SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Manuela Infante on ‘Vampyr’

Previously in Singapore in 2017, Chilean playwright and director Manuela Infante returns for the 2025 edition of the Singapore International Festival of Arts with Vampyr, the third part of her trilogy exploring the non-human that started with Estado Vegetal and How to Turn to Stone. Where the two previous shows explored plant consciousness and geology respectively, Vampyr instead turns its attention to something that seems … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Manuela Infante on ‘Vampyr’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with co-creators Alan Oei and Kaylene Tan on ‘A Thousand Stitches’

In A Thousand Stitches, a portrait of a Japanese woman, Mizuki, becomes the heart of a haunting narrative about war, propaganda, and human connection. Emma, an art conservation student, restores the painting, and finds herself drawn into Mizuki’s story, enigmatic artist Huang Wei, and the turbulent years of Japanese-occupied Singapore (then Syonan-to). Premiering as part of the 2025 Singapore International Festival of Arts, A Thousand … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with co-creators Alan Oei and Kaylene Tan on ‘A Thousand Stitches’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Geoff Sobelle on ‘HOME’

When does a house become a home? That is the central question in American theatremaker Geoff Sobelle’s HOME, an innovative, richly imaginative performance and act of theatrical spectacle that sees a house materialise before the audience, rising swiftly like a time-lapse sequence. Over time, the residents inhabit it, move in and out, build and break it, and leave behind traces of their past, present, and … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Geoff Sobelle on ‘HOME’

Review: The Sea and the Neighbourhood by Singapore International Festival of Arts

Multidisciplinary performance in the heartlands marks a sweaty start to 2025 edition of SIFA, with little consideration for the spatial limitations of an outdoor venue and an ill-fated attempt to make art ‘accessible’. Bedok was one of the earliest documented places in Singapore, fast growing from its origins as a Malay and Orang Laut-inhabited fishing village, to becoming one of the most heavily populated heartland … Continue reading Review: The Sea and the Neighbourhood by Singapore International Festival of Arts

T:>Works launches new DnA Fest to celebrate 40th anniversary

Marking its 40th anniversary, Singapore’s independent international arts company T:>Works, presents DnA Fest. Conceived and directed by T:>Works Artistic Director Ong Keng Sen, DnA Fest cracks open Henry Purcell’s 1688 Dido and Aeneas, reinterpreting the baroque opera through a dialogue between opera, nightlife, cabaret, documentary film, and a live DJ score. Unfolding across two weekends, 16-19 and 23-26 July, DnA Fest is a thrilling triptych … Continue reading T:>Works launches new DnA Fest to celebrate 40th anniversary

SIFA 2025: An Interview with Rizman Putra, Zul Mahmod and thesupersystem on ‘Umbilical’

In an age of rapid progress, history can slip through our fingers. Premiering as part of the 2025 Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), Zul Mahmod, Rizman Putra, and thesupersystem (Heider Ismail) invite us to Umbilical, a multi-faceted performance that invites us into the depths of memory, identity, and the subtle violence of separation, excavating the history of the Causeway as Singapore turns 60. Umbilical … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with Rizman Putra, Zul Mahmod and thesupersystem on ‘Umbilical’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with Lebanese artist Ali Chahrour on ‘Told By My Mother’

Being a mother has never been an easy task, but what about a mother who tries to be good, to protect her children amidst a country torn apart by conflict? In Told By My Mother, making its Singapore premiere this May as part of the 2025 Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), Lebanese artist Ali Chahrour draws from his own family history—and from the fractures … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with Lebanese artist Ali Chahrour on ‘Told By My Mother’

★★★★★ Review: Shakespeare In The Park – Macbeth by Singapore Repertory Theatre

A multi-universal tale of blood and sand emerges at Fort Canning Park, in SRT’s space opera adaptation of the Scottish Play. Grand in ambition, breathtaking in design, and conceptually riveting Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) makes a triumphant return with a new edition of their iconic Shakespeare in the Park, this time tackling the dark tragedy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Director Guy Unsworth, who also helmed Shakespeare in … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Shakespeare In The Park – Macbeth by Singapore Repertory Theatre

★★★★☆ Review: Home Kitchen 家囝成厨 by Nine Years Theatre

Serving up family feuds, tantalising drama and the ever-present question of legacy and the future in Nine Years Theatre’s homage to Singaporean food culture. In Home Kitchen, Nine Years Theatre (NYT) serves up a lovingly prepared, emotionally resonant, and at times unexpectedly layered dish that speaks directly to the heart of any Singaporean. Commissioned by the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) as part of their … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Home Kitchen 家囝成厨 by Nine Years Theatre

Art What!: Singapore Celebrates 60 Years of Independence with an Enticing Multisensory Pavilion ‘RASA-TABULA-SINGAPURA’ at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025

VENICE, ITALY – In celebration of Singapore’s 60th year of independence (SG60), the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 invites visitors to take a seat at the Table of Superdiversity—an enticing reimagination of city-making and nation-building through the universal act of dining. Titled RASA-TABULA-SINGAPURA, the Pavilion reinterprets the Latin notion of tabula rasa (a blank slate) as a multisensory experience. Here, RASA (taste in Malay), TABULA … Continue reading Art What!: Singapore Celebrates 60 Years of Independence with an Enticing Multisensory Pavilion ‘RASA-TABULA-SINGAPURA’ at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025