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…
This is what succession looks like: The Finger Players
By Corrie Tan (3,800 words, 15-minute read) I. “They are constantly making magic look like it’s very simple.” You could call it love at first sight – the moment Ellison Tan and Myra Loke encountered The Finger Players, they…
A Bigger Party Than Expected: Honouring Rex Shelley at SWF 2019
By Akanksha Raja (830 words, 4-minute read) On 1 November, The Arts House plays host to an unlikely wedding celebration titled A Bigger Party Than Expected, which features “silent disco” dances to an Eurasian folk song, multidisciplinary art installations,…
The working processes of artists: Tim De Cotta
In this video, LASALLE students Nicole Kessler and Marian Saturno speak to musician Tim De Cotta on his (many) musical influences, how he talks about social issues through music and how to keep your art pure. Tim De Cotta is…
RAW Moves’ “Being, and Organs” and the unbearable whiteness of Block O
By Nabilah Said (890 words, 5-minute read) Draw a straight line. Draw a straight line freehand Draw a straight line freehand, with a 100g weight attached to your wrist. Repeat, ad nauseam. The moment you walk into Goodman Arts Centre’s…
CRITICS LIVE: A post-show response to “Merdeka”
Join critics Corrie Tan, Nabilah Said, Carolyn Oei and Teo Xiao Ting in a post-show conversation about W!ld Rice’s Merdeka. Critics Live is a critics-led programme series created by ArtsEquator to give arts audiences an insight into how critics formulate…
5 Singapore poems not to quote out of context
By Nabilah Said (2,500 words, 7-minute read) In 1968, Lee Kuan Yew uttered the words “Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford” to a roomful of University of Singapore students. There have been some quibbling over, even mythologising of, what…
Singapore Biennale 2019: Interview with artistic director and curators
By Lee Weng Choy (1,969 words, 7-minute read) Contemporary visual art exhibition the Singapore Biennale 2019 will return on 22 November with Every Step In The Right Direction, featuring artworks by over 70 artists from Singapore, Southeast Asia and beyond….
Translating Homeland: Tanah•Air 水•土: A Play In Two Parts
By Nabilah Said (1,900 words, 7-minute read) In less than a week, Drama Box will premiere Tanah•Air 水•土: A Play In Two Parts, a production revolving around the theme of histories, those that are remembered, and those who are sidelined….
The brutal examinations of “Constellation of Violence”
By Patricia Tobin (561 words, 4-minute read) Constellation of Violence consists of a very simple setup: a giant screen on stage, a historian, two artists and a group of individuals. These elements are combined, in varying degrees, to form…
The Personal, the Humour and the Horror: Interview with Irwan Ahmett
By Patricia Tobin (1,140 words, 6-minute read) The concluding production of TPAM 2019 was Constellation of Violence, a lecture-performance by artist Irwan Ahmett, which focused on the culmination of the Cold War in Indonesia in 1965, from its lead-up…
Say No To Droogs: Teater Ekamatra’s “A Clockwork Orange”
By Faezah Zulkifli (1,020 words, 4-minute read) “ORANG_” The wordplay in Teater Ekamatra’s A Clockwork Orange is no accident. An inventive linguist, author Anthony Burgess, who lived in Malaysia in the 1950s, borrowed the title for his magnum opus from…