Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with Adib Kosnan, Kok Heng Leun and Zulfadli Rashid on Drama Box’s restaging of ‘Air’

While certainly not as common as its film counterpart, documentary theatre often has the same aim of presenting accurate and factual information about an interesting subject matter, shedding light and revealing new perspectives on it. For theatre company Drama Box, they successfully pulled it off in 2019 with verbatim theatre piece Air (Malay for ‘water’), as part of a two-part double bill Tanah•Air, which shone … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with Adib Kosnan, Kok Heng Leun and Zulfadli Rashid on Drama Box’s restaging of ‘Air’

★★★★☆ Review: Titoudao (2024) by Toy Factory

Part memoir and part epic, Titoudao is a portrait of celebration and grief for the fading wayang scene.  How many of us have had a chance to catch a wayang performance in real life, on the streets as originally intended? With the amount of progress and modernisation Singapore has undergone over the years, wayang is but a lost art one can only experience in the … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Titoudao (2024) by Toy Factory

Titoudao 2024: An Interview with director/playwright Goh Boon Teck and star Tan Rui Shan

The story of Titoudao was first brought to light in 1994, when Toy Factory artistic director Goh Boon Teck wrote the iconic play and premiered it at the Jubilee Hall at the Raffles Hotel. In the three decades since, the play, which is based off the true life story of Singaporean Wayang star Madam Oon Ah Chiam, has been restaged multiple times, and even received … Continue reading Titoudao 2024: An Interview with director/playwright Goh Boon Teck and star Tan Rui Shan

Preview: CITRUS fest by CITRUS practices

Following the pandemic, the importance of mental health became the talking point on the tip of everyone’s tongues, where it became paramount and all-important to include in our daily lives. That of course, includes those in the arts. During the pandemic itself, a group of arts workers came together to discuss and expand on conversations around the conditions of working in the arts today. This … Continue reading Preview: CITRUS fest by CITRUS practices

★★★★★ Review: Sun & Sea by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė & Lina Lapelytė

Intrusive thoughts during a beach holiday at the end of the world. In our modern world of stresses and being constantly online, how much can we say we can truly detach ourselves from work and take a relaxing holiday? For Lithuanian artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė, it seems that any vacation will be bound to be filled with intrusive thoughts, and unexpectedly, … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Sun & Sea by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė & Lina Lapelytė

★★★★☆ Review: REFUGE by The Observatory

Multisensory journey transporting audiences to Perak’s Lenggong Valley, in all its natural and mystical beauty. Modern Singapore rarely leaves much space or opportunity for truly connecting with nature. As much as we tout ourselves as a garden city, green spaces are often integrated into the urban landscape, rather than allowed to simply grow amok, or we lack older geological formations teeming with life. So if … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: REFUGE by The Observatory

Preview: Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s The Studios 2024 – Fault Lines

The world today is a fractured, volatile place, with rising tension, isolationism and unrest all about, whether it’s in terms of wars, the climate crisis, or simply the growing stresses of everyday living. One could even say it’s the emergence of new fault lines that seem to be increasingly determining the way we live and interact with each other – why then do we continue … Continue reading Preview: Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s The Studios 2024 – Fault Lines

★★★☆☆ Review: Wilful Machine by Genevieve Chua

Pondering a future of machine self-awareness, as it reflects on humanity. If machines could talk, what might they say of humans – their makers? Genevieve Chua’s new work Wilful Machine imagines and brings that to life, using a combination of architecture, multimedia and dance, as it premiered at the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2024. Situated at Artspace @ Helutrans at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, audiences … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Wilful Machine by Genevieve Chua

★★★★☆ Review: Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster by Manual Cinema

Demystifying the sorcery of cinema while capturing the magic of puppetry and animation. In a world where kids are almost constantly glued to the screen – how does one keep them entertained in the theatre? By bringing the screen to the stage of course. That is the modus operandi of American company Manual Cinema, who creates films live onstage for their audiences, and in an … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster by Manual Cinema

★★★★☆ Review: SUARA / Oro Rua by Safuan Johari and Eddie Elliott

Unearthing the voices of a distant past. Safuan Johari is a musician and composer from Singapore. Eddie Elliott is a dancer and choreographer from New Zealand. While the two artists’ practices seem rather distant, there is a link that makes them surprisingly good collaborators with each other – their shared respect for their own cultural inheritance, and a keen interest in the land we walk … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: SUARA / Oro Rua by Safuan Johari and Eddie Elliott