The Studios 2018: A Good Death (Review)

The hard truths of Faith Ng’s latest play handles mortality firmly and frankly, while still ending on an emotional sting.  As much as we all know that death will come for us one day, it remains an immensely difficult and taboo topic to talk about. Imagine going through that everyday, as a palliative care doctor delicately navigating both the emotional and practical aspects that a … Continue reading The Studios 2018: A Good Death (Review)

The Studios 2018: An Interview with Faith Ng (A Good Death)

The Esplanade’s 2018 season of The Studios begins this week and this time around, present a series of works centering around the theme ‘Between Living and Dying’ , questioning how best to make the most of our limited time on earth. Starting off the season, we have playwright Faith Ng with her latest play A Good Death, marking her first new work since last year’s Whale Fall.  Directed … Continue reading The Studios 2018: An Interview with Faith Ng (A Good Death)

Preview: Esplanade presents The Studios 2018 – Between Living and Dying

The Esplanade’s 15th Anniversary celebrations aren’t letting up anytime soon, and their annual The Studios season returns this March and April with four all new works and one reworked production by some of the brightest talents working in Singapore today. Themed Between Living and Dying, the works invite audience members to probe deeper about issues of life, death and everything in between. Opening the season on 29th March is … Continue reading Preview: Esplanade presents The Studios 2018 – Between Living and Dying

Huayi 2018: Einstein In The Carpark (爱因与斯坦) by Emergency Stairs (Review)

Liu Xiaoyi, in his director’s message for Einstein in the Carpark, poses to the late renowned theoretical physicist Albert Einstein a litany of 33 questions, among them such pithy existential ones as: “What do you think is the most important question of all?” “How do I find simplicity in confusion?” “Why do so many people know you, but so few people understand you?” This thought … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Einstein In The Carpark (爱因与斯坦) by Emergency Stairs (Review)

Huayi 2018: Why We Chat? (聊斋) by Edward Lam Dance Theatre (Review)

Finding love in a hopeless place, with a side of ghosts, graves and a long list of ex-lovers. In Why We Chat?, director Edward Lam and writer Wong Wing Sze reimagine Pu Songling’s classic Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio (聊斋志异) for the times, taking inspiration from its supernatural themes and crafting an all new story about the contemporary horrors of feeling completely, utterly alone within the modern … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Why We Chat? (聊斋) by Edward Lam Dance Theatre (Review)

Huayi 2018: Cut Kafka! (咔嚓卡夫卡!) by Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E. Dance Company (Review)

Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E. Dance Company take audiences on a nightmarish journey that explores the chaos within our minds. When Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E. Dance Company come together, it’s almost certain that something incredibly out of this world will be born from the collaboration. And when you add a heavy dose of surrealism, you’d probably get something along the lines of Cut Kafka. … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Cut Kafka! (咔嚓卡夫卡!) by Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E. Dance Company (Review)

Huayi 2018: Einstein In The Carpark by Emergency Stairs (Preview)

Of the many performance spaces within the Esplanade, there’s never been one quite as unique as the carpark, being used for the very first time by experimental theatre company Emergency Stairs as they return to Huayi with their new production Einstein In The Carpark. Directed and conceptualized by Emergency Staris artistic director Liu Xiaoyi, Einstein In The Carpark takes inspiration from physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Einstein In The Carpark by Emergency Stairs (Preview)

Huayi 2018: Why We Chat? by Edward Lam Dance Theatre (Preview)

This Huayi Festival, the Esplanade welcomes Hong Kong’s Edward Lam Dance Theatre to Singapore as they present a truly unique theatrical show that reflects on modern relationships, inspired, oddly enough, by the classic Chinese collection Liaozhai Zhiyi. Directed by award-winning director Edward Lam himself and written by the acclaimed playwright-actress Wong Wing Sze, Why We Chat? follows an aspiring writer (popular Taiwanese-Hong Kong singer/actor David Wang) as he shafts … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Why We Chat? by Edward Lam Dance Theatre (Preview)

Huayi 2018: Cut Kafka! by Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E. Dance Company (Preview)

In a company first, leading arts companies Nine Years Theatre joins forces with T.H.E. Dance Company to produce an all new physical theatre/movement piece inspired by the works of author Franz Kafka. Kafka is best known for his surreal works that’ve influenced readers across the world, and certainly one of the most unique writers of the 20th century, with works such as The Metamorphosis, The … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Cut Kafka! by Nine Years Theatre and T.H.E. Dance Company (Preview)

Huayi 2018: Blood & Rose Ensemble by Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group (Review)

The Taiwanese theatre group ramp up the soap opera potential in Shakespeare through their farcical and madcap adaptation of the Bard’s history plays.  Think it’s hard keeping up with the Kardashians? Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group will have you know that they’ve got nothing on the House of Plantaganet. Directed by Wang Chia-Ming, the entirety of the War of the Roses is charted in a loose, 2-hour adaptation of … Continue reading Huayi 2018: Blood & Rose Ensemble by Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group (Review)