Review: GAME PLAY – Dungeons & Distractions (SMU Arts Fest 2024)

Enthusiastic audience participation and a winsome storyline lands a critical hit and sparks joy in the crowd. Theatre doesn’t always have to be a serious affair, as proven by GAME PLAY, an immersive experience that played as part of the 2024 SMU Arts Fest last weekend. Creative producers Jo Tan, Edward Choy and Terrance Tan came together to bring Dungeons & Dragons to life, with … Continue reading Review: GAME PLAY – Dungeons & Distractions (SMU Arts Fest 2024)

An Interview with SMU Arts Fest 2024 Festival Directors and producers on student development and the power of collaboration

While most students in Singapore are better known as hardcore bookworms constantly preparing for exams to hit their elusive 4.0 GPA, students at Singapore Management University (SMU) are able to do all that and more. Being management students specifically, there’s that careful balance of work and play, the latter of which takes centrestage at this year’s SMU Arts Fest, aptly dealing with the theme of, … Continue reading An Interview with SMU Arts Fest 2024 Festival Directors and producers on student development and the power of collaboration

★★★☆☆ Review: One Day We’ll Understand 有那么一天​ by Sim Chi Yin

Performance-lecture on biased historiography and hidden knowledge urges us to critically reconstruct our interpretations to formulate our own version of the truth. The Malayan Emergency in the late 1940s continues to remain a traumatic memory for many Chinese Malaysians, where families would recall relatives hurriedly leaving the country, or worse – hauled away for questioning over suspected Communist relations, and never seen again, at least, … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: One Day We’ll Understand 有那么一天​ by Sim Chi Yin

Preview: SMU Arts Fest 2024 – PLAY

Located in the heart of the city, in the midst of the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct, Singapore Management University has long been a landmark of the city centre, thronging with student life or sometimes, just a convenient location for people to meet and gather. And this August and September, SMU is once again lighting up the campus with a series of performances with their annual SMU … Continue reading Preview: SMU Arts Fest 2024 – PLAY

★★★★☆ Review: Rhapsody in Yellow by Ming Wong

A deeper look at USA-China relations and their respective histories through a musical lens. The relationship between China and America has always been a fraught one, due to their inherent competition as fellow superpowers vying for influence, and their opposing ideologies. But it is when no compromise can be made that softer approaches come into play, that is, through means such as sports and the … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Rhapsody in Yellow by Ming Wong

Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with director/playwright Wichaya Artamat and producer Sasapin Siriwanij on ‘This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May)’

Fathers in Asian society have always had certain stereotypes associated with them – a sense of the austere, reserved and detached from openly expressing love for their children, and perhaps, even as a microcosm of the greater paternalistic, patriarchal governance style adopted by those in power. In many ways, a father is often an anchor within a family that determines their relations and dynamics, resulting … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with director/playwright Wichaya Artamat and producer Sasapin Siriwanij on ‘This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May)’

Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with artist Sim Chi Yin on ‘One Day We’ll Understand’ (有那么一天​)

For artist Sim Chi Yin, history has always formed an integral part of her work and practice. Be it presented in the form of photography or film or even book-making, Sim’s work often takes her into the recent past, excavating and researching into academia and accounts to unearth previously hidden narratives. Through her artistic interventions, she paints a more complete picture of what has come … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with artist Sim Chi Yin on ‘One Day We’ll Understand’ (有那么一天​)

Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with artist Ming Wong on music, nationalism and diplomacy in ‘Rhapsody in Yellow’

If human relationships are complicated, then geopolitical ones are manifold more, particularly when it’s between two global superpowers. Such is the nature of the rising tensions between the USA and China, who have never had an easy time navigating their complex differences, rivalry and connections, playing hot and cold. It may seem like a heavy topic, but one Singaporean artist has found inspiration in the … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with artist Ming Wong on music, nationalism and diplomacy in ‘Rhapsody in Yellow’

Preview: Singapore Night Festival 2024 – Art of Play

The Singapore Night Festival (SNF) returns to the Bras Basah.Bugis (BBB) precinct for its 15th edition this year, bigger than ever! Happening from 23 August to 7 September 2024, the festival will take place over three weekends for the first time. Organised by the National Heritage Board (NHB), and supported by Lead Sponsor Samsung Singapore, Singapore’s largest nocturnal experience takes festival-goers on a journey to … Continue reading Preview: Singapore Night Festival 2024 – Art of Play

★★★★☆ Review: Air by Drama Box

Portrait of a disappearing community told with sincerity and creativity through documentary verbatim theatre. Documentary and verbatim theatre can be a tricky genre to stage, requiring actors to embody and speak on the behalf of interviewees, rather than featuring them as in a documentary film. Particularly when it comes to marginalised groups, verbatim theatre runs the risk of bordering on appropriation, and even exploitation if … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Air by Drama Box