Preview: Light to Night Festival 2018 – Colour Sensations by National Gallery Singapore

It’s only a couple of days into 2018, and we’re already gearing up for the first big outdoor festival of the new year! What festival you ask? Well, that honour goes to the 2018 Light to Night Festival, proudly organised by the National Gallery Singapore! Originating as a first anniversary celebration for the gallery last year, Light to Night will be making a return this … Continue reading Preview: Light to Night Festival 2018 – Colour Sensations by National Gallery Singapore

Review: Southernmost – One Table Two Chairs Project Triple Bill presented by Emergency Stairs

After two weeks of devising, open rehearsals, masterclasses and workshops, Emergency Stairs’ inaugural Southernmost experimental theatre festival finally comes to a stunning conclusion with a triple bill. Consisting of three all new works directed by experimental theatre veterans Makoto Sato (Tokyo), Danny Yung (Hong Kong) and of course, Emergency Stairs Artistic Director Liu Xiaoyi (Singapore), the artists presented their final pieces to a public audience … Continue reading Review: Southernmost – One Table Two Chairs Project Triple Bill presented by Emergency Stairs

Review: Oh Lucy! dir. Atsuko Hirayanagi (SGIFF 2017)

Oh Lucy! is a road trip film with an improbable premise – middle-aged office worker Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima) agrees to her niece Mika’s (Shioli Kutsuna) request to take over her position at an English class, only to fall in love with the charming American English teacher John’s (Josh Hartnett) unconventional methods. But her happiness is short-lived when both Mika and John elope to America in a … Continue reading Review: Oh Lucy! dir. Atsuko Hirayanagi (SGIFF 2017)

Artist Spotlight: An Interview with the Cast and Creatives Behind Oh Lucy!

At the 28th Singapore International Film Festival, we got a chance to speak to the director and cast of the final Special Presentation film of the festival: Oh Lucy! At the In Conversation session hosted by moderator Anita Kapoor, who asked some truly brilliant questions, we were privy to some of director Atsuko Hirayanagi and cast members Shinobu Terajima and Shioli Kutsuna’s most personal thoughts and … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: An Interview with the Cast and Creatives Behind Oh Lucy!

Artist Spotlight: Jenny Suen, Co-Director of The White Girl (SGIFF 2017)

Hong Kong filmmaker Jenny Suen has a strange relationship with her home country. Like many artists, she felt stifled growing up in the congested, business-centric city and wanted out. But upon moving to America for her studies, she felt a sudden pang of homesickness, and when she watched Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love for the first time, she was suddenly struck with how beautiful … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Jenny Suen, Co-Director of The White Girl (SGIFF 2017)

Review: NINAGAWA Macbeth by The Ninagawa Company (presented by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay)

It’s hard to believe that a single play can hold the power to leave such an impression on an audience member that it can even be considered life-changing. But this is in no way an exaggeration of how the unique experience of watching a play by the late Yukio Ninagawa. The thunderous applause and standing ovation a Ninagawa play receives is completely warranted. NINAGAWA Macbeth was … Continue reading Review: NINAGAWA Macbeth by The Ninagawa Company (presented by Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay)

Mosaic Music Series 2017: Shugo Tokumaru (Review)

Last in Singapore in 2013, Japanese multi-intrumental experimental musician Shugo Tokumaru has since released his seventh album. On TOSS, Tokumaru has expanded his quirky, eclectic pop music further still, including collaborating with Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier, to reach new sonic heights, employing instruments from xylophones to ukuleles and harps to handclaps to create impossibly colourful sounds that would give anyone synaesthesia. So it’s no surprise then that at his show at the … Continue reading Mosaic Music Series 2017: Shugo Tokumaru (Review)

Review: Sanctuary by The Necessary Stage and HANCHU-YUEI

There’s always something innately exciting about watching a collaborative devised work. Providing fertile ground for seeding new ideas and pushing collaborators beyond their creative comfort zones, there was plenty of hype surrounding The Necessary Stage’s latest collaboration, this time with young Japanese theatre company HANCHU-YUEI with their newest work: Sanctuary. Ending off their 30th Anniversary season with Sanctuary in many ways feels appropriate for TNS. The eponymous title … Continue reading Review: Sanctuary by The Necessary Stage and HANCHU-YUEI

Of Digital Cats and The Future of Social Media: Sanctuary by The Necessary Stage & HANCHU-YUEI (Preview)

This November, The Necessary Stage will be rounding off their 30th Anniversary with an all new-collaborative work with contemporary Japanese theatre company HANCHU-YUEI and we couldn’t be more excited. In previous collaborations, The Necessary Stage has always had a chance to push their work to new limits, exploring new aesthetics and themes most of their main season wouldn’t otherwise. Much like their earlier work Frozen Angels, which … Continue reading Of Digital Cats and The Future of Social Media: Sanctuary by The Necessary Stage & HANCHU-YUEI (Preview)

Preview: Macbeth by the Ninagawa Company

It is said that to watch a Ninagawa production is a life changing experience. That’s why Singaporeans can rest easy and get cracking with that part of the bucket list, as the Esplanade brings back Ninagawa’s Macbeth this November, 25 years from the last time it was staged here. Giving Shakespeare’s script a Japanese makeover, Ninagawa’s Macbeth transposes the cursed ‘Scottish play’ to 16th century Azuchi-Momoyama Japan, where soldiers … Continue reading Preview: Macbeth by the Ninagawa Company