★★★☆☆ Review: Scenes From The Climate Era by David Finnigan and Ellison Tan

Myriad views of the climate disaster and the desperation and depression that emerges in its rise. How does one frame a play about climate change and still add to the already burgeoning conversation? Adapted for a Singaporean production, Australian playwright David Finnigan’s Scenes From The Climate Era is keenly aware of the weighty and convoluted nature of the climate crisis, and how difficult it can … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: Scenes From The Climate Era by David Finnigan and Ellison Tan

The Studios 2025: An Interview with playwright David Finnigan on ‘Scenes From The Climate Era’

A couple debates whether to bring a child into a world on fire. Scientists race to build a coral reef in a lab. Somewhere in Antarctica, a team attempts to hold back a melting glacier with a seawall. And in the dark, the last frog of its species calls out—hoping, futilely, for a mate. In Scenes from the Climate Era, Australian playwright David Finnigan zooms … Continue reading The Studios 2025: An Interview with playwright David Finnigan on ‘Scenes From The Climate Era’

★★★★☆ Review: This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May) by Wichaya Artamat

A closer look at ordinary life that carries on in spite of the extraordinary. Thai writer-director Wichaya Artamat claims that his play This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May) is an unpolitical play. But can any play truly be completely devoid of any political attachment? Rounding off the Esplanade’s 2024 season of The Studios, This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May) by Wichaya Artamat

★★★☆☆ Review: One Day We’ll Understand 有那么一天​ by Sim Chi Yin

Performance-lecture on biased historiography and hidden knowledge urges us to critically reconstruct our interpretations to formulate our own version of the truth. The Malayan Emergency in the late 1940s continues to remain a traumatic memory for many Chinese Malaysians, where families would recall relatives hurriedly leaving the country, or worse – hauled away for questioning over suspected Communist relations, and never seen again, at least, … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Review: One Day We’ll Understand 有那么一天​ by Sim Chi Yin

Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with director/playwright Wichaya Artamat and producer Sasapin Siriwanij on ‘This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May)’

Fathers in Asian society have always had certain stereotypes associated with them – a sense of the austere, reserved and detached from openly expressing love for their children, and perhaps, even as a microcosm of the greater paternalistic, patriarchal governance style adopted by those in power. In many ways, a father is often an anchor within a family that determines their relations and dynamics, resulting … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with director/playwright Wichaya Artamat and producer Sasapin Siriwanij on ‘This Song Father Used To Sing (Three Days In May)’

Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with artist Sim Chi Yin on ‘One Day We’ll Understand’ (有那么一天​)

For artist Sim Chi Yin, history has always formed an integral part of her work and practice. Be it presented in the form of photography or film or even book-making, Sim’s work often takes her into the recent past, excavating and researching into academia and accounts to unearth previously hidden narratives. Through her artistic interventions, she paints a more complete picture of what has come … Continue reading Esplanade’s The Studios 2024: An Interview with artist Sim Chi Yin on ‘One Day We’ll Understand’ (有那么一天​)

★★★★☆ Review: Air by Drama Box

Portrait of a disappearing community told with sincerity and creativity through documentary verbatim theatre. Documentary and verbatim theatre can be a tricky genre to stage, requiring actors to embody and speak on the behalf of interviewees, rather than featuring them as in a documentary film. Particularly when it comes to marginalised groups, verbatim theatre runs the risk of bordering on appropriation, and even exploitation if … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: Air by Drama Box

★★★★☆ Review: How I Learned To Drive by Renee Yeong

Full speed ahead into the complex topic of pedophilia and grooming in small town America. In America, with its long highways and winding roads, driving remains a necessity if you want to get out. As a result, getting one’s driver’s license becomes a key rite of passage, marking a coming of age for many Americans, symbolising newfound freedom with the ability to go anywhere, anytime … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Review: How I Learned To Drive by Renee Yeong

★★★★★ Review: pass·ages by Sim Yan Ying

Resonant work on ageing shows YY’s vision and true capabilities as a director given enough time and resources. Time is a cruel mistress. Regardless of where we come from, it is the one thing we are all subject to, eventually resulting in death. But along the way, time also brings with it age, our bodies going through significant transformations at every stage of our life. … Continue reading ★★★★★ Review: pass·ages by Sim Yan Ying

TRIP 2024: An Interview with Renee Yeong on directing ‘How I Learned To Drive’, finding balance and her place as a director in Singapore

Renee Yeong is a bit of a superwoman. Maintaining a full-time job against her theatrical pursuits, the young theatremaker has just come off directing a successful production of George Brant’s Grounded for Singapore Theatre Company, and is ready to present another production less than a month after closing, with Paula Vogel’s How I Learned To Drive. Marking her second and ‘graduating’ production for the Esplanade’s … Continue reading TRIP 2024: An Interview with Renee Yeong on directing ‘How I Learned To Drive’, finding balance and her place as a director in Singapore