For the past 22 years, activist and renowned contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara has been memorialising the horrific period of July 1983 through paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation. This year, undeterred by the…
In the 1970s and 1980s, Sri Lanka witnessed a marked conflict between the State’s enactment of power in relation to the control of public space, and street theatre’s appropriation of it. The…
Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke was awarded the Gratiaen Prize 2018 for his play ‘The One Who Loves You So’ (TOWLYS). The drama explores the relationship between Vidhura, a ‘Colombo trust fund baby’, and Nick,…
The beautiful Fenya of Greek decent asks me with a humble smile if I know the Sinhala word that gives meaning to ‘shame’. Having received ‘yes’ for an answer she sits on…
– J.M. Coetzee , seated at the foot of my father’s easy-chair, not understanding (as a nine, ten, eleven-year-old) the incisive commentary the show was making. Soon enough as a teen, I…
Yes, we screamed. Mostly out of fear. At times, in joy when the opposing side faced more loss than us. Lives were taken for granted, numbers of the fallen mattered much more…
On July 7 and 8, Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s award winning play ‘The Pillowman’ was presented at the Punchi Theatre in Borella by Stage Light & Magic Inc. Yours truly was at…
‘Enchantment galore’ upon the senses of theatregoers seemed the motive and motif for the twelfth year anniversary show of ‘Pyramus and Thisby’ written and directed by seasoned theatre practitioner Jehan Aloysius, which…
Multiculturalism in Sri Lanka is often understood as the co-existence of distinct ethnic communities, whose individual histories have unfolded independently during different eras, in different parts of the country.[1] Conventional historical narratives…
I worked with Building Bridges on a four-month series of art and creative skills workshops at St. John’s College, Mattakkuliya. It is a co-educational school whose students come from diverse backgrounds in…
Independence Day is marked with military parades and empty rhetoric on peace. The Sri Lankan State continues to exercise power, profiting from political instability, disenfranchisement and control over Tamil bodies and land…
How much do we remember of the time before the internet? How much of ourselves will we leave behind because of the internet, and how much of this do we imagine we…
Tharanga Goonetilleke is a Juilliard-trained Sri Lankan opera singer who has sung internationally, including with the New York City Opera, at Carnegie Hall and the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka while providing…
Manoeuvring power relations and negotiating the language of legal discourse – these are central themes of “Contempt” a reading presented by Floating Space, to be held this Saturday (July 15th, 2017) at…
. About Concerns of Judges When speaking of the concerns we have as judges with regard to our experiences in judging the entries for the 2016 Gratiaen Prize, I am speaking on…
