★★★★★ Theatre Review: Lush Life by Ong Keng Sen / T:>Works, Jacintha & Dick Lee (SIFA 2026)
Icon of Singapore’s music scene tells the story of her three ex-husbands through docudrama and song, in a theatrical concert that captures her verve for love, life and all it offers. There is a word Jacintha Abisheganaden uses early in Lush Life that tells you everything about what kind of evening this will be. Recounting her years performing in Hawaii, where a manager suggested she … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Lush Life by Ong Keng Sen / T:>Works, Jacintha & Dick Lee (SIFA 2026)
★★★★★ Circus Review: A Simple Space by Gravity & Other Myths (Flipside 2026)
Ingeniously simple concept that reminds us of the joy of circus, stripping is back to its essentials and delivering on a rollicking good time. When most people think of circus, they imagine massive spectacle: towering big tops, elaborate costumes, dazzling lighting rigs, and performers transformed into larger-than-life characters. Contemporary circus after all, often leans towards ever-greater scale, bigger stunts, more ambitious concepts, and increasingly elaborate … Continue reading ★★★★★ Circus Review: A Simple Space by Gravity & Other Myths (Flipside 2026)
Theatre Review: Snakes and Ladders! by Dwayne Lau (Flipside 2026)
Theatrical metaphor for how life never progresses in a straight line, but we keep rolling the dice and continue moving forward amidst the ups and downs. Back in June when Snakes & Ladders premiered as a 40-minute work-in-progress at the Esplanade Concourse, it felt like a charming autobiographical cabaret searching for a stronger narrative spine. Now expanded into a full-length production for the Esplanade’s Flipside … Continue reading Theatre Review: Snakes and Ladders! by Dwayne Lau (Flipside 2026)
Preview: Titan Sculptors by Singapore Chinese Orchestra
What does a sculpture sound like? This June, audiences will have the chance to find out as the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) transforms some of Singapore’s most beloved public artworks into music with Titan Sculptors, a one-night-only concert that celebrates four of the nation’s most influential sculptors. Taking place on 6 June at the SCO Concert Hall, the performance is the latest instalment of the … Continue reading Preview: Titan Sculptors by Singapore Chinese Orchestra
★★★★★ Dance Review: Planet [wanderer] by Damien Jalet & Kohei Nawa (SIFA 2026)
Awe-inspiring, hypnotic dance-installation, that takes audiences on an existential odyssey through a world that’s hostile, hauntingly beautiful, and beyond our control. Some performances tell stories, but Planet [wanderer] creates a world. Surreal, unnerving, and at times profoundly unsettling, Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa’s latest collaboration unfolds less like a dance performance than a waking dream. Playing as part of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of … Continue reading ★★★★★ Dance Review: Planet [wanderer] by Damien Jalet & Kohei Nawa (SIFA 2026)
Art: Hiroshi Sugimoto – Form Is Emptiness explores time, consciousness and seeing at SAM @ Tanjong Pagar
One of the first impressions inside Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness is not visual in any straightforward sense, but atmospheric. The galleries seem to slow the body before the mind has time to interpret what is happening. Sound falls away into a low, diffuse hush, not quite absolute silence, but instead the softened acoustics of carpeted distance, of people unconsciously lowering their voices as they … Continue reading Art: Hiroshi Sugimoto – Form Is Emptiness explores time, consciousness and seeing at SAM @ Tanjong Pagar
★★★★★ Theatre Review: Hedda Gabler by National Theater Company of Korea (SIFA 2026)
Lee Hyeyoung delivers a masterclass performance in Park Jung-hee’s hypnotic, sexually charged reimagining of Ibsen’s classic, now transformed into a suffocating psychological thriller of a K-drama. Before we see anything in the National Theater Company of Korea’s Hedda Gabler, we hear a gunshot. It tears through the darkness with such violence that the audience visibly jolts. And from that very first moment, director Park Jung-hee … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Hedda Gabler by National Theater Company of Korea (SIFA 2026)
★★★☆☆ Dance Review: Strangely Familiar《熟悉的陌生》 by T.H.E Dance Company (SIFA 2026)
T.H.E toes the line between human and machine in this visually ambitious production, occasionally overwhelmed by technology superseding the very humanity it seeks to explore. Playing as part of the 2026 Singapore International Festival of Arts, before T.H.E Dance Company’s Strangely Familiar even begins, the world of the performance is already quietly consuming us. The soundscape hums through the theatre with an eerie, dystopian distance, … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Dance Review: Strangely Familiar《熟悉的陌生》 by T.H.E Dance Company (SIFA 2026)
Books: Raphaël Millet’s ‘Singapore – A Cinematic Portrait’ reimagines 125 years of life on screen
What does a city look like when you trace it not through maps or monuments, but through cinema? A new publication from the Asian Film Archive and film scholar Raphaël Millet offers a striking answer: Singapore, reframed as a living, evolving character across more than a century of film. Launched on 21 May 2026 at Oldham Theatre, Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait is a richly illustrated … Continue reading Books: Raphaël Millet’s ‘Singapore – A Cinematic Portrait’ reimagines 125 years of life on screen
Flipside 2026: An interview with Guy Waerenburgh on risk, absurdity and the thrill of unpredictability in ‘Der Lauf (The Way Things Go)’
Contemporary circus rarely sits still, but Der Lauf (The Way Things Go) thrives in a state of beautiful collapse. Created by Belgian juggler and performer Guy Waerenburgh, the internationally acclaimed production transforms juggling into something far stranger and more theatrical: part cabaret, part endurance test, part social experiment. Blindfolded performers navigate towering stacks of wine glasses, spinning plates, flying buckets and razor-sharp knives, while the … Continue reading Flipside 2026: An interview with Guy Waerenburgh on risk, absurdity and the thrill of unpredictability in ‘Der Lauf (The Way Things Go)’
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