The Dialogues in Inao by King Rama V: A New Presentation of Inao as a Thai Court Drama to Audiences in 1882

This paper studies King Rama V’s The Dialogues in Inao and its form of rhyming prose dialogues. It is the first written dialogue for performing the story of Inao as a Thai court drama and the first humorous script of dialogues in Thai court drama. The study focuses on revealing the new details added to The Dialogues in Inao by King Rama V in order to attract audiences in his reign and exploring the new presentation of King Rama V’s Inao as a Thai court drama in 1882 as well. The Dialogues in Inao is composed to be used together with King Rama II’s Inao for the story’s performance as a court drama, to entertain the audiences with humour. The Dialogues in Inao includes only one-third of the Inao story in its entirety. The content is similar to that of Inao by King Rama II except for some details added by King Rama V to provide more entertainment. The Dialogues in Inao have two major characteristics: following the content of Inao by King Rama II, and adding new details to the story of Inao. Three roles of The Dialogues in Inao are found: first, to rephrase the content in Inao by King Rama II into prose dialogues for easy comprehension; second, to add humorous content; and third, to add modern aspects to the story of Inao. This article is the revised version of the article entitled “The Dialogues in Inao by King Rama V: A New Presentation of Thai Court Performance of Inao in 1882” presented during the Seminar and Performances of a Shared Heritage: The Panji/Inao Traditions in Southeast Asia organised by the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts on 2-3 March 2013 at Bangkok Chada Hotel, Thailand. This paper was presented for the panel “The Panji/Inao Traditions in Thailand”.