Friday, December 15, 2006

TODAY, Thursday December 14, 2006, p10

Here's my latest commentary in Today newspaper. I took on the National Museum this time - sigh, I really do like what they're doing, and I didn't give it such an inflammatory title myself (I called it "Payback at the Museum", like some John Woo movie). But I have to admit, this current headline makes you jump a little more.

If I hadn't had to edit for space, I'd have mentioned that Museum Director Lee Chor Lin has demonstrated support for the arts consistently in the past - she commissioned Royston to film "The Old Man and the River", for example.

In fact, the Museum is publishing a response tomorrow. Probably putting forward the statement that they have to present as objective a view of history as possible, etc, etc. They have their point. Akan Datang!!!


P.S. Of course this ends any chance I have of staging "David Marshall: The Klezmer Musical Extravaganza!" within their premises. (Sob).

Update: Ooh, here's Dr Lee's reply:

2 comments:

jabir said...

nice article. especially liked the pertinent last point.

Ng Yi-Sheng said...

I really don't know if it does. What might happen is that a theatre company might get engaged to do a project, whereupon I'd hop on later as a playwright and we'd all pretend nothing ever happened.

Anyhow, Ms Lee is a patron of the arts, so she's probably used to the fact that artists talk back to their masters.