Heavy-handed messaging about holding on to hope at the end of the world. The anthropocene refers to a time in which human activity has become the primary influence on climate and the environment, where man has fully established control and dominance, as we shape the world in our image. Naturally, playing god when we’re mere mortals has its consequences, something that is explored in new … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Review: Anthropocene by Toy Factory
Comedy about student eco-terrorists has a fun concept but muddles the point. The ongoing conversation surrounding climate change may be exhausting and anxiety-inducing, but for theatremaker Rachel Chin, that doesn’t always have to be the case, as she attempts to subvert that with her new play The Thieves. Developed under Toy Factory’s The Wright Stuff playwright incubation programme, The Thieves made its premiere last week … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Review: The Thieves by Toy Factory
Original plays are always welcome, and with Toy Factory Productions’s The Wright Stuff Festival, the local theatre company has always promised the introduction of fresh voices and new narratives with every edition. Now in its 4th run, the festival is taking on a more ethically-charged slant, with all three of its new plays surrounding the theme of ‘climate’. Following an open call last year, Toy … Continue reading Writing About Climate: An Interview with the new playwrights of Toy Factory’s The Wright Stuff Festival 2023
Returning for a brand new edition, Toy Factory Productions is once again helming The Wright Stuff Festival, returning this September for its 4th season. Created with the intent to nurture and mentor new playwrights, The Wright Stuff Festival 2023 is the culmination of that mentorship, as a graduation showcase for their budding playwrights to present their work as full productions, at the end of the … Continue reading Preview: The Wright Stuff Festival 2023 by Toy Factory Productions
Haunted by the prospect of death and the pain of grief. Art and entertainment that market themselves under the horror genre have an uphill task. By knowing that horror is involved, audience members naturally come in expecting there will be scares at some point, and beyond having to deliver on that, contemporary horror often also has to go a step further, by wrapping it all … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: 2:22 – A Ghost Story by Singapore Repertory Theatre
Politics and convictions clash in one couple’s struggle over faith in church and marriage. Love is a fickle thing. While a person may initially seem like ‘the one’, as years go by, both parties will almost always undergo changes in personality and beliefs, as they continue to grow with each new life experience. How then can the sanctity of marriage be upheld when both you … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Tender Submission by Checkpoint Theatre
Modern take on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde problematises society’s obsession with gender and performativity. In the novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, author Robert Louis Stevenson uses the core narrative of a kind man hiding a sinister alter ego to pass commentary on the stress of conforming to strict moral codes and social norms in Victorian-era London. In suppressing our true … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: King by T:>Works
Fear often gets the better of us, and our imaginations begin to run wild. But what if there’s more evidence than just your thoughts that seems to point to something supernatural happening? In 2:22 – A Ghost Story, that is precisely the conundrum at hand, as a young couple who have just moved into their dream home begin to experience strange occurrences at precisely 2:22am … Continue reading An Interview with director Daniel Jenkins and the cast of ‘2:22 – A Ghost Story’ by Singapore Repertory Theatre
Short, sharp vignettes from Waterloo Street’s history leave a lasting impact and a desire to go back. Restagings of theatre productions in Singapore are hard to come by, even more so for complicated works that require extensive logistics and planning. So when The Theatre Practice’s (Practice) previous staging of Four Horse Road was cut short due to the circuit breaker in 2020, it seemed like … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Four Horse Road 四马路 (2023) by The Theatre Practice
Back in 2020, at the height of COVID-19, theatremaker Jo Tan was invited by T:>Works to present a little one-woman show called King, as part of their annual N.O.W. Festival of Women. With pandemic restrictions in place, King, however, was relegated to becoming a live film, streamed online. Now, with the world open again, Jo is taking another stab at the play again, bringing it … Continue reading T:>Works’ King: An Interview with writer/performer Jo Tan and director Irfan Kasban
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