★★★☆☆ Theatre Review: Master White Dragon 白龙王子 by Toy Factory
A distinctly Singaporean fable about about faith and modern spirituality that buries its strongest ideas beneath flat humour and an ending that feels rushed. Few recent local productions have started with a premise as immediately striking as Toy Factory’s Master White Dragon: an ah beng mistaken for the reincarnation of a temple deity, caught between street hustling, spiritual performance and a journalist intent on exposing … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Theatre Review: Master White Dragon 白龙王子 by Toy Factory
Preview: 6 Microlectures on Genocides (May 2026)
Six voices. Six short, sharp shocks of theatre. One urgent question running underneath it all: what do we do when the world is on fire and language itself starts to feel inadequate? After an initial showing earlier this year, 6 Microlectures on Genocides is back for a limited return to Singapore (21–23 May), a work that refuses easy answers and instead leans into discomfort, contradiction, … Continue reading Preview: 6 Microlectures on Genocides (May 2026)
SIFA 2026: Makan Culture – An interview with playwright Jo Tan and director Krish Natarajan on makan, mayhem and making meaning
What happens when theatre stops asking audiences to sit still and instead invites them to eat, speak, and play? At the festival village of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts, new experience Makan Culture unfolds as a lively, unpredictable encounter that sits somewhere between performance and gathering. Created by Jo Tan and directed by Krish Natarajan, the work brings together music, puppetry, and audience … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Makan Culture – An interview with playwright Jo Tan and director Krish Natarajan on makan, mayhem and making meaning
SIFA 2026: Tempo – An interview with choreographer Fernando Melo on twisting and turning time through dance and illusion
Time slips, stretches, and occasionally seems to stand still in Tempo, a dreamlike work presented at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. In this collaboration between director Kalle Nio and choreographer Fernando Melo, falling bodies hover mid-air, actions reverse, and the ordinary becomes quietly uncanny. Rather than treating illusion as spectacle, Melo approaches it as a byproduct of attention, of bodies, space, and time aligning … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Tempo – An interview with choreographer Fernando Melo on twisting and turning time through dance and illusion
SIFA 2026: The Lighthouse – An interview with Patch Theatre artistic director Geoff Cobham on light and children’s theatre
In The Lighthouse, light isn’t something you simply watch, but something you step into. Created by Geoff Cobham for Patch Theatre, the work invites audiences, both young and the young-at-heart, to move through a glowing landscape of shifting rooms, reflections, and surprises, where curiosity leads the way. Presented as part of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts, this immersive experience rethinks what theatre for … Continue reading SIFA 2026: The Lighthouse – An interview with Patch Theatre artistic director Geoff Cobham on light and children’s theatre
SIFA 2026: Salesman之死 – An interview with director Danny Yeo on translating and adapting Arthur Miller
In the spring of 1983, despite not speaking a word of Mandarin, Arthur Miller travelled to Beijing to direct Death of a Salesman with an all-Chinese cast. The encounter, later documented in his memoir Salesman in Beijing, has since become a touchstone of cross-cultural theatre-making. More than two decades later, that improbable collaboration now finds new life in Salesman之死, a multilingual, documentary-inflected work that traces … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Salesman之死 – An interview with director Danny Yeo on translating and adapting Arthur Miller
SIFA 2026: LACRIMA – An interview with director Caroline Guiela Nguyen on painstaking, invisible labour and craftsmanship
What fascinated French artist Caroline Guiela Nguyen about the fashion world was never the glamour of haute couture itself, but the invisible human machinery that sustains it. LACRIMA, which comes to Singapore this week as one of the opening shows of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), may begin with the commission of a royal wedding dress, the kind of object typically associated … Continue reading SIFA 2026: LACRIMA – An interview with director Caroline Guiela Nguyen on painstaking, invisible labour and craftsmanship
Art: UOB Painting of the Year set to elevate artistic excellence in its 45th edition with a festival and more
For decades, the UOB Painting of the Year competition has quietly shaped the careers of some of Southeast Asia’s most respected artists. Now, as it enters its 45th edition, the long-running art prize is stepping beyond the traditional competition format — and into the wider community. This year, UOB will launch its first-ever arts festival in Singapore, transforming what was once largely an industry-facing awards … Continue reading Art: UOB Painting of the Year set to elevate artistic excellence in its 45th edition with a festival and more
Preview: Scaredy Kat Presents by Gateway Arts
There’s something quietly powerful about watching your fears play out in front of you—especially when they’re wrapped in story, light, and imagination. This May, Singapore audiences will get exactly that with Scaredy Kat Presents, a new youth theatre production by Gateway Arts. But this isn’t just another stage show, it’s an immersive, multimedia experience that transforms anxiety into something tangible, and ultimately, something hopeful. Inspired … Continue reading Preview: Scaredy Kat Presents by Gateway Arts
Preview: cont·act Dance Festival 2026 (16th edition)
This June, Singapore’s dance calendar welcomes back one of its most transformative festivals, with the 16th edition of cont·act Dance Festival, now with a refreshed identity, a bold international lineup, and an invitation to experience dance beyond categories. Running from 8 to 28 June 2026, the festival unfolds across the iconic Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and other creative spaces, bringing together artists from … Continue reading Preview: cont·act Dance Festival 2026 (16th edition)
