Sometimes it’s those closest to you that you can never escape from. Euginia Tan has always excelled at work dealing with the complexities of interpersonal relationships. And in her latest play, The Rat Trap, Euginia has shown how she’s continued to grow as a playwright concerned with such themes, this time exploring the toxicity that one’s own family can breed in each other. Directed by … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: The Rat Trap by Euginia Tan
Deconstructing classical dance to find new meaning in the contemporary. From 2016-2018, Chowk Productions embarked on the Pallavi Series, exploring what happened when odissi dance was deconstructed to its component parts. From basic stances to dancers’ physicality, the Pallavi Series was a way of developing a new language of movement to bring the classical odissi dance form into the contemporary. Now, with Pallavi through Abstraction, dance itself is brought … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Pallavi Through Abstraction by Chowk Productions
Nikki Muller shoulders the highs and lows of womanhood in this harrowing one-woman show. Over the last few decades, the gender equality movement has made leaps and bounds, with an increasing number of women in power, more male sex offenders brought to justice, and overall, a general recognition that women today are in a much better place than before. Amidst these hopeful, headline-worthy updates though, … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Girls & Boys by Pangdemonium!
Bringing a touch of pantomime spirit to the Lunar New Year. While pantomimes are traditionally Christmas affairs, Wild Rice’s latest one has brought that same holiday cheer and spirit to the Lunar New Year. Directed by Glen Goei, with a book by Dwayne Lau, The Amazing Celestial Race is a musical retelling of the origins of the Chinese Zodiac. As the Jade Emperor holds a … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: The Amazing Celestial Race by Wild Rice
Thrilling mystery of a superhero novel, with potential for this first-time author. While many of us have cheered hardest at scenes of superpowered human beings locked in mortal combat, pitting super strength against elemental might, it has always been the stories of heroes wrestling with their inner demons that have stuck with us the longest. There’s good reason why Alan Moore’s gritty, noir-inspired Watchmen has been … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Book Review: The Good Guys by Darren Chen
Metatheatrical performance blurs lines between rehearsal and performance, and our ability to see the big picture. Written by A Yagnya and directed by Alvin Tan, new company Bridging the Gap makes their debut with subTITLED 1.0. Described as ‘exploring the intertwining stories of three women’, we watch as they each grapple with their choices when faced with the execution of a man for drug trafficking. … Continue reading Review: subTITLED 1.0 by Bridging the Gap
Asian-inspired teen sci-fi fantasy has Xue Shen finding his voice and in his element. In 2017, author Teo Xue Shen burst onto the literary scene with his debut novel 18 Walls, appearing on the longlist for the 2017 Epigram Books Fiction Prize and making him the youngest author to have been nominated for the prize. It was clear however, that the writing at the point … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Book Review: Children of the Ark by Teo Xue Shen
A dramatic conclusion to a bold take on the superhero genre. Like any good comic series, volume 1 of Russell Molina’s Mr Tino left us on a cliffhanger, a shock death that leaves our titular hero devastated by loss. So of course, we were ready to dive right into volume 2, where we’d hurtle towards the end of Mr Tino’s series, and see if he finally … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Book Review: Mr Tino (Volume 2) by Russell Molina and Mikey Marchan
Bringing you hilarious ‘live’ coverage of the latest news. In a year that has seen too much sad news plague our screens, it takes a certain special someone to lighten that mood by directly addressing those headlines – with humour and heart. That someone happens to be comedian Rishi Budhrani, who started his online video series The Rishi Report last April. But with live shows … Continue reading Review: The Rishi Report Live by Rishi Budhrani
Unpacking the absurdity of the arts scene, and the need to keep pushing at our invisible walls. Even before forming Emergency Stairs, Liu Xiaoyi has always been interested in challenging the norm, and provoking thought by asking difficult questions. With his Offstage series of work, he’s managed to put the results of those discussions into performance, reimagining how much importance we ascribe to offstage roles, … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Offstage 3.0 by Emergency Stairs
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