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Jana Karaliya: Inviting a Shared Future

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Part of the book series: Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies ((RCS))

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Abstract

This chapter examines Jana Karaliya as a mobile theatre group working for peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. Drawing from empirical insights, it argues that theatre creates a space where parties and narratives in conflict can come together. The chapter first outlines the background of the Sri Lankan conflict and the fragile stability within which Jana Karaliya works; then it proceeds to discuss the ways in which these factors shape Jana Karaliya’s activities. As a multi-ethnic, bilingual group borrowing from the Sinhalese and Tamil drama traditions, Jana Karaliya physically and metaphorically blurs the lines of conflict. The author perceives this shared space created through theatre as where Jana Karaliya’s peacebuilding takes place.

The group is called Jana Karaliya, Makkal Kalari and Theatre of the People respectively in Sinhalese, Tamil and English. I use Jana Karaliya here as it is the primarily used version by the group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zurich, Switzerland

    Nilanjana Premaratna

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  1. Nilanjana Premaratna
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Correspondence to Nilanjana Premaratna .

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Premaratna, N. (2018). Jana Karaliya: Inviting a Shared Future. In: Theatre for Peacebuilding. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75720-9_4

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