Preview: This Chord and Others [The Studios 2017]

Get ready for a blast from the past during the 2017 season of the Esplanade’s The Studios when Haresh Sharma’s 1991 play is given a new breath of life in this restaging headed by Timothy Nga! Last performed in 2000, This Chord and Others is a comedy about friendship and identity through the eyes of three young friends: Sukdev, Gerald and Thomas. The three friends work together … Continue reading Preview: This Chord and Others [The Studios 2017]

Review: ITSY The Musical by The Finger Players

In a world where childhood fairy tales are constantly being adapted into darker, grittier versions for film, it was inevitable that someone would eventually do the same for nursery rhymes. Enter The Finger Players’ first show of the season: ITSY The Musical, which does just that, taking some of your favourite nursery rhymes you learnt as a kid and bringing them to life in this grown up musical. … Continue reading Review: ITSY The Musical by The Finger Players

Review: Arts House House Party

The Arts House’s annual celebration of all things artsy returns this weekend for another insane party highlighting literary expression across genres by various local artists. One of today’s highlights had to be Note For Note, a poetry based performance where various local poets performed poems alongside local musicians providing accompanying music. With both local literary giants such as Yong Shu Hoong, Pooja Nansi and Marc … Continue reading Review: Arts House House Party

Review: WOMEN at Troy & Thesmophoria by Intercultural Theatre Institute

Greek theatre isn’t dead! At least, that’s what the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI)’s 2017 graduating cohort wants you to think, with their double bill of two classic Greek pieces: Euripedes’ Women of Troy and Aristophanes’ Women at the Festival of Thesmophoria (Thesmophoriazusae). As Singapore’s leading multicultural theatre institute, ITI excels at bringing international and intercultural students and practitioners together to learn and create works that may … Continue reading Review: WOMEN at Troy & Thesmophoria by Intercultural Theatre Institute

The Studios 2017: With/Out (Review)

How do you remember a life? In 1999, The Necessary Stage presented Completely With/Out Character, where Singapore’s first openly HIV-positive man, Paddy Chew, performed a true, heartfelt monologue about his life, unfortunately passing away a few months after the end of the production. For those who have never heard of Paddy Chew however, his story remains unknown to them, and the chance to feel and experience it … Continue reading The Studios 2017: With/Out (Review)

Review: Normal by Checkpoint Theatre

“Would you say that these works have any merit as opposed to… Shakespeare?” As if in response to such a challenge from a line in the play, Checkpoint Theatre opens its 15th anniversary season confidently with Faith Ng’s Normal. Last staged in 2015, the play revolves around the lives of two schoolgirls from the fictional Trinity Girls School. Feeling straitjacketed and lagging behind in the … Continue reading Review: Normal by Checkpoint Theatre

Preview: La Cage Aux Folles by W!ld Rice

W!ld Rice is starting off the year with a bang, with a restaging of Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles, last staged at the Esplanade by W!ld Rice in 2012. Winning the 2013 Life! Theatre Award for Production of the Year, La Cage will once again feature Ivan Heng in the lead role as Albin – a family man by day, lascivious drag extraordinaire Zaza by night, … Continue reading Preview: La Cage Aux Folles by W!ld Rice

Preview: With/Out [The Studios 2017]

In 1999, The Necessary Stage worked with Singapore’s first openly HIV-positive person Paddy Chew to devise a monologue titled Completely With/Out Character, depicting Paddy’s experiences. Though well received, Paddy passed on a few months after the production, and few works since have so openly dealt with the condition of living with HIV. More than a decade later, Loo Zihan revisits the work, reinterpreting Paddy’s monologue and reconceptualising the … Continue reading Preview: With/Out [The Studios 2017]

Review: Fundamentally Happy by Nine Years Theatre [Studios 2017]

Wait a minute, a collaboration between Nine Years Theatre and Haresh Sharma? You didn’t just misread that. First presented in 2006 by The Necessary Stage in its original English language, Fundamentally Happy has since bagged Best Production and Best Original Script at the 2007 ST Life Theatre Awards and is still making its rounds on the big screen via the 2015 film adaptation by 13 … Continue reading Review: Fundamentally Happy by Nine Years Theatre [Studios 2017]

Review: Family Secrets by The Necessary Stage

From the schoolyard to a dementia day care center- The Necessary Stage has definitely been busy! In addition to their recent production of the classic Those Who Can’t, Teach, TNS continues its 30th anniversary celebrations during that very same weekend with Family Secrets, a Theatre For Seniors double-bill centered around the elderly and their families. In this restaging, Cultural Medallion winner and playwright Haresh Sharma … Continue reading Review: Family Secrets by The Necessary Stage