When Fiction Becomes Fact: Sci-fi and the Fate of Humanity by Ken Liu (Singapore Writers Festival 2017)

If science fiction is almost always wrong, why read it in the first place? That is a position that author Ken Liu often finds himself defending to the sci-fi skeptics. And certainly, one the Harvard Law School graduate does so beautifully in his entertaining and eloquent lecture on the power of science fiction last Sunday at the Arts House Chamber. Having won multiple Hugo Awards, … Continue reading When Fiction Becomes Fact: Sci-fi and the Fate of Humanity by Ken Liu (Singapore Writers Festival 2017)

Singapore Writers Festival 2017: We Can be Heroes, Just For One Day

Eight writers from the UK, Ireland, Iran, Australia and Singapore gathered in the Arts House Chamber and celebrated their personal heroes tonight through the written word. Moderated by poet Marc Nair who described the Singapore Writers Festival reading-and- performance event as “a dessert buffet” of sorts, the strong line-up of artists indeed dished out a feast of tantalizing treats for all, with an assortment of flavours … Continue reading Singapore Writers Festival 2017: We Can be Heroes, Just For One Day

Review: Broken Vows dir. Bram Coppens

How wrong can a wedding go? Plenty, particularly when you’ve got an insane stalker hot on your heels, hell bent on ruining it. Broken Vows boasts an impressive cast, including Jaime Alexander, Wes Bentley and Cam Gigandet. We’ve seen these actors at their best in various other films, and one would expect them to flourish with the roles they’ve been saddled with in this film – … Continue reading Review: Broken Vows dir. Bram Coppens

Review: The Black Eye Club by Phil Charles

“He’s one of the girls!” shouts Zoe (Rebecca Pryle) innocuously – except in this world of misconceptions and boundaries, he (Christopher Sherwood) legally isn’t. Himself a victim of domestic abuse, Dave turns up late at night at a refuge only to be told by its night concierge (Cathryn Sherman) that the rooms are strictly women-only. Dave is a gay man, and thus terribly fascinating to Zoe who … Continue reading Review: The Black Eye Club by Phil Charles

Review: Boom by (aside)

Since its inception in 2008, Jean Tay’s Boom has become a seminal text keenly representing our country’s insatiable thirst for fancy new things and our forgotten heritage, told through the parallel stories of a property agent and his mother, and a civil servant and a literal unidentified corpse. Weaving in Hokkien with English, past with present, and a touch of magical realism, Boom is a poignant, powerful work that … Continue reading Review: Boom by (aside)

Review: Lemmings and The Wedding Pig by The Second Breakfast Company

Staging new scripts can be daunting, and even more so when these scripts mark their writers’ stage debuts. But in The Second Breakfast Company’s second outing, they’re going big and presenting an ambitious double bill of two completely new plays, both of which tackle mature topics beyond their young writers’ ages, and are promising starts should they choose to continue down this route in the future. The … Continue reading Review: Lemmings and The Wedding Pig by The Second Breakfast Company

Review: Sanctuary by The Necessary Stage and HANCHU-YUEI

There’s always something innately exciting about watching a collaborative devised work. Providing fertile ground for seeding new ideas and pushing collaborators beyond their creative comfort zones, there was plenty of hype surrounding The Necessary Stage’s latest collaboration, this time with young Japanese theatre company HANCHU-YUEI with their newest work: Sanctuary. Ending off their 30th Anniversary season with Sanctuary in many ways feels appropriate for TNS. The eponymous title … Continue reading Review: Sanctuary by The Necessary Stage and HANCHU-YUEI

Aesthetic Meets Appetizing: Dinner at RWS’ Curate

We love art. We also love food. So it makes perfect sense that we’d love a restaurant who serves food that has been so well crafted, so innovative and painstakingly planned out that it naturally, elevates itself to an art form. Besides visiting Resorts World Sentosa for its theatre and for Universal Studios, there’s a plethora of great restaurants available as well, and one we’ve … Continue reading Aesthetic Meets Appetizing: Dinner at RWS’ Curate

da:ns Festival 2017: Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project (Review)

Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project presented at Esplanade’s da:ns Festival was a riveting performance of perfection, and left audiences in awe throughout the 80 minute show. The show opened with a sequence of three duets from the documentary A Dancer’s world: Martha Graham. Performed on a bare stage, the no-frills presentation of the dance brought the audience’s attention to the detail and shape of the dancers’ bodies, emphasizing the sharp lines … Continue reading da:ns Festival 2017: Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project (Review)