★★★☆☆ (Performance attended 15/2/20) ‘Adult-oriented’ show about a friendship between pets stuck at crossroads between crass humour and an attempt at genuine emotion. Remember waking up on weekends as a kid, switching on the TV and catching those Saturday morning cartoons? Patch and Punnet’s Fika & Fishy is a little like that, complete with its own opening song in the form of a rap by omarKENOBI … Continue reading Review: Fika & Fishy by Patch and Punnet
★★★★☆ (Performance attended 14/2/20) 2 is better than one as comedy couple Rishi Budhrani and Sharul Channa join forces in a one-night only Valentine’s special. “How do you keep the magic alive?” an audience member asks comedians and married couple Rishi Budhrani and Sharul Channa during The Rishi and Sharul Show 2. It’s not a surprising question, considering how for most of the show, the couple … Continue reading Review: The Rishi and Sharul Show 2
★★★★☆ (Performance attended 7/2/20) Tackling dementia with both humour and heart. One of the most terrifying things about dementia itself, besides its effects, is the sheer length of time it can possibly affect a person for, eating away at their mind for years till the day they die, left an empty husk of their former selves. The burden then falls onto a patient’s carer as … Continue reading Review: The Long Goodbye 小儿子 by Story Works X Dreamland (Huayi 2020)
★★★★☆ (Performance attended 9/2/20) Age is no barrier to Qiao Yang in this dance-biopic of her life. While most of the narrative heavy-lifting in biopics is often done via text, for a show about a dancer’s life, it makes perfect sense that the story is told not by words, but by her body instead. First performed in Hong Kong in 2019, City Contemporary Dance Company’s … Continue reading Review: Almost 55 乔杨 by City Contemporary Dance Company (Huayi 2020)
Five years ago, comedians Rishi Budhrani and Sharul Channa got married. In that same year, the two also presented the very first edition of The Rishi And Sharul Show, combining their individual fame and talents as comedians and garnering rave reviews and sold-out theatres. Now, five years on, Singapore’s comedy couple are teaming up once again to showcase The Rishi And Sharul Show 2, bigger and … Continue reading The Banter: Rishi Budhrani and Sharul Channa Talk Marriage, Love and Laughter (The Rishi and Sharul Show 2)
The dance world has never been kind towards ageing dancers, with most performance careers ending in their 30s. But for 50-something year old dancer Qiao Yang, her age becomes a point of pride as she manages to continue dancing even today, and is the subject of her autobiographical solo piece Almost 55, playing as part of the Esplanade’s Huayi Festival 2020 this February. Created by award-winning Taiwanese … Continue reading Huayi 2020: An Interview with Veteran Dancer Qiao Yang, Star of City Contemporary Dance Company’s Almost 55
Dementia is one of the most terrifying conditions to possibly strike a human being. At the heart of Story Works X Dreamland’s The Long Goodbye is an accomplished author who has been struck by the ailment. All he remembers now are the events of a bestseller he wrote about being a father to his youngest son. But years have gone by, and that son has now grown … Continue reading Huayi 2020: An Interview with Huang Chih Kai, Director of Story Works X Dreamland’s The Long Goodbye
★★★★☆ (Performance attended 1/2/20) Education is politics as two opposing ideologies go head to head in a school setting. Does school prepare students for the real world? While the academic syllabus certainly may not always apply to the working adult, the students featured in Hong Kong Repertory Theatre’s (HKRep) Principle certainly learn more than their fair share of life lessons that feel more relevant than ever … Continue reading Review: Principle 原则 by Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (Huayi 2020)
★★★★☆ (Performance attended 2/2/20) Piano prodigy’s plays like a majestic phoenix rising from the flames. Playing as part of the Esplanade’s 2020 Huayi – Chinese Festival of the Arts, award-winning piano prodigy Tony Yike Yang made his Southeast Asian debut at the Esplanade Recital Studio last weekend. With expectations running high for the youngest-ever laureate at the Chopin International Piano Competition, the 21-year old made it … Continue reading Review: Firebird – Piano Sensation Tony Yike Yang Solo Recital (Huayi 2020)
★★★☆☆ (Performance attended 31/1/20) Allegorical tale of a dystopian surveillance state preaches the value of the arts, but loses itself in a myriad of subplots along the way. During the rule of the Three Kingdoms, the seven sages of the bamboo grove were a group of scholars and artists who chose to counter the bureaucracies and corruption of the time in the only way they knew … Continue reading Review: 7 Sages of the Bamboo Grove 竹林七贤 by Toy Factory (Huayi 2020)
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