SIFA 2019: Displaced Persons Welcome Dinner by Checkpoint Theatre (Review)

Humanitarian workers go through dreary office politics just like you and me.  The issue of refugees and mass migration has been one of the hottest topics on everyone’s lips in recent years, with many a play made about the problems the displaced go through themselves. But few plays have actually dealt with the oft forgotten players in the crisis – the humanitarian aid workers tirelessly … Continue reading SIFA 2019: Displaced Persons Welcome Dinner by Checkpoint Theatre (Review)

SIFA 2019: ST/LL by Shiro Takatani, Dumb Type (Review)

The impossible task of putting the meditative mind onstage is achieved in this visually stunning work from Japan. Created by Japanese artist Shiro Takatani and his company Dumb Type, ST/LL is one of those rare, brilliantly inventive works of art that defies definition, combining dance, music, video and theatre to produce a series of masterful visual images in motion. Cerebral and abstract in form, there are perhaps … Continue reading SIFA 2019: ST/LL by Shiro Takatani, Dumb Type (Review)

SIFA 2019: Frogman by curious directive (Review)

Red herring is the catch of the day in this deep dive into childhood trauma.  As technology continues to develop year on year, it seems inevitable that various facets of the arts wind up attempting to incorporate them into new works, pushing the limits of what one can experience with each production, to varying degrees of success. With curious directive’s Frogman, it is Virtual Reality (VR) technology … Continue reading SIFA 2019: Frogman by curious directive (Review)

SIFA 2019: Bedtime Stories by URLAND (Review)

Let the power of stories map your dreams. One of the fondest memories of our childhoods is listening to our parents tell us a story before tucking us in to bed. Falling asleep, our dreams would be filled with gallant knights and life changing adventures, dreams we’d rarely want to wake up from. With reality often being far more droll than the world of fantasy … Continue reading SIFA 2019: Bedtime Stories by URLAND (Review)

Review: Colours by Split Theatrical Productions

Finding the answer to life in plane sight. Inspired by the theme of religion and reflection on time, the universe and the divine in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Colours deviates from Split’s usual themes of education and adolescence to take on a far darker topic – airplane disasters. Written and directed by Split artistic director Darryl Lim, we enter the Centre 42 Blackbox and are greeted by a team of … Continue reading Review: Colours by Split Theatrical Productions

SIFA 2019: The Mysterious Lai Teck by Ho Tzu Nyen (Review)

A brief history of a fictitious communist acts as the starting point for which to deconstruct the very nature of truth itself. Far too often in the recording of history, tiny details get lost from simple descriptors, to entire accounts of people. The latter in particular is explored in full with Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Mysterious Lai Teck. Based off a former leader of the Malayan … Continue reading SIFA 2019: The Mysterious Lai Teck by Ho Tzu Nyen (Review)

SIFA 2019: Peter and the Wolf by Silo Theatre (Review)

Joyous, modern take on Prokofiev’s classic that will enchant any child with the magic of theatre. Every once in a while, amidst the darkness and grit that so much of today’s theatre is characterised by, there is a distinct need to lighten up the mood and find optimism in simple, yet powerful reminders of all that is good in the world. Presented by New Zealand’s … Continue reading SIFA 2019: Peter and the Wolf by Silo Theatre (Review)

SIFA 2019: Dionysus by Suzuki Company of Toga & Purnati Indonesia (Review)

Tadashi Suzuki draws out the wicked and the divine from a classic Greek tragedy . Staging a classic Greek tragedy has never been an easy feat for any theatre company – as enduring as these stories are, the true challenge lies in having a production simultaneously bring something new to the tale, while still preserving the essence of message of the original tale. In the … Continue reading SIFA 2019: Dionysus by Suzuki Company of Toga & Purnati Indonesia (Review)

Review: Ghost Call by RAW Moves

A call to reduce the distance technology has created. In the age of Tinder, WhatsApp, and other social media applications, the need to ever meet someone else in person for the sake of conversation has rapidly decreased. But is there still value in that face to face interaction that we’ve forgotten? That’s the crux of contemporary dance company RAW Moves’ latest production, as Ghost Call explores … Continue reading Review: Ghost Call by RAW Moves

SIFA 2019: Beware of Pity by Schaubühne Berlin & Complicité (Review)

Crippling guilt is the driving force of tragedy in this co-production between Schaubühne Berlin and Simon McBurney After closing SIFA 2018 with An Enemy of the People, Germany’s Schaubühne Berlin has now returned to open SIFA 2019 in an almost poetic act of programming continuity. In a similar vein to their production last year, Beware of Pity is a scathing, pointed look at the darkness of the human … Continue reading SIFA 2019: Beware of Pity by Schaubühne Berlin & Complicité (Review)