest-macintyre-obituary?id=60333880 |website=SMH}}</ref> | death_place = Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | nationality = Sri Lankan/Australian | education = Peradeniya University<ref name="observer"> {{cite news |title = An asian comedy |first = C. |last = Ekanayake |newspaper = Sunday Observer |location = Sri Lanka |url = https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2007/01/28/mag06.asp |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110805181426/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2007/01/28/mag06.asp |archive-date = 5 August 2011 |df = dmy-all }}</ref> | alma_mater = Aquinas University College (as director) }}
'''Ernest Thalayasingam MacIntyre''', (a.k.a. Macintyre, Ernest Thalayasingam),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ariel.synergiesprairies.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/3010/2955 |title=Archived copy |accessdate=30 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706205030/http://ariel.synergiesprairies.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/3010/2955 |archivedate=6 July 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> (26 September 1934 – 17 December 2025) was a Sri Lankan playwright of the English language, who was active in the Sri Lankan English theatre for 50 years.<ref name="nation-2007-05-20">{{cite news|newspaper=The Nation|last=Sriskanthadas|first=Bhagavadas|title=Jaffna and Colombo|date=20 May 2007|url=http://www.nation.lk/2007/05/20/eyefea4.htm}}</ref>
==Early years== MacIntyre was born in Sri Lanka on 26 September 1934.<ref name="austlit"/> He died in Sydney, Australia on 17 December 2025.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Obituary |url=https://tributes.smh.com.au/au/obituaries/smh-au/name/ernest-macintyre-obituary?id=60333880 |website=SMH}}</ref>
==Career== MacIntyre attended Peradeniya University where he was a Dramsoc member.<ref name="observer"/> During the 1960s, MacIntyre was hailed as the most prolific and successful of Sri Lankan playwrights in English. He was a member of the performing group 'Stage and Set', which presented established international plays as well as those written by him.<ref name="austlit">{{cite web|title=Macintyre, Ernest|url=http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A%23h;|publisher=The Australia Literature Resource|accessdate=4 October 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Sunday Observer|title=Impressions on the sand of time|first=Ranga|last=Chandrarathne|date=27 July 2008|url=https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2008/07/27/imp03.asp|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011175347/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2008/07/27/imp03.asp|archive-date=11 October 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
MacIntyre is known for his absurd style, although ''Rasanayagam's Last Riot'' is written in a realistic mode.<ref>{{cite news|first=Walter|last=Marasinghe|title=Review of ''Sri Lankan English Literature and the Sri Lankan People 1917-2003''|newspaper=Sunday Observer|date=2 April 2006|url=https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2006/04/02/fea30.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201022718/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2006/04/02/fea30.html|archive-date=1 December 2008|df=dmy-all}}</ref> His plays were usually performed at the Lionel Wendt theatre in Colombo. During this time there was cross-pollination between the English and Sinhala theatres, primarily due to MacIntyre.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=All the World's a Stage |date=18 April 2013 |url=https://thuppahis.com/2013/04/18/all-the-worlds-a-stage/}}</ref>
MacIntyre served in the Sri Lankan Air Force from 1961 to 1967, acted as the Director of the drama school at Aquinas University College in 1968 and 1969. From 1969 to 1973, he worked as UNESCO project officer.<ref name="observer"/><ref name="austlit"/> He migrated to Australia in 1973, worked in the insurance field<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Reinsurance |url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/030720/plus/14.htm}}</ref> and received a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies in 1990 from UNSW.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=UNSW |url=https://www.unsw.edu.au/}}</ref>
In 2005, MacIntyre revived E.F.C. Ludowyk's ''He Comes from Jaffna'' in a production in Sydney, Australia, updating the script to reflect changes in social values.<ref name="nation-2007-05-20"/> His version of this play, together with the scripts of ''Rasanayagam's Last Riot'' and ''He Still Comes From Jaffna'', was published in the anthology ''Jaffna and Colombo''.<ref name="nation-2007-05-20"/>
In 2009 Macintyre wrote "Antigone in Sri Lanka as IRANGANI" A tragedy of our times derived from the ancient play of Sophoclese.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120916/plus/irangani-its-5th-century-antigone-set-in-80s-sri-lanka-12196.html | title=Irangani: It's 5th century Antigone set in 80s Sri Lanka | publisher=The Sunday Times | date=16 September 2012 | accessdate=30 March 2016}}</ref> It was performed in 2010 at the Belconnen Theatre in Canberra and the Riverside Theatre, Sydney.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/antigone-in-sri-lanka-as-irangani/ | title=Antigone in Sri Lanka as IRANGANI | publisher=Riverside Archives | accessdate=30 March 2016}}</ref> It was translated into Tamil in 2011. Perhaps his most seminal work is Rasanayagam's last riot, about Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, which was translated into Singhalese in 2025.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Rasanayagam's Last Riot |url=https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12386 |website=Literary Encyclopedia |publisher=Vijitha Yapa}}</ref> His last full production was The Lost Culavamsa in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title='Our differences are all cultural not biological' | the Sunday Times Sri Lanka |url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/160306/plus/our-differences-are-all-cultural-not-biological-185210.html}}</ref> He has written several plays including [https://www.facebook.com/61571663256327/posts/pfbid061dzFfeYYaDL6SZc1eMyNZP53j1AKUfbLq3fayWqziwYnQb98WAttio3QHYtSc1tl/ A Statue for Manimakelai] (2022), performed in Sri Lanka in 2025, and Kannate (2024).
In 2009 a PhD thesis on "Diasporic Longing and the Changing Contours of Resistance in The Plays of Ernest Thalayasingham Macintyre" was successfully submitted to The University of Madras by T. Sumathy Thangapandian, now a member of Loksaba<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thangapandian |title=Dr. Thamizhachi Thangapandian - WEF |date=28 November 2019 |url=https://www.wef.org.in/dr-thamizhachi-thangapandian/}}</ref>, and her PhD thesis is now published as a book, with a foreword by MacIntyre<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thangapandian |first1=Sumathy |title=Island to Island |url=https://emeraldpublishers.com/product/island-to-island/}}</ref>.
==Emigration== MacIntyre's emigration in 1973 brought a lull in creativity in the English theatre in Sri Lanka.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=The world's a stage |url=https://thuppahis.com/2013/04/18/all-the-worlds-a-stage/ |website=Thuppahis |date=18 April 2013 }}</ref> He founded theatre group [https://sydneykolammaduwa.wixsite.com/sydney-kolam-maduwa/reviews-sunday-island Sydney Kolam Maduwa] and has continued to write, produce and direct plays in Australia.https://www.sundaytimes.lk/160306/plus/our-differences-are-all-cultural-not-biological-185210.html His play Let's Give Them Curry<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Chandini |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1318931 |publisher=Heinemann}}</ref> was published by Heinemann and on the curriculum for the Victorian VCE in the 1980s. He wrote many plays in Australia, and one of his last works was A Bend in The Mahaweli, written about the love story between him and his wife.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Bend in the Mahaweli |url=https://island.lk/light-sorrow-peradeniya-imagination/ |website=The Island |date=14 August 2024 }}</ref> In 2025 The Nautanki theatre group established the Ernest Thalayasingham MacIntyre award recognising an individual of South Asian heritage for their outstanding contribution to theatre and the arts in Australia.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Award |url=https://www.elanka.com.au/ernest-thalayasingam-macintyre-award/ |website=Nautanki |date=19 July 2025 }}</ref>
==Works== * 1967: ''The Full Circle of Caucasian Chalk''<ref name="austlit"/> * ?: ''The President of the Old Boys' Club''<ref name="austlit"/> * 1973: ''A somewhat mad and grotesque comedy''<ref>{{cite web |last1=New Ceylon Writing |url=https://newceylonwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/vol-3-1973.pdf}}</ref> * 2000: ''He Still Comes From Jaffna''<ref name="nation-2007-05-20"/> * 1981: ''Let's Give Them Curry'', An Australian-Asian Comedy in 3 Acts<ref>''Migration, Dispossession, Exile, and the Diasporic Consciousness'' by Nandan, Satendra in {{cite book |year=2000 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=90-420-1271-4 |title=Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures: Diaspora Writing of the Indian Subcontinent |first=Radhika |last=Mohanram |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=on1uZNcdsScC&pg=PA19 }}</ref> * 1971: ''The Education of Miss Asia''<ref name="observer"/><ref> {{cite news |author=The Don |title=Where subtlety, stagecraft held sway |date=22 June 1997 |newspaper=Sunday Times |url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/970622/plus7.html }}</ref> * 1990: ''Rasanayagam's Last Riot''<ref name="nation-2007-05-20"/> * 1991: ''The Loneliness of the Short-Distance Traveller''<ref name="austlit"/> * 2002: ''The theatre of migration''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Ernest Macintyre | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A10259?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy&from=0&count=1000 |publisher=Vijitha Yapa}}</ref> * 2003: ''The UN Inspector is a Sri Lankan''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Ernest Macintyre | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A10259?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy&from=0&count=1000}}</ref> * 2009: ''Irangani''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sunday Times |title=Irangani: It's 5th century Antigone set in 80s Sri Lanka | the Sundaytimes Sri Lanka |url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/120916/plus/irangani-its-5th-century-antigone-set-in-80s-sri-lanka-12196.html}}</ref> * 1990: ''The government of Beddagama''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Ernest Macintyre | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A10259?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy&from=0&count=1000 |website=Auslit}}</ref> * 2004: ''How Gods and Demons play together''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=Ernest Macintyre | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A10259?mainTabTemplate=agentWorksBy&from=0&count=1000 |website=Auslit}}</ref> *2017: ''The lost culavamsa''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=The Lost Culavamsa |date=22 March 2018 |url=https://www.mascarareview.com/adam-raffel-reviews-the-lost-culavamsa-by-ernest-macintyre/ |publisher=Vijitha Yapa}}</ref> *2022: ''A statue for Manimekalai''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=A Statue for Manimekalai |url=https://www.facebook.com/61571663256327/posts/pfbid061dzFfeYYaDL6SZc1eMyNZP53j1AKUfbLq3fayWqziwYnQb98WAttio3QHYtSc1tl/ |publisher=Vijitha Yapa}}</ref> *2024: ''A bend in the Mahaweli''<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Ernest |title=A Bend in the Mahaweli |url=https://island.lk/light-sorrow-peradeniya-imagination/ |website=The Island |date=14 August 2024 }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.austlit.edu.au/run?ex=ShowAgent&agentId=A%23h; Macintyre, Ernest at AustLit]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macintyre, Ernest}} Category:Sri Lankan dramatists and playwrights Category:Sri Lankan emigrants to Australia Category:Alumni of the University of Peradeniya Category:1934 births Category:2025 deaths