Pico Iyer and Raffles Hotel, or the Nowhere Hotel
Celebrated writer Pico Iyer spent fifteen days in Singapore last August doing a residency at the newly reopened Raffles Hotel as its first official writer-in-residence. His new book, titled This Could Be Home: Raffles Hotel and the City of Tomorrow, published…
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks of TPAM 2020
The Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama will focus on dance and physical expression this year. Since it was established as the Tokyo Performing Arts Market in 1995, the annual event has never quite stopped moving – including a move to…
20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020
It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations. Well, if you’ve got travelling and #jetsetter on your new year’s resolution list,…
Alternate Realities <3 <3 <3: "I Dream of Singapore"
By Poh Yong Han (1,279 words, 7-minute read) I Dream of Singapore follows an injured Bangladeshi migrant worker, Feroz, who is temporarily residing at a Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) shelter, Dayspace, as he waits for his case to be…
Podcast 73: Spacebar Theatre
Duration: 21 min In our latest episode of our Fresh Blood podcast, Nabilah Said speaks to Lee Shu Yu and Eugene Koh of Spacebar Theatre about their latest production, The Utama Spaceship, which imagines what happens when Singaporeans are sent…
Serendipitous releases: “PheNoumenon” by T.H.E Dance Company
By Casidhe Ng (1,156 words, 7-minute read) The first thing one notices about the space is its fluidity. I am part of the second set of audience members to enter the Esplanade Theatre Studio. It is bleak, dark, and saturated…
In a Material World: IMPART Collectors’ Show 2020 & Justice for All
By Aditi Shivaramakrishnan (1,200 words, 5-minute read) When it comes to analysing an artwork, the artist’s choice of materials can be as revelatory as other elements in suggesting what they might wish to communicate. Two forthcoming shows due to open…
The top ArtsEquator articles of 2019
Here’s a list of the top 10 ArtsEquator articles in 2019: Enter Stage Right: Tay Tong by ArtsEquator “It is amazing how one’s identity is so associated with one’s job. Especially for me – after 30 years, all of…
Podcast 72: ArtsEquator End-of-Year Theatre Podcast 2019
Matt Lyon, Naeem Kapadia, Kathy Rowland and Nabilah Said discuss their top picks for theatre in 2019. Content warning: Mentions of sexual assault/violence, self-harm and suicide. Duration: 38 minutes Stream Podcast 72: Also available on Spotify. Download Podcast 72 here (right-click…
Podcast 71: ArtsEquator End-of-Year Dance Podcast 2019
Soultari Amin Farid, Chan Sze-Wei and Germaine Cheng discuss their top picks for dance in 2019, and discuss trends they’ve observed in the scene this year. Duration: 36 minutes Stream Podcast 71: Also available on Spotify. Download Podcast 71 here (right-click…
Everything In Its Right Place: The Body Politic and the Body
By Nabilah Said (1,400 words, 7-minute read) “You’re a guest, you’re a guest, you’re a guest.” This anodyne version of the Beauty and The Beast song played in my head as I walked through the exhibition The Body Politic and…
Chain reaction: Lie With Me by Intercultural Theatre Institute
By Kathy Rowland (1,014 words, 6-minute read) ITI’s graduation production, Lie With Me is filled with broken characters, caught in capsules of emotional decrepitude. The work, written by Kaite O’Reilly is based on Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, repurposed to examine…
Slow food: liTHE 2019 by T.H.E Second Company
By Chan Sze-Wei (1,031 words, 7-minute read) “Dance making in Singapore: an instant noodle culture?” I’ve never forgotten the title of this talk hosted at the Dance Nucleus in 2016 (then helmed by Foo Yun Ying). At the time, local…
Podcast 70: The Hawker & Rumah Dayak
In this latest podcast episode, Kathy Rowland, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss recent productions The Hawker by Second Breakfast Company, an immersive piece that pays homage to individuals in a hawker centre, and Rumah Dayak by new theatre collective…
Lightfay ofway ancyfay: “Peter Pan in Serangoon Gardens” by Wild Rice
By Naeem Kapadia (1,062 words, 7-minute read) It’s quite impossible to bid the year goodbye without WILD RICE’s traditional holiday pantomime, a veritable institution on the Singapore theatre calendar. Over the past 15 years, the company has developed a niche…
Embracing A Bigger Human Identity: “PheNoumenon” by T.H.E Dance Company
By Joelle Cecilia Quek (900 words, 6-minute read) I sit cross-legged on the floor in Goodman Arts Centre, the beat from the speakers thumping my chest as I watch the forms in front of me twist and writhe. Their pounding…
Monsters’ Ink: A Fiend’s Diary & Heather
By Nabilah Said (1,500 words, 7-minute read) Spoiler Alert: The following contains major spoilers for the shows A Fiend’s Diary and Heather. I watched the stories of two monsters in the theatre recently. In A Fiend’s Diary, Oliver Chong…
Podcast 69: Playfreely by The Observatory
Nabilah Said chats with Cheryl Ong, Dharma and Yuen Chee Wai from The Observatory about their free improvisation music festival, Playfreely, which features free improv musicians from Southeast Asia and the larger region. The 7th edition of Playfreely takes place…
Caught: Goodbye Lin Bo, we hardly knew ye
By Nabilah Said and Eugene Tan (2,500 words, 10-minute read) Spoiler Alert: This review contains major spoilers for the show Caught. Nabilah: I approach the venue for Caught with some trepidation. There had been scant details from the Singapore…
Words in Transit: George Town Literary Festival 2019
By Akanksha Raja (1,715 words, 7-minute read) The George Town Literary Festival returns for its ninth year next weekend (21 – 24 November) with the theme of forewords/afterwords, a decidedly future-oriented focus pertaining to notions of transitions and new beginnings….
Podcast 68: Critics Live! Wild Rice’s Merdeka
Theatre critics Corrie Tan, Nabilah Said, Carolyn Oei and Kathy Rowland discuss the recent production of WILD RICE’s Merdeka / 獨立 /சுதந்திரம், in a critics-led post-show conversation held in front of an audience on 19 October 2019 at WILD RICE’s…
Progress at work: “Forward Shift” at da:ns festival
By Bernice Lee (1,507 words, 7-minute read) Forward Shift, a new platform for works-in-progress within Esplanade’s da:ns festival, begins with much fanfare. Members of the public were treated to three performance experiments featuring artists whose artistic and audience development have…
Rage or Loss: Women in Photography 2019 | Remedy For Rage
By Elaine Chiew (1,050 words, 6-minute read) Now in its fifth edition, Objectifs returns with its annual showcase in the Women in Film and Photography series. From its early years of blockbuster-ish exhibitions held in conjunction with Magnum or featuring…
Jelmaan Baharu Teater Tradisional dalam “Hikayat Cendawan Putih”
Oleh Fasyali Fadzly (1,120 patah kati, 6-minit bacaan) Antara pengarah teater yang kurang dicanang dan disebut-sebut dalam pementasan teater kontemporari adalah Sharul Mizad atau lebih senang dikenali sebagai Ejad. Beliau merupakan graduan terawal Akademi Seni Kebangsaan (kini ASWARA) bersama beberapa…
The architecture of patriarchy: The Professor by Faisal Tehrani
By Lily Jamaludin (1,650 words, 7-minute read) Trigger warning: Descriptions of sexual assault. This review contains spoilers for The Professor. I began Faisal Tehrani’s new novel, The Professor, with the hope that he might provide some new images for Malaysian…
Podcast 67: Urinetown and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical
Theatre reviewers Matt Lyon and Naeem Kapadia are joined by ArtsEquator editor Nabilah Said in this newly rebooted theatre podcast discussing recent productions Urinetown: The Musical by Pangdemonium, and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical by Musical Theatre Ltd. This…
Merantau Sejarah/Identiti Selat Melaka: Name Laundering oleh Irwan Ahmett dan Tita Salina
Oleh Fasyali Fadzly (1,150 patah kati, 6-minit bacaan) Jauh perjalanan, luas pandangan. Mungkin itulah prinsip yang diambil oleh dua orang seniman Jakarta, Irwan Ahmett dan Tita Salina apabila mengambil keputusan untuk menjalankan kajian sosial dan artistik selama 10 tahun menjejaki…
Fantasy issues: “Princess” by Eisa Jocson
By Chan Sze-Wei (786 words, 4-minute read) I’ve recently been reading articles about how childhood trauma is determinative of one’s risk of future health issues from asthma to cancer. Also how ancestral trauma is recorded in our DNA. Snow White…
Podcast 66: M1 CONTACT & New Works Platforms (Part 2)
Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei and guest Melissa Quek discuss new works platforms at the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, as well as other new works platforms organised by dance companies and entities in Singapore such as Dance Nucleus, P7:1SMA and…
BACC: Whose art centre is it anyway?
By Siriwat Pokrajen (1,180 words, 6-minute read) Anyone following the news about the Thai art scene must have already known about all the rough storms the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) has been sailing through in the past couple…