A simple yet strong premise that sets the foundation for a better play in future One of the most pertinent events to have surrounded the issue of race is perhaps none other than Rachel Dolezal, the Caucasian woman who lived a life pretending to be black, drawing flak for the lie, yet was an outspoken vocalist for civil rights. It’s an issue that shows that … Continue reading Review: Master Race by Myle Yan Tay
In taking on the mantle of the entire future of theatre from one’s predecessors, it is understandable that one would feel trepidation and anxiety at living up to the precedents set by them, or want to establish a new standard and stake one’s claim in the history of theatre. NUS’ latest batch of Theatre Studies students attempts to tackle just that issue in a project … Continue reading Review: Hana by NUS Theatre Studies Theatre Lab
Thong Pei Qin summons the old guard of feminist artists for a new generation. If Step Outta Line was anyone’s first introduction to playwright Ovidia Yu, they’d probably come away with the impression that this was one angry woman. And rightfully so. Yu was one of the most outspoken and prominent female local playwrights of the 90s, with seminal plays that dared rebel against the patriarchy, pushed … Continue reading M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2018: Step Outta Line by Thong Pei Qin (Review)
The transformative power of pain is on full display in a moving work from Pink Gajah. Hayat may be a word that means life, but in Pink Gajah’s newest work of the same name, it begins with a death. Specifically, the memory of the death of performer Ajuntha Anwari’s mother, a trigger to reflect upon her life and begin her journey of grief, not only for her mother, … Continue reading M1 Fringe Festival 2018: Hayat by Pink Gajah Theatre (Review)
At the 28th Singapore International Film Festival, the Youth Jury and Critics Programme makes a welcome return, with the aim of nurturing a new generation of young critics from the region. Since October, the thirteen participants have been meeting every Saturday to attend lectures from various personalities in the industry, ranging from TV presenters like Genevieve Loh to Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung. The participants … Continue reading SGIFF 2017: Getting to Know the Youth Jury and Critics
Earlier this month we were pleasantly surprised by a highly competent production of Jean Tay’s Boom by a group of students from Yale-NUS. We thought this was the kind of thing that comes by only every so often, but evidently we were wrong, having proverbial lightning strike twice with Myle Yan Tay and Nathaniel Mah’s new musical tackling office life: Overtime. Overtime is the rare … Continue reading Review: Overtime by Myle Yan Tay and Nathaniel Mah
Yale-NUS students Myle Yan Tay and Nathaniel Mah will be presenting an all new musical this November. Titled Overtime, the original musical follows best friends Finch, an employee in the Ministry of Competency and Alex, an aspiring playwright. Both of them dream of success, but while Finch keeps getting his promotions, Alex struggles, and a rift begins to form between the two friends. https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FOvertimeMusical%2Fvideos%2F1959933290931198%2F&show_text=0&width=400 Can the two maintain … Continue reading Preview: Overtime by Myle Yan Tay and Nathaniel Mah
The Esplanade’s regular Mosaic Music Series returned last night as the season kicked off with local band Canvas Conversations in collaboration with fellow local musician FERRY (of Giants Must Fall), as they performed a dreamy electronic music set at the Esplanade Annexe Studio. Consisting of four members, namely Vick Low, Jeff Hue, Namie Rasman and Bings Lee, the band first came to attention at Noise 2015, before … Continue reading Mosaic Music Series 2017: An Interview with Canvas Conversations
Presented in collaboration with the Esplanade, the Intercultural Theatre Institute’s graduating cohort will be performing their newest show at the Esplanade Theatre Studio this November, following their previous production of Leakages. Directed by Drama Box Artistic Director and Arts NMP Kok Heng Leun, ITI presents American playwright Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play – Our Town. Written in 1938, Our Town is a metaphysical theatre piece and plays out like … Continue reading Preview: Our Town by Intercultural Theatre Institute (+Interview with Director Kok Heng Leun)
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)
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