Over 200 programmes set for Yong Shu Hoong’s final edition of Singapore Writers Festival, turning the spotlight on crime, mystery, and looking beyond what we think we know

With more than 300 writers and speakers and over 200 programmes, the 29th Singapore Writers Festival turns “Hidden in Plain Sight” into a sprawling investigation of crime, memory, translation, technology and reading between the lines. A literary festival themed around things hidden in plain sight could hardly arrive at a more appropriate moment. The 29th Singapore Writers Festival, running from 13 to 22 November, takes … Continue reading Over 200 programmes set for Yong Shu Hoong’s final edition of Singapore Writers Festival, turning the spotlight on crime, mystery, and looking beyond what we think we know

What Promotional Disclosure Looks Like Without a Rule Requiring It

Singapore consumers are used to the small print being somewhere. It may be tedious, it may be in grey eight-point type at the bottom of a page, but a promotion that sets a condition on a payout generally says so. That reliability is easy to mistake for a natural state of affairs rather than the product of a rule. A survey conducted in late August … Continue reading What Promotional Disclosure Looks Like Without a Rule Requiring It

Interview: Playwright Benedict Lim spills the ‘Beans’ on class, scarcity and taking creative risks

“Maybe because the world is burning and I might as well do the things I want to do.” That’s a statement that feels integral to Singaporean playwright Benedict Lim’s reason for making art. There is humour in the line, but also a sense of practicality: if the circumstances are already uncertain, there is little point waiting for the perfect moment to make the work you … Continue reading Interview: Playwright Benedict Lim spills the ‘Beans’ on class, scarcity and taking creative risks

★★★★★ Theatre Review: ART (2026) by Godot Theatre Company

Godot Theatre’s take on Yasmina Reza’s beloved classic reminds us how art reveals uncomfortable truths about ourselves and how we live in a world of myriad perspectives. Duration: 135 minutes John Berger, in Ways of Seeing, famously writes that “the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled”. It is an idea that applies directly to Yasmina Reza’s ART, a play … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: ART (2026) by Godot Theatre Company

★★★★★ Film Review: Once Upon A Time In The Middle East 欢迎来龙餐馆 dir. Wen Muye

From China comes one of the best anti-war blockbuster films in recent history that captures the human cost of senseless conflict, in both body count and morality. Duration: 140 minutes War films are so often constructed around the perspectives of the countries that wage them, making it unusual to see a film so openly interested in the consequences of American intervention in the Middle East … Continue reading ★★★★★ Film Review: Once Upon A Time In The Middle East 欢迎来龙餐馆 dir. Wen Muye

Art: Li Huayi – Unity of Man and Nature at Kwai Fung Hin

For Li Huayi, landscape is not a record of a place but an expression of an inner world. As his first solo exhibition in Southeast Asia arrives in Singapore, the artist reflects on tradition, freedom, memory and the enduring possibilities of ink. There are no travellers wandering through Li Huayi’s landscapes. No fishermen, scholars or tiny figures climbing the mountain paths that populate so much … Continue reading Art: Li Huayi – Unity of Man and Nature at Kwai Fung Hin

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Radicalisation of Mrs. Mary Lim-Rodrigues by Wild Rice

A precise, unsettling dissection of what happens when rules become more important than the people they are meant to serve. Duration: 90 minutes The Radicalisation of Mrs. Mary Lim-Rodrigues at times feels like a paradox: it is a play about the consequences of failing to see another person fully, yet it deliberately keeps its audience at a certain remove and emotional distance from its characters. … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Radicalisation of Mrs. Mary Lim-Rodrigues by Wild Rice

Film: SGIFF 2026 returns this October with opening film ‘The Assassin(s)’; more Singapore films in the global spotlight than ever

Singapore’s cinema scene is having a moment, and this year, the Singapore International Film Festival is bringing that momentum home. Returning from 21 October to 1 November 2026 for its 37th edition, SGIFF will open with South Korean thriller The Assassin(s), directed by Hur Jin-ho and starring Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho. Hur, alongside supporting cast members Shim Eun-kyung and Park Sung-hoon, will … Continue reading Film: SGIFF 2026 returns this October with opening film ‘The Assassin(s)’; more Singapore films in the global spotlight than ever

★★★★★ Theatre Review: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice by Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre

Sarah Ruhl’s retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth comes alive under Ghafir Akbar’s inventive and imaginative staging, and the cast’s deeply sincere performances. Duration: 90 minutes For more than two thousand years, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice has endured as one of Greek mythology’s great stories of love and loss. Orpheus, the gifted musician, travels into the Underworld to retrieve his wife Eurydice … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice by Jeffrey Cheah Performing Arts Centre

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Secret Drawer by Instant Café Theatre Company

New documentary theatre work excavates Malaysia’s buried history one memory at a time. There is a cleverness to The Secret Drawer that becomes apparent almost immediately: the production makes its black-box space feel like somewhere secret. Designed by producer Tan Cher Kian and directed by Jo Kukathas, the stage resembles an underground lair or private archive, with objects and figures surrounding Ling Tang and Lim … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Secret Drawer by Instant Café Theatre Company