Review: Are You Game, Sau(dara)? by Five Arts Centre (KL) and Bhumi Collective (SG)

Experimental responses to Leow Puay Tin’s 3 Children still very much cerebral works in progress. KUALA LUMPUR – Cross Causeway arts projects are always to be celebrated, showcasing the keen relationship Singapore continues to share with our closest neighbours. The most recent of these would be Malaysia’s Five Arts Centre and Singapore’s Centre 42 joint collaboration on Are You Game, Sau(dara)?, a double bill of new work from … Continue reading Review: Are You Game, Sau(dara)? by Five Arts Centre (KL) and Bhumi Collective (SG)

Film Review: A Land Imagined (幻土) dir. Yeo Siew Hua

The wilderness of Tuas provides an alien backdrop for this Asian neo-noir about migrant dreams of a better life. Written and directed by Yeo Siew Hua, A Land Imagined emerged a critical favourite at the 71st Locarno Film Festival, an Asian neo-noir following Lok (Peter Yu), a grizzled hardboiled detective as he embarks on an unusual job: tracking down Wang (Liu Xiaoyi) a Chinese migrant worker who … Continue reading Film Review: A Land Imagined (幻土) dir. Yeo Siew Hua

Television Time: BBC Shows March 2019

This March, the BBC has prepared an exciting line-up of shows to get you hooked as you settle in and binge watch all that the channel has to offer. Check out the list below: BBC EARTH Wild Metropolis This innovative series features a diverse cast of animals that are adjusting to this new world better than we could have predicted. Not only are they applying … Continue reading Television Time: BBC Shows March 2019

Huayi Festival 2019: Painted Skin by Singapore Chinese Orchestra (Review)

Western meets Chinese opera in a spectacle to remember. Inspired by the short story of the same name from Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Ziyi), the Singapore Chinese Opera adapts Painted Skin for the stage as a 100 minute opera in concert. The classic tale follows a Chinese scholar when he comes across a beautiful woman crying in the rain, giving her an … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: Painted Skin by Singapore Chinese Orchestra (Review)

Huayi Festival 2019: Love Letters by The Nonsensemakers/Nelson Chia & Mia Chee (Review)

Two melodramatic lives, their destinies intertwined by a flurry of love letters. It’s one thing to be married, or married to your job, but quite another to be married to someone who runs a company with you. Such is the case for both The Nonsensemakers (Hong Kong) and Nine Years Theatre (Singapore), run by partners Rensen Chan and Jo Ngai, and Nelson Chia and Mia … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: Love Letters by The Nonsensemakers/Nelson Chia & Mia Chee (Review)

Huayi Festival 2019: That Which Cannot Be Divided (无法被整除) by Bulareyaung Pagarlava & Albert Tiong (Review)

United we stand, divided we fall. Inspired by the concept of prime numbers – numbers indivisible by anything other than themselves and 1 and with no immediately apparent pattern, former Cloud Gate Dance Theatre members Bulareyaung Pagarlava (Taiwan) and Albert Tiong (Singapore) each choreographed a work attempting to unravel the mysteries behind them, showcasing how they may have more application to daily life than we … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: That Which Cannot Be Divided (无法被整除) by Bulareyaung Pagarlava & Albert Tiong (Review)

Huayi Festival 2019: The Way of Zhuang Zi (庄子兵法) by Story Works (Review)

Nerve wracking thriller of a play that keeps you guessing every step of the way. Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness. I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. Of the many Chinese philosophers we grew up learning from our scholar of a Chinese teacher … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: The Way of Zhuang Zi (庄子兵法) by Story Works (Review)

Review: The Transition Room by Toy Factory

Waiting rooms can feel like hell.  Over the years, purgatory onstage has taken a great many forms, from the horrific to the mundane. With Stanley Seah’s The Transition Room, the face of limbo takes an absurdist approach towards the middle ground, as we open with four characters finding themselves in a bare, abstract room, each dressed in shades of grey, with no memory or knowledge … Continue reading Review: The Transition Room by Toy Factory

Huayi Festival 2019: FOUR FOUR EIGHT (四四八) by Emergency Stairs (Review)

Warning: This review may contain spoilers Journey to the centre of the self…and Liu Xiaoyi. Over the years, Emergency Stairs Artistic Director Liu Xiaoyi has made it abundantly clear that the work he puts out staunchly refuses to conform to theatrical standards, having created work that subverts the norm, be it a piece of anti-theatre deliberately attempting to crush audience expectations or even performing in unusual … Continue reading Huayi Festival 2019: FOUR FOUR EIGHT (四四八) by Emergency Stairs (Review)

In London’s West End 2018: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre (Review)

The international phenomenon proves perhaps magic truly does exist within the theatre.  LONDON – To the casual outsider, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child feels like an overrated play. After all, following seven (conclusive) books, eight movies (not including the Fantastic Beasts series) and one massive fandom, does J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise deserve yet another addition to the canon? The answer, surprisingly, is a resounding yes. With an … Continue reading In London’s West End 2018: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre (Review)