Singapore Takes Centre Stage as Global Performing Arts Leaders Gather for ISPA 2026 Congress
Singapore’s arts scene stepped into the international spotlight this week as more than 400 performing arts leaders from over 40 countries arrived for the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) 2026 Singapore Congress, the first time the global gathering has returned to Southeast Asia in more than two decades. Held from 19 to 22 May and hosted by the National Arts Council, the Congress … Continue reading Singapore Takes Centre Stage as Global Performing Arts Leaders Gather for ISPA 2026 Congress
Becoming Willy Wonka: An Interview with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Daniel Plimpton
Roald Dahl’s beloved tale of golden tickets and chocolate rivers is finally making its Southeast Asian debut, as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical opens at Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands, for a strictly limited season from 19th May 2026. Presented by Base Entertainment Asia in association with Broadway International Group and Broadway Asia, the production brings Willy Wonka’s fantastical chocolate factory to life … Continue reading Becoming Willy Wonka: An Interview with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Daniel Plimpton
SIFA 2026: Strangely Familiar《熟悉的陌生》 – An interview with choreographer Kuik Swee Boon on coexistence and projection
In Strangely Familiar, the stage becomes a meeting ground between worlds. A shifting digital presenc, neither fully human nor entirely machin,moves alongside five dancers, blurring the boundaries between body and projection, instinct and invention. Created by Kuik Swee Boon, founding artistic director of T.H.E Dance Company, the work unfolds less as a linear narrative than as an evolving encounter: a space where the human body … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Strangely Familiar《熟悉的陌生》 – An interview with choreographer Kuik Swee Boon on coexistence and projection
SIFA 2026: Last Rites – An interview with director Liu Xiaoyi on the temporality of live performance and preparing for the end
What would it mean to stage your final act, not as a last bow, but as a reflection of everything that came before? In Last Rites, Liu Xiaoyi brings together five veteran performers from across Asia to confront this question, weaving their personal histories into a meditation on life, art, and what remains after both have passed. Presented at the 2026 Singapore International Festival of … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Last Rites – An interview with director Liu Xiaoyi on the temporality of live performance and preparing for the end
SIFA 2026: Hamlet – An interview with director Chela De Ferrari on inclusivity and who deserves to be seen onstage
At the heart of Hamlet lies one of the most enduring questions in Western theatre: who has the right to exist, to speak, to be seen. In her radical reimagining of the play, Peruvian director Chela De Ferrari shifts that question off the page and into the bodies of her performers: actors with Down syndrome who take centre stage in a work that refuses both … Continue reading SIFA 2026: Hamlet – An interview with director Chela De Ferrari on inclusivity and who deserves to be seen onstage
★★★★★ Theatre Review: Salesman之死 by Jeremy Tiang and Danny Yeo (SIFA 2026)
A love letter to theatre, translation, and humanity itself. Salesman之死 understands that sometimes the hardest thing to translate is not language; it’s culture, emotion, and perspective. Even someone like Miller, a playwright of immense stature, struggles to grasp even a fraction of the Chinese dialogue — a quiet but telling reminder of how language itself resists ownership, even by those who write it. This becomes … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Salesman之死 by Jeremy Tiang and Danny Yeo (SIFA 2026)
★★★★★ Theatre Review: LACRIMA by Caroline Guiela Nguyen (SIFA 2026)
A searing commentary on the countless hours of tears and unseen labour it takes to weave a work of art. In the realm of fashion, haute couture (literally “high dressmaking”) exists as the pinnacle of craftsmanship: exclusive, custom-fitted garments made almost entirely by hand using some of the world’s most luxurious fabrics. It is legally protected in France, strictly regulated by the Fédération de la … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: LACRIMA by Caroline Guiela Nguyen (SIFA 2026)
★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: All You Can Eat by Wild Rice’s Young & Wild and The Rice Cooker
Undercooked, repetitively formulaic scripts do this promising batch of young actors a disservice. Graduation showcases are a notoriously difficult dish to plate. A director has to decide exactly what they want audiences to leave remembering: is it an ensemble spread where every graduate gets equal time to shine? A curated tasting menu built around the strongest performers? Or a riskier selection that leans classical, experimental, … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: All You Can Eat by Wild Rice’s Young & Wild and The Rice Cooker
★★★★☆ Theatre Review: Myles – Soulmate In A Box by Singapore Repertory Theatre
Inch Chua blends immersive multimedia and song into a visually arresting experience about the dangerous allure of frictionless love. If an AI could love you perfectly, from anticipating your every need, to removing every friction, and never misunderstanding you, would you still want a real person? Presented by Singapore Repertory Theatre after its earlier work-in-progress showing at the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2024, … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: Myles – Soulmate In A Box by Singapore Repertory Theatre
Art: Siew Guang Hong on biology and the politics of the unstable in his debut solo exhibition ‘the body improper’
This May, Richard Koh Fine Art (Singapore) presents the body improper, the first solo exhibition by Siew Guang Hong with the gallery. Bringing together 19 works across expanded photography, sculptural print, and performance, the exhibition unfolds as a sustained investigation into the body not as a fixed biological unit, but as something continually assembled, destabilised, and re-projected through ecological and conceptual systems. Across the exhibition, … Continue reading Art: Siew Guang Hong on biology and the politics of the unstable in his debut solo exhibition ‘the body improper’
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