Preview: Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts 2024 by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

As is tradition, the Esplanade’s Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts returns for a brand new edition after Hari Raya Puasa this May. This year, the arts centre and its collaborating and invited artists are ready to whisk audience members to the Nusantara region, with the meeting of tradition and folklore with the contemporary. Highlights of the festival this year include two new commissioned … Continue reading Preview: Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts 2024 by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Preview: Flipside 2024 at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

This June, get ready for the return of Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s Flipside festival, with a series of programmes that showcase the lighter side of the arts, from puppetry to circus, physical theatre to comedy. Joy and delight is at the heart of these productions, as these artists utilise absurdity and humour to find the beauty or depth in the everyday. This year’s … Continue reading Preview: Flipside 2024 at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Preview: vOilah! France Singapore Festival 2024

Singapore and France have always kept close relations with each other, and what better way to celebrate that sacred bond that with a festival? This April, the annual vOilah! France Singapore Festival returns once again to immerse visitors in the vibrant tapestry of French culture in Singapore, with a line-up of programmes that spans audiovisual arts, performing arts, visual arts, lifestyle, sports, science, gastronomy and … Continue reading Preview: vOilah! France Singapore Festival 2024

TRIP 2024: An Interview with Renee Yeong on directing ‘How I Learned To Drive’, finding balance and her place as a director in Singapore

Renee Yeong is a bit of a superwoman. Maintaining a full-time job against her theatrical pursuits, the young theatremaker has just come off directing a successful production of George Brant’s Grounded for Singapore Theatre Company, and is ready to present another production less than a month after closing, with Paula Vogel’s How I Learned To Drive. Marking her second and ‘graduating’ production for the Esplanade’s … Continue reading TRIP 2024: An Interview with Renee Yeong on directing ‘How I Learned To Drive’, finding balance and her place as a director in Singapore

TRIP 2024: An Interview with Sim Yan Ying ‘YY’ on directing ‘pass·ages’ and the process of collaborative learning and the joy of creation

Theatremaker Sim Yan Ying ‘YY’ may only be in her 20s, but she’s already able to list a slew of artistic achievements to her name across both Singapore and New York, starting from humble devised works, to experiments online, to working with major theatre companies such as T:>works and W!ld Rice. Now, fresh from a rejuvenating break, YY returns to the Esplanade to complete her … Continue reading TRIP 2024: An Interview with Sim Yan Ying ‘YY’ on directing ‘pass·ages’ and the process of collaborative learning and the joy of creation

An Interview with director TJ Taylor and actor Vanessa Kee on Sing’theatre’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’

Before they became legendary composers and lyricists for some of Disney’s biggest feature film songs, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken worked on a small musical theatre show called Little Shop of Horrors in 1982. In the years since it premiered off-off-Broadway, Little Shop of Horrors has emerged to become a cult favourite productions among musical theatre fans, receiving a film adaptation, and multiple restagings, including … Continue reading An Interview with director TJ Taylor and actor Vanessa Kee on Sing’theatre’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’

★★★★★ Review: The Death of Singapore Theatre as Scripted by The Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore by Wild Rice

Restaging of experimental, genre-bending script plays with the meta and makes a plea for less censorship. When it was first staged in 2022 as part of The Substation’s SeptFest, we declared Alfian Sa’at’s The Death of Singapore Theatre as Scripted by The Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (The Death of Singapore Theatre) as the production of the year, mostly owing to its sincerity in … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: The Death of Singapore Theatre as Scripted by The Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore by Wild Rice

★★★★★ Review: Taha by Singapore Theatre Company

Monologue on Palestinian poet’s life nimbly sidesteps overt politics to encourage hope and empathy in shared humanity. 8,000 kilometres away in the Gaza Strip, a terrible war rages on. It is the culmination of decades of conflict, where countless innocent lives have been lost, key infrastructure and history are stripped away by bombs, and the world watches on, helplessly bearing witness to the loss as … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Taha by Singapore Theatre Company

★★★★☆ Review: Hi, Can You Hear Me? by The Necessary Stage

Hell lies somewhere between a bar and a breakout room. Considering that we live in a world ravaged by war, beset by pandemics, and face unprecedented climate change that brings with it the assurance of disaster, it’s not entirely surprising that something eventually breaks inside us from how overwhelming it can all be. But when faced with such existential anxiety – do we end up … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Hi, Can You Hear Me? by The Necessary Stage

Taha: An Interview with creator and performer Amer Hlehel on staging the life of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali

Poet Taha Muhammad Ali is an icon of Palestinian literature, humble in his life yet celebrated for his words that capture the resilience, love, and enduring spirit of his people.​ Adapted from Adina Hoffman’s acclaimed biography and under Amir Nizar Zuabi’s direction, Palestinian artist Amer Hlehel created Taha, which traces the man’s journey from a humble shopkeeper in Palestine to a celebrated poet worldwide. Receiving critical … Continue reading Taha: An Interview with creator and performer Amer Hlehel on staging the life of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali