SIFA 2025: An Interview with Nine Years Theatre’s Nelson Chia and Mia Chee on ‘Waiting For Audience’

In Singapore’s fast-moving theatre scene, where product is often prioritised over process, rarely do shows get a chance to receive test audiences and the luxury of being workshopped before making it to the stage. But for Nine Years Theatre (NYT), the 2024 Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) offered them a unique opportunity in the form of Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a showcase of works-in-progress given … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with Nine Years Theatre’s Nelson Chia and Mia Chee on ‘Waiting For Audience’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with Executive Producer Audrey Perera on ‘COLONY – A True Colors Project’

What does it mean to be whole? To be human? These are the fundamental questions lie at the heart of COLONY – a production that intertwines dance, music, film, and storytelling to explore themes of diversity, resistance, and human connection. Featuring dancers, performers and a creative team with diverse abilities, COLONY showcases a story of pain, transformation, and radical empathy, challenging societal ideals of perfection, … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with Executive Producer Audrey Perera on ‘COLONY – A True Colors Project’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with Hossan Leong on new show ‘Hossan-ah! In The High Arts’

Who exactly is Hossan Leong? A household name from his many appearances on television — whether in dramas or as a gameshow host, ‘Singapore Boy’ Hossan Leong’s story in the arts stretches far deeper. From his humble beginnings in theatre to receiving the prestigious French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (The Order of Arts and Literature), his life is a testament to … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with Hossan Leong on new show ‘Hossan-ah! In The High Arts’

★★★★☆ Review: Told By My Mother by Ali Chahrour

Personal tragedy against international conflict highlights the inconceivable human losses sustained in war. Personal tragedy set against the backdrop of national collapse — Told By My Mother, by Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour, is an aching testament to the unimaginable losses endured in times of war. No parent should ever have to bury a child. Yet in conflict, this reversal of nature becomes grotesquely common, and … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Told By My Mother by Ali Chahrour

★★★★☆ Review: Umbilical by Rizman Putra, Zul Mahmod and thesupersystem

The birth, merger, separation, independence and future of Singapore are told through immersive video, sound and absurdly arresting performance. The title Umbilical brings to mind the most primal of bonds: a baby’s connection to its mother before the cord is cut. And in this multi-sensory, deeply symbolic performance by artists Rizman Putra, Zul Mahmod, and thesupersystem, that connection becomes a potent metaphor for Singapore’s own … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Umbilical by Rizman Putra, Zul Mahmod and thesupersystem

★★☆☆☆ Review: Animal Farm by The Finger Players

All puppets are equal, but some are more equal than others, in The Finger Players’ messy adaptation of Orwell’s classic. Ever since it hit bookstores, George Orwell’s Animal Farm has risen to fame as a ferocious allegory of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism, now studied across schools and touted as a timeless, universal cautionary tale about how revolutions may lead to the … Continue reading ★★☆☆☆ Review: Animal Farm by The Finger Players

SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Manuela Infante on ‘Vampyr’

Previously in Singapore in 2017, Chilean playwright and director Manuela Infante returns for the 2025 edition of the Singapore International Festival of Arts with Vampyr, the third part of her trilogy exploring the non-human that started with Estado Vegetal and How to Turn to Stone. Where the two previous shows explored plant consciousness and geology respectively, Vampyr instead turns its attention to something that seems … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Manuela Infante on ‘Vampyr’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with co-creators Alan Oei and Kaylene Tan on ‘A Thousand Stitches’

In A Thousand Stitches, a portrait of a Japanese woman, Mizuki, becomes the heart of a haunting narrative about war, propaganda, and human connection. Emma, an art conservation student, restores the painting, and finds herself drawn into Mizuki’s story, enigmatic artist Huang Wei, and the turbulent years of Japanese-occupied Singapore (then Syonan-to). Premiering as part of the 2025 Singapore International Festival of Arts, A Thousand … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with co-creators Alan Oei and Kaylene Tan on ‘A Thousand Stitches’

SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Geoff Sobelle on ‘HOME’

When does a house become a home? That is the central question in American theatremaker Geoff Sobelle’s HOME, an innovative, richly imaginative performance and act of theatrical spectacle that sees a house materialise before the audience, rising swiftly like a time-lapse sequence. Over time, the residents inhabit it, move in and out, build and break it, and leave behind traces of their past, present, and … Continue reading SIFA 2025: An Interview with creator Geoff Sobelle on ‘HOME’

Review: The Sea and the Neighbourhood by Singapore International Festival of Arts

Multidisciplinary performance in the heartlands marks a sweaty start to 2025 edition of SIFA, with little consideration for the spatial limitations of an outdoor venue and an ill-fated attempt to make art ‘accessible’. Bedok was one of the earliest documented places in Singapore, fast growing from its origins as a Malay and Orang Laut-inhabited fishing village, to becoming one of the most heavily populated heartland … Continue reading Review: The Sea and the Neighbourhood by Singapore International Festival of Arts