Marlon Ariyasinghe

Title

Marlon Ariyasinghe

Description

In his first production in Silicon Valley, Marlon Ariyasinghe examines the core of diasporic identity, an encounter between traditional artforms from the home country and the self-awareness about their "representation" in Western spaces. In Exorcism: A Ritual Performance (2025), Amaya, a Sri Lankan-American visits a museum where artefacts from Sri Lanka are on exhibition. By using a museum in the West as a setting and incorporating elements of Sri Lankan folklore, such as Riri Yaka and Rukada puppetry, the play draws attention to colonial history and personal diasporic identity, and examines the themes of decolonization, repatriation, and cultural restoration. Marlon Ariyasinghe is a PhD student at Stanford University.

Stanford Profile