Preview: Dear Jay by Blue Bean Productions
By Akanksha Raja (530 words, 5-minute read) Blue Bean Productions’ maiden show Dear Jay was spawned from a series of e-mail exchanges between producer and lead actor Benedict Leong and playwright Euginia Tan, about personal experiences coping with mental illness. They had…
Podcast 7: The Second Breakfast Company’s Family by Leow Puay Tin
Duration: 30 minutes Michael Ng, who reviewed the 20th Anniversary production of Family for bakchormeeboy joins podcast co-hosts Kathy Rowland and Matt Lyon in a discussion about the staging history of Family, and the relevance of the play today. Opening music by…
28 Nov – 4 Dec 2016: Singapore
Projek Suitcase 2016: Metamorphosis by Teater Ekamatra 30 Nov – 4 Dec, from 7:30pm In the latest edition of Teater Ekamatra, 16 performing artists or performance makers across disciplines and genres have been invited to stage 8 monologues over 2…
Low Octane: SRT’s Disgraced
By Matt Lyon (482 words, 6-minute read) Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, a modern tragedy about the fall of an apostate Muslim-American lawyer, is a notable inheritor of the realist theatrical tradition. Sadly, it inherits the worst traits: Ibsen’s machine-cut-jigsaw plotting and…
Don’t Say Cheese: Interchange
By Kathy Rowland (988 words, 10-minute read) Spoiler Alert: If you want to enjoy Interchange in all its suspenseful glory, watch the film before you read this review. The 27th Singapore International Film Festival opened last week with the Asian…
BFM Malaysia: Podcast interview with Lionel Shriver
Umapagan Ampikaipakan catches up with Lionel Shriver at the Singapore Writers Festival 2016 and together they discuss her controversial comments on cultural appropriation and the future of America under Trump.
Consume Your Art Like a Snickers Bar?
(plu)ral, the art blog begins with The Society of the Spectacle, meets some misshappen heads on the Ratchaprasong Skywalk Art Maze and lands at the Art Stage Singapore 2017 media launch.
Crisis of Masculinity: Best Of (His Story)
By Matthew Lyon (480 words, 6-minute read) The Necessary Stage’s Best Of (His Story) is a response to the company’s 2013 monologue, Best Of that detailed a day in the life of a young Malay-Muslim woman. The project of the original…
Love, Loss and a search for identity at SWF 2016
Sharmilla Ganesan writes for Malaysian culture portal Star2.com, reflecting on the myriad issues brought up at the Singapore Writers Festival 2016.
21 – 27 Nov: Singapore
Akanksha’s Top Picks in Singapore from 21 – 27 November 2016 Akanksha is Assistant Editor at ArtsEquator. She grew up in Singapore and graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2014. She gladly invites event recommendations at akanksha(at)artsequator.com, and in the…
Podcast 6: da:ns lab – What You See Is Not What I Meant
Duration: 27 minutes Choreographer and performance makers Susan Sentler and Chan Sze Wei recently participated in the Esplanade’s da:ns lab 2016 workshop, facilitated by daniel kok. Unlike previous workshops, in which processes of making were central, this year’s lab enshrined the…
SWF 2016 Panel: Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction
By Akanksha Raja (608 words, 6-minute read) Speculative fiction (or spec-fic) is an umbrella term for a number of literary genres including science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, magical realism, and horror. It’s the term for all those movies and books…
14 – 20 Nov 2016: Singapore
Akanksha’s Top Picks in Singapore from 14-20 November 2016 Akanksha is Assistant Editor at ArtsEquator. She grew up in Singapore and graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2014. She gladly invites book/art/film/album/event recommendations at akanksha(at)artsequator.com, and in the meantime, here…
Full View: Women in Photography 2016
By Akanksha Raja (800 words, 8-minute read) The second edition of Objectifs’ annual Women in Photography 2016 programme, co-presented with the Magnum Foundation, is a group exhibition featuring photographic works from 18 contemporary female artists associated with Magnum. While…
Podcast 5: Rent; Musicals
Duration: 28 minutes Reviewer Karin Lai joins Matt Lyon in conversation about Pangdemonium’s October 2016 production of Rent, the Tony-award-winning Broadway musical by Jonathan Larson about a group of New York City bohemians in the mid-1980’s grappling with love, art,…
Necessary Nuance: Best Of (His Story)
By Kathy Rowland (1010 words, 10-minute read) Best of (His Story) is a monologue set on a crowded stage. A young man, alone in an apartment decorated by his wife, reflects on his marriage on the day his divorce is…
You Must Like Chocolate: An Essay on Taste
By Lee Weng Choy (1130 words, 17-minute read) Do you like chocolate? I like chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate? Although, come to think of it, I do know of some people who don’t like chocolate — at least, I remember…
Histories, Practices and Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art
Marcus Yee of RightAfters reviews a collection of Singapore art writing, Histories, Practices and Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art edited by Jeffrey Say and Seng Yu Jin.
Podcast 4: The Malay Man and His Chinese Father; Dramaturgy.
Duration: 28 minutes Academic and theatre practitioner Dr Charlene Rajendran is lured into the studio to explain her process as a dramaturg. Also, to teach us how to actually pronounce “dramaturg”. Plus we talk about our reaction to Akulah…
Podcast 3: Edward Albee & Couch Theatre’s Eurydice
Duration: 28.54 minutes With Shawn Chua, we remember the playwright Edward Albee who passed away on 16 Sept 2016. Plus we give a quick take on Couch Theatre’s Eurydice by Sarah Rhul. ArtsEquator’s weekly podcast on arts and culture features…
Podcast 2: SIFA Review Part 2: The Last Bull: A Life in Flamenco; I am LGB.
Duration: 30 minutes We discuss The Last Bull: A Life in Flamenco and I Am LGB in Podcast 2, the second part of our SIFA special. ArtsEquator’s weekly podcast on arts and culture features co-hosts Kathy Rowland and Matt Lyon chatting…
In Conversation: Review of Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies
Arthop’s Michelle Liew reviews the National Gallery of Singapore and Tate Britain’s Artist and Empire: (En) countering Colonial Legacies on at the National Gallery of Singapore until March 2017.
Podcast 1: SIFA Review: Five Easy Pieces; Ibsen: Ghosts; Riding on A Cloud
Duration: 29 minutes ArtsEquator’s weekly podcast on arts and culture features co-hosts Kathy Rowland and Matt Lyon chatting about the latest performances, exhibitions and arts news in Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. In Part 1 of our coverage…