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Category Archives: Journalism

Of Danes and Darfur

Review of Susanne Bier’s In A Better World. — For theartsdesk

Maiden voyeur

Review of Iron Maiden, at the O2. (I did not see that coming.) — For theartsdesk

15 years of laughing at ‘Art’

Critic (and diarist) ASH Smyth reflects on the pitfalls of modern art, the vagaries of friendship, and the comic role he’s always wanted.   ‘My friend Serge has bought a painting…’  1997. Ish . See ‘Art’, Yasmina Reza’s comedy of mannerism, for the first time (Wyndhams Theatre, London). Show has hit the West End running: […]

Interview(ed)

(for the British School in Colombo yearbook 2010/11) 1. So, what’s with the beard? After I graduated from the War Studies Faculty at KCL I rather fancied myself as a war correspondent, so I grew the beard. Then I just rather fancied myself. 2. We somehow get the impression that you are always very sarcastic […]

Too much Sade, not enough de Sade

Sri Lankan erotica comes of age (prematurely) Blue: stories for adults ed. Ameena Hussein It is practically impossible to write good erotica. By which we mean literary porn. By which we mean ‘even DH Lawrence couldn’t really pull it off’. In the UK there’s actually an annual Bad Sex Award, routinely won (‘won’) by mainstream […]

An audience (with the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir)

Matters spiritual aren’t really, as they say, my ‘thing’. (In all honesty, I’m not too hot on the temporal, either). But recently, what with a local recital under discussion, surprise correspondence from an erstwhile colleague at Hampton Court, and then, of course, The Wedding (watched grudgingly, I hasten to add, though I stood for the […]

Old dog, New World

SOSL New World Concert   Arriving at Ladies’ College at the seventh hour, game-faced and Chooty drawn, I was informed that the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka’s New World Concert was sold out.* While a few hundred rupees for an evening’s live music remains a pretty good deal, I have to confess this eventuality had […]

Bach – plus bite

CMSC The Bach Concert 2010 When Glenn Gould said he’d take the music of Bach with him to the proverbial desert island he failed to specify which Bach. It’s fair to assume, though, he did not mean all of them. In a concert sponsored by – whom else? – the German Embassy, the Chamber Music […]

If you build it they may come

An inter-cultural stroll around Colombo. — For theartsdesk

Horses for courses

SOSL Première Concert Like a veteran sprinter in a distance race, the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka was quickly away, found stride of genuine grace and quality, travelled well, and then, all-too-predictably, weakened through the latter furlongs until eventually, but barely, making the finish. They came out of the gate with Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in […]