“I often feel like there are two souls living in me. One with an overwhelming zest with love for life, desperately clinging onto the world and all its wonders, the other is immensely yearns to fly above the dust, and into the light.” The classic tale of a deal with the devil gets the Nine Years Theatre (NYT) treatment as the company presents FAUST/US this March. … Continue reading Preview: FAUST/US (浮世/德) by Nine Years Theatre
Two melodramatic lives, their destinies intertwined by a flurry of love letters. It’s one thing to be married, or married to your job, but quite another to be married to someone who runs a company with you. Such is the case for both The Nonsensemakers (Hong Kong) and Nine Years Theatre (Singapore), run by partners Rensen Chan and Jo Ngai, and Nelson Chia and Mia … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: Love Letters by The Nonsensemakers/Nelson Chia & Mia Chee (Review)
You were the last one at the office. You were coming back home from a party. You were only 10 years old when it happened. He stared at you throughout your commute and followed you after. He was the friend taking you home. He was your uncle. He. You. You. The stories are many but no two are the same. Inspired by true narratives and … Continue reading Preview: Goddesses of Words – Sarojini Naidu by Grace Kalaiselvi
This March, Singapore’s Centre 42 and Malaysia’s Five Arts Centre unite to present a cross-Causeway double-bill in the form of Are You Game, Sau(dara)? Created by Singapore theatre company Bhumi Collective and Malaysian director Fasyali Fadzly, Are You Game, Sau(dara)? will be co-presented Centre 42 (Singapore) and Five Arts Centre (Malaysia), in the first collaboration between the two companies, and performed at Kotak @ Five Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur before heading … Continue reading Preview: Are You Game, Sau(dara)? by Centre 42 and Five Arts Centre
United we stand, divided we fall. Inspired by the concept of prime numbers – numbers indivisible by anything other than themselves and 1 and with no immediately apparent pattern, former Cloud Gate Dance Theatre members Bulareyaung Pagarlava (Taiwan) and Albert Tiong (Singapore) each choreographed a work attempting to unravel the mysteries behind them, showcasing how they may have more application to daily life than we … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: That Which Cannot Be Divided (无法被整除) by Bulareyaung Pagarlava & Albert Tiong (Review)
Nerve wracking thriller of a play that keeps you guessing every step of the way. Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness. I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. Of the many Chinese philosophers we grew up learning from our scholar of a Chinese teacher … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: The Way of Zhuang Zi (庄子兵法) by Story Works (Review)
Waiting rooms can feel like hell. Over the years, purgatory onstage has taken a great many forms, from the horrific to the mundane. With Stanley Seah’s The Transition Room, the face of limbo takes an absurdist approach towards the middle ground, as we open with four characters finding themselves in a bare, abstract room, each dressed in shades of grey, with no memory or knowledge … Continue reading Review: The Transition Room by Toy Factory
Warning: This review may contain spoilers Journey to the centre of the self…and Liu Xiaoyi. Over the years, Emergency Stairs Artistic Director Liu Xiaoyi has made it abundantly clear that the work he puts out staunchly refuses to conform to theatrical standards, having created work that subverts the norm, be it a piece of anti-theatre deliberately attempting to crush audience expectations or even performing in unusual … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: FOUR FOUR EIGHT (四四八) by Emergency Stairs (Review)
When we first met Dana Lam at a preview of her new play Still Life last year, we were struck by the quiet strength the former AWARE president exuded as she confidently performed a poetic interpretation of scenes from her life. This was helped in part by the countless artworks displayed all around her studio in Goodman Arts Centre, offering us a glimpse into Dana’s life not just … Continue reading Checkpoint Theatre’s Still Life: An Interview with Playwright/Performer Dana Lam
10 years ago, leading local theatre company The Necessary Stage (TNS) started their Theatre for Seniors (TFS) programme, a platform for pioneers and older citizens to find a creative and educational space to learn and perform theatre. Now, TFS has come into its own as a professional theatre group, and this year, will present a brand new production jointly devised and performed by seniors. Says Alvin … Continue reading Preview: It Takes All Kinds by Theatre for Seniors (The Necessary Stage)
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