Preview: 2025 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival to tackle themes of displacement across seven local and international works

The annual Singapore Fringe Festival, organised by The Necessary Stage (TNS) has become an institution for independent theatremakers both locally and internationally to present their work, providing a platform for them to stage provocative, cutting-edge performances that deal with pertinent discussions in society and about those on the margins. Now in its 21st edition, watch as Fringe 2025 tackles the theme of displacement, from people … Continue reading Preview: 2025 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival to tackle themes of displacement across seven local and international works

The Necessary Stage calls for urgent donor support to continue annual Singapore Fringe Festival in 2026 and beyond

Each year, The Necessary Stage has been consistently curating and bringing together a plethora of local and international fringe performance work that becomes the Singapore Fringe Festival, calling to attention urgent issues affecting community and society. After a successful 2024 edition, the 2025 edition of the Singapore Fringe Festival will mark M1’s final year as its dedicated donor, after 20 years of support. The Necessary … Continue reading The Necessary Stage calls for urgent donor support to continue annual Singapore Fringe Festival in 2026 and beyond

★★★★☆ Review: Every Brilliant Thing by Gateway Arts

Sharon Sum lifts our spirits in this fringe performance that fights back against crushing depression with hope and wonder. What are the things worth living for? As part of National Suicide Prevention Month, Gateway Arts presents a new staging Duncan Macmillan’s critically-acclaimed one-person play Every Brilliant Thing, as directed by Oliver Chong and starring Sharon Sum. Chong himself previously starred in a Mandarin adaptation of … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Every Brilliant Thing by Gateway Arts

Preview: Every Brilliant Thing by Gateway Arts

Presented by Singapore Pools and produced by Gateway Arts, a brand-new adaptation by Oliver Chong of Every Brilliant Thing comes to stage this September for Gateway Arts’ third production of their 2024 season. Based on the original script by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, Every Brilliant Thing is adapted, directed, and designed by Oliver Chong, who himself starred in a Mandarin version of the play … Continue reading Preview: Every Brilliant Thing by Gateway Arts

★★★★☆ Review: Lotus Root Support Group (2024) by Impromptu Meetings

Balls to the walls – literally, as play about cyst-ers in PCOS goes wilder and more personal in its reboot. While its title and promo image may look more or less identical to its 2022 version, Impromptu Meetings’ new staging of Lotus Root Support Group is in fact, a completely different incarnation that sees creators Shannen Tan and Miriam Cheong shedding the characters they devised … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Lotus Root Support Group (2024) by Impromptu Meetings

An Interview with Shannen Tan and Miriam Cheong on McDonald’s, pain and friendship in ‘Lotus Root Support Group’ (2024)

Back in 2022, fellow theatremakers Shannen Tan and Miriam Cheong found solace and friendship in each other over their shared pain – the fact that both of them suffered from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a common yet often misunderstood endocrine disorder affecting up to 21% of women worldwide. Aiming to find a way to both educate others about the condition, while also sharing their own … Continue reading An Interview with Shannen Tan and Miriam Cheong on McDonald’s, pain and friendship in ‘Lotus Root Support Group’ (2024)

Preview: Lotus Root Support Group (2024) by Impromptu Meetings

In 2022, theatremakers Shannen Tan and Miriam Cheong came together from a place of pain – their shared experience with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a common yet often overlooked and misunderstood endocrine disorder that affects anywhere between 4 to 21% of women worldwide. From friendship and discussions, they decided to turn the pain into art, with the cheekily-titled Lotus Root Support Group, which played to … Continue reading Preview: Lotus Root Support Group (2024) by Impromptu Meetings

★★★★★ Review: Oo-Woo by The Necessary Stage

Love is sometimes about making difficult choices. Every Singaporean knows about the koel bird – even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve certainly heard it in the wee hours of the morning, crying ‘oo-woo!’ repeatedly at the top of its lungs. But what exactly is it trying to convey in those cries? From writer Raimi Safari and director Mohd Fared Jainal, the koel is the … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: Oo-Woo by The Necessary Stage

★★★☆☆ Review: Here Where You Were by Matter.Less

A forum theatre primer on how to begin processing suicide. The forum theatre format has long been used as a form of empowerment, giving audience members the power of choice to change the narrative of a play when invited to step in and make major decisions. Often, this has been used to address key social issues, and give ordinary viewers the realisation that they do … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Here Where You Were by Matter.Less

★★☆☆☆ Review: Thom Paine (Based on Nothing) by Edith Podesta, Yarra Ileto, and NAFA

Expansion of one-man show into ensemble piece becomes confusing mess. When Thom Pain (based on nothing) premiered in 2004, the one-man show received rave reviews and was described to be unlike anything else at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that year. It’s a rather odd but endearing sounding script, wherein the long-suffering protagonist recounts the story of a bee sting, a boy with a dog that … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Review: Thom Paine (Based on Nothing) by Edith Podesta, Yarra Ileto, and NAFA