An interview with artistic director Shaza Ishak and actress Serene Chen on the complexity and social fault lines laid bare in Teater Ekamatra’s revival ‘Charged’

When Charged premiered in 2010, it did something few Singapore plays had dared to do back then. Set over a single night in an army camp during Chinese New Year, Chong Tze Chien’s drama placed one of Singapore’s most enduring fault lines of race within one of its most sacred institutions. The Singapore Armed Forces has long been imagined as a crucible of nation-building, a … Continue reading An interview with artistic director Shaza Ishak and actress Serene Chen on the complexity and social fault lines laid bare in Teater Ekamatra’s revival ‘Charged’

Preview: Charged by Teater Ekamatra

Some plays don’t lose their relevance, but become even more necessary with time. This July, Teater Ekamatra revives CHARGED, the acclaimed play by Chong Tze Chien that first sparked conversation when it premiered in 2010. Running from 23 July to 2 August 2026 at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan, the production returns 16 years after its award-winning run, inviting a new … Continue reading Preview: Charged by Teater Ekamatra

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS by Wild Rice

By D.Y. Lesbian voices are front and centre in Wild Rice’s new verbatim play, providing a distinctly Singaporean context to queer storytelling with unapologetic confidence.  The title of Wild Rice’s newest play is a declaration: the repetition of a single word, GIRLS, three times over. Just in time for Singapore’s unofficial Pride month, the play dons the colours of the lesbian flag and sports an … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS by Wild Rice

★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: All You Can Eat by Wild Rice’s Young & Wild and The Rice Cooker

Undercooked, repetitively formulaic scripts do this promising batch of young actors a disservice. Graduation showcases are a notoriously difficult dish to plate. A director has to decide exactly what they want audiences to leave remembering: is it an ensemble spread where every graduate gets equal time to shine? A curated tasting menu built around the strongest performers? Or a riskier selection that leans classical, experimental, … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Theatre Review: All You Can Eat by Wild Rice’s Young & Wild and The Rice Cooker

★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Christians by Wild Rice

Hell is other Christians. The Christians arrives as one of the most unexpected entries in Wild Rice’s 2026 programming, and perhaps one of its most surprisingly provocative. A company long associated with sharp political critique, queer advocacy, and a willingness to satirise conservative structures, this is a show that feels almost disarming in its restraint. Where one might expect irreverence, Lucas Hnath’s critically-acclaimed play instead … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Theatre Review: The Christians by Wild Rice

★★★☆☆ Theatre Review: The Serangoon Gardens Techno Party of 1993 by Wild Rice

Joel Tan’s new play is a manic punk dream that takes us on a trippy ride on being a rebel without a cause in sanitised Singapore. In Singapore, rebellion often feels like a memory we’ve outgrown. We live orderly lives, shaped and honed for maximum efficiency, stability, and safety. Yet beneath that calm hum, there’s the quiet ache of a frustration we rarely name. To … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Theatre Review: The Serangoon Gardens Techno Party of 1993 by Wild Rice

★★★★★ Theatre Review: Hotel (2025) by Wild Rice

Ten years on, Hotel remains a five-star experience, and a love letter to Singapore’s resilience and ever-changing nature, alive with endless possibility. When we first watched Hotel in 2016, Singapore, and the world, were different. It was before the global pandemic reshaped how we gathered, before Wild Rice unveiled its own theatre at Funan, and before the leadership changes that now signal a new chapter … Continue reading ★★★★★ Theatre Review: Hotel (2025) by Wild Rice

★★★★★ Review: Supervision (2025) by Wild Rice

2025 restaging of Thomas Lim’s play on surveillance, power and agency stands the test of time and proves itself a modern classic of Singapore theatre. When Thomas Lim’s Supervision premiered in 2018 as part of Wild Rice’s Singapore Theatre Festival, it established the then emerging writer as a promising new figure in the playwright’s circle, with the characters authentically Singaporean, unabashedly showcasing the ugly side … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Supervision (2025) by Wild Rice

★★★★☆ Review: Accidental Death of an Activist by Wild Rice

Italian madcap farce gets a modern update, beating audience over the head with its political message. To the ordinary citizen, the authorities often work in mysterious ways, working behind closed doors. And as much as the arrest of dangerous criminals is ostensibly for the betterment of society, do the ends always justify the means? Do our definitions of dangerous criminals align with the authorities’? Or … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Accidental Death of an Activist by Wild Rice

★★★★☆ Review: Dive by Wild Rice

New and Now initiative by Wild Rice plunges into the deep end with Laura Hayes’ arresting play about a long-term abusive relationship. They say there’s plenty of fish in the sea, but what if the one you end up hooking pulls you overboard? In Laura Hayes’ Wild Rice debut, the NAFA lecturer explores the often complex and damaging aspects of abusive relationships through the lens … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Dive by Wild Rice