Review: We Make Spaces Divine ft. Dey by the Esplanade, Pooja Nansi, Shivram Gopinath, Isuru Wijesoma & RAAJ

Pooja Nansi and Shivram Gopinath’s tongue-in-cheek, electric verse meets sick beats to create a profoundly healing experience. In tiny Singapore, it can be all too easy to feel a creeping sense of claustrophobia. Shared third spaces vanish, and opportunities for uninhibited self-expression grow scarce. For poet Pooja Nansi, the solution is not to wait for transformation, but to seize agency: to uncover beauty in the … Continue reading Review: We Make Spaces Divine ft. Dey by the Esplanade, Pooja Nansi, Shivram Gopinath, Isuru Wijesoma & RAAJ

★★★★☆ Film Review: Girl 女孩 dir. Shu Qi

Shu Qi’s directorial debut is deeply personal, and teases out the pain and potential of girlhood in ’80s Taiwan. Adolescence is rarely tidy. It’s unruly, bewildering, and often defined by the kind of pain we only learn how to name years later. In Girl, her semi-autobiographical directorial debut, Taiwanese star Shu Qi turns that ache into cinema. Known primarily for her collaborations with Hou Hsiao-hsien … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Film Review: Girl 女孩 dir. Shu Qi

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Divorce Party! by Dream Academy

Frenetic, chaotically delightful spin on a wedding dinner anchored by Sebastian Tan’s larger-than-life performance. Divorces are often treated as tragedies, spoken about in hushed tones rather than celebrated. But why shouldn’t the end of a relationship also mark a fresh start—two people mutually deciding they’re ready to embrace singlehood again? Dream Academy seems to think it is worth celebrating, and their new theatrical dining experience, … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Divorce Party! by Dream Academy

Concert Review: ECOncert 《声态不息》 by Ding Yi Music Company

A collaborative, multi-genre invitation to forest bathe in the Esplanade Recital Studio, and co-exist with nature all around us. Now in its third edition, Ding Yi Music Company’s ECOncert has come to embrace an identity unmistakably its own, one rooted in environmental consciousness, an attentiveness to the natural textures of sound, and a desire to re-enchant the everyday landscapes around us. This year, the team … Continue reading Concert Review: ECOncert 《声态不息》 by Ding Yi Music Company

★★★★★ Theatre Review: The Cherry Orchard (벚꽃동산) by Simon Stone and LG Arts Center (South Korea)

Chekhov’s final play gets adapted in the form of a modern K-drama, anchored by a stellar cast led by the impeccable Doyeon Jeon. In Simon Stone’s The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov’s final play finds a new home and new angles to its heartbreak, as it navigates the quiet violence of time and the cruelty of progress against he sleek, ever-changing skyline of modern Korea. In Stone’s … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: The Cherry Orchard (벚꽃동산) by Simon Stone and LG Arts Center (South Korea)

Concert Review: Stephen Hough Piano Concerto + Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony by Singapore Symphony Orchestra

A night of musical mastery with the Asian premiere of Sir Stephen Hough’s evocative piano concerto, and a commanding rendition of Saint-Saëns’s majestic Organ Symphony. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) welcomed audiences to an evening of elegance, energy, and emotion under the baton of Associate Conductor Rodolfo Barráez, featuring the Asian premiere of Sir Stephen Hough’s own Piano Concerto, The World of Yesterday. Completing the … Continue reading Concert Review: Stephen Hough Piano Concerto + Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony by Singapore Symphony Orchestra

★★★★★ Theatre Review: Twelve Angry Men《十二怒汉》by Nine Years Theatre

Biases unravel and tempers flare in Nine Years Theatre’s powerful revival of this classic courtroom drama. There is something unsettling about the image that accompanied the publicity for Twelve Angry Men: twelve faces, marked by a single red stroke. Is it erasure, censorship, or judgment? The ambiguity lingers as the lights dim, an apt prelude to Nine Years Theatre’s searing revival of Reginald Rose’s courtroom … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Twelve Angry Men《十二怒汉》by Nine Years Theatre

★★★★★ Theatre Review: Final Bow《散戏》by Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Cultural Group

Heartfelt, hilarious, and profoundly moving, Final Bow is a theatrical triumph that captures the bittersweet beauty of an art form standing at the end of an era and the edge of change. What makes theatre so precious is its transience. Each performance exists only in that instant, where there are no two ever alike, no recording ever truly able to capture the electricity of being … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Final Bow《散戏》by Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Cultural Group

★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: Congratulations, Get Rich! by Singapore Repertory Theatre, La Boite Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company

SRT, La Boite Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company’s karaoke-inspired ghost story struggles to find the note. Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Congratulations, Get Rich! arrives with an impressive pedigree, marking a first-time co-production between SRT, Sydney Theatre Company, and Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre. Written by and starring Merlynn Tong, the play promises a raucous blend of karaoke comedy, family tragedy, and ghostly intervention. On paper, it sounds … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: Congratulations, Get Rich! by Singapore Repertory Theatre, La Boite Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company

★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: SG Insecure by The Necessary Stage

TNS’ attempt to subvert the SG60 celebrations is a patchy collection of stories about government surveillance and control that instead reveals its own insecurities. If there’s one thing Singaporeans crave, it’s control, whether over order, and how we’re seen by others. SG Insecure, The Necessary Stage’s (TNS) latest work, sets out to question that national impulse. Framed as a subversive take on the SG60 celebrations, … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: SG Insecure by The Necessary Stage