Life finds a way. In the highly urbanised landscape of Singapore, it’s easy to forget that beyond the trees lining the edges of roads and our publicly accessible gardens and parks, our island is also home to full-blown forests on the fringes of the city, lining expressway edges and more ‘ulu’ locations. Amidst these are the secondary forests, a type of forest that has emerged … Continue reading Review: Albizia by Robert Zhao Renhui

Letting go means learning to leave things in the past. In a small island nation like Singapore, land scarcity has always been an issue, leading to landscapes of constant scaffolding and roadworks to tear down older buildings and built heritage to make way for newer, modern spaces. Often, it seems that there is no time for looking back, only the constant banging of bulldozers as … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Mosaic by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (The Studios 2023)

Fever dream portrayal of a family in the pursuit of happiness and finding a place in the world. All around us, the cost of living is ever-increasing. For the modern Singaporean person, purchasing and owning any kind of property feels like a far-flung dream, with many resigning themselves to the fact that we’ll likely still be staying with our parents for some time yet. Such … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Three Years In The Life and Death of Land by The Necessary Stage

The more you know, the more fragile things seem to be. “We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean.” That’s the now cliché, but still very true line you’ll hear in almost every documentary about the vast blue sea, and all the mystery that lies beneath it. But in ending off their Mining Trilogy docu-theatre … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Out of the Blue by Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere (The Studios 2023)

A modern parable of man’s insatiable greed and the destruction left in its wake. Marking the second part of their Mining Trilogy series, Pleasant Island turns theatremakers Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere’s attention to the tiny island republic of Nauru. Surrounded entirely by water in the middle of Micronesia, Nauru’s fascinating history makes for a riveting case study, literally once being the richest island in … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Pleasant Island by Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere (The Studios 2023)

It’s always good to look at the story from a different perspective. The truth is rarely pure and never simple, and often, it takes a medley of voices and points of view to get the full picture. Particularly when living in an internet age, where perspectives are often skewed and we live in echo chambers, it becomes more important than ever to consider events with … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Mining Stories by Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere (The Studios 2023)