Colombo Critic

Caliban’s Rebellion ****

Caliban's Rebellion is a dramatic adaptation of a work of Shakespeare in typical CenterStage Productions' style. Drawing on The Tempest for inspiration Caliban's Rebellion attempts to paint Caliban in a more forgiving light and give a slightly different view from the traditional interpretation. So, you may be wondering… is it ...

Christmas Inc., The Musical **½

Christmas Inc., The Musical was the debut production for the Johnpillai and Friends Theater Group, or Freshly Brewed Theater as they would like to be known. It ranks, in its own quirky way, amongst the most convoluted, confusing and downright nonsensical piece of theater I've ever witnessed. And, just in ...

I Aint’nt Dead!

Contrary to rumours, I am still alive... just barely. Thanks to all of you who mailed me out of concern that I hadn't been nasty to anyone in over a month. I plan to return soon enough. A few things to cover... but let's get this out of the way: "A merry ...

Thank you for Voting **

A political satire in a land and age when real world politics could easily be mistaken for a farce. Corrupt politicians, inflation, broken promises, weapons of mass destruction and the Irish. With such a wealth of material to draw from you'd expect any serious attempt at political satire to write ...

Frequently Asked Questions

About Me I am not a professional critic, nor have I ever said/pretended to be. I don't get paid for this. These reviews are not published outside this site (unless clearly stated on the review itself so if you see something reprinted, then it's stolen, mmkay?). I walk in through the front doors ...

Herr Über Direktor!

This comes from a conversation I had with a couple of people this morning. Just who do we consider to be a good, if not Great Sri Lankan Theater? Do we hail Steve de la Zilwa, the director of Equus as a great director even though this is the first ...

Equus ****

Directed by Steve de la ZilwaWritten by Peter ShafferStarring Tracy Holsinger, Shanaka Amarasinghe, Subha Wijesiriwardena, Hiran Abeysekara, Ranmali Mirchandani, Shannon Raymond & Janice De ZoysaMore information on this play can be found at the Homepage and Wikipedia. Well, I'll jump right to it, I've always considered Equus to be rather dull ...

The Pre-FAQ and Other Stories

First of all, thanks for all the recent comments, really appreciated. That said let me clear up a few points: About Me (and this site) I am not a professional critic, nor have I ever said/pretended to be. I don't get paid for this. These reviews are not published outside this site (unless clearly ...

Blood Brothers **

The souvenir for this production was packed with references to past glories, and I'm sure many would think that past achievements mean something... that if a person (or group of people) has a history of producing good work then any work produced by them is good (regardless of the actual ...

Schedule for August ‘07

Compared to last month my schedule's almost empty for August: 11th August: Young Soloists Concert (Ladies College Hall) As before the review will be out the next morning. I tend to be a little out of touch with things so any news on events in Colombo would be appreciated. I generally only ...

April 4th 2008
Tags: Review, Theatre 2 Comments

An Enemy of the People

Henrik Ibsen was a true great. No cast, no director should be allowed to desecrate that greatness by a mediocre performance of an Ibsen work. I am glad to say that the StageLight & Magic production team and cast are completely innocent of any such crime in their performance of ...
February 22nd 2008
Tags: Review 16 Comments

Caliban’s Rebellion

Caliban's Rebellion is a dramatic adaptation of a work of Shakespeare in typical CenterStage Productions' style. Drawing on The Tempest for inspiration Caliban's Rebellion attempts to paint Caliban in a more forgiving light and give a slightly different view from the traditional interpretation. So, you may be wondering… is it ...
February 21st 2008
Tags: Review One Comment

There Will Be Blood

This movie was the last of the Best Picture nominees I got a chance to look at. I was initially hesitant to seek this one out primarily because of Day-Lewis' performance in Gangs of New York. While I admired that performance it was completely at odds with everything I remembered ...
February 21st 2008
Tags: Review No Comments

Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton is the second Best Picture Academy Award nominated film for 2008 we'll be looking at before the night in question. And no, it's not about American Football (or 'Football' as the Americans like to call it), but rather a legal drama in which we see George Clooney, Tom ...
February 21st 2008
Tags: Review One Comment

Juno

Remember Knocked Up? Geek meets girl. Geek sleeps with girl. Out pops baby. Well, Juno is more of the same... except all the parent's to be are highschoolers. Usually, I wouldn't be interested by something as mundane and Oprahesque as a drama comedy about unplanned teenage pregnancy. However, Jason Reitman's ...

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