Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC) has finalised the selection for its second edition, focusing on first-time filmmakers from Laos, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Established producers such as Fran Borgia (A Yellow Bird) and Anthony Chen (Pop Aye) are attached to some of the projects, which cover topics including family strife, sociopolitical bureaucracy, cross-cultural humour […]
By Chloe Chotrani (1400 words, 12-minute read) Dance was practiced as a devotional union between the ancestral and earthly realms through ritualistic performances in architectural spaces, with its genesis in India, extending into Southeast Asia. This essay examines the bronze figures of deities and temple traditions in Angkor, Cambodia in relation to ancient Hindu traditions
Dance as Devotion in South India and Southeast Asia Read More »
Lorenzo Rudolf seems to be taking the adage “all publicity is good publicity” a bit too far. Speaking on the opening day of Art Stage Singapore, the president and founder of the annual contemporary art fair gave such a downbeat description of the city state’s art market that seemed like a peculiar ploy to get
By Corrie Tan (1228 words, 10-minute read) A man is rising from the water. The sea is birthing him: his closely-cropped hair, his bare chest and shoulders, his damp sarong clinging to his thighs. On land, another man with a shorn scalp is sitting cross-legged in the sand and mud, his distended lips pulled back
“Cinta Tuah Jebat”: Love on the Rocks Read More »
“The party is not the….”, a visitor beside me squints into a portrait, trying to make out the tiny words handwritten just below it. After the words, an ‘Erica’ is signed. “The past is not the past”, I corrected him. He grins and then realises. That is the name of the exhibition, after all. ===
“The Past is not the Past”, an exhibition to remember (via The Online Citizen) Read More »
The Dark Web by USP Productions, Drama Centre Theatre, 2 – 4 Feb The Dark Web is a play that examines the culture and implications surrounding the titular part of the internet known as the ‘dark web’ – where users and their activities are concealed behind layers of anonymity and encryption, and content ranges from
29 January – 4 February 2018: Singapore Read More »
By Wong Wen Pu (600 words, 4-minute read) Forked by Jo Tan follows the experiences of one Jeanette Peh (played by Ethel Yap), a Singaporean student, as she heads to London to study acting, against the vehement objections of her father and the reluctant acquiescence of her mother. Already a minor celebrity in Singapore through
“Forked” by Jo Tan: An Uneven Production Read More »
By Bernice Lee (722 words, 5-minute read) Jo Tan’s first full-length play Forked hits plenty of right notes. High energy, uncomfortably honest and deliberately racist, it’s funny because it’s true. In spite of its great momentum however, the play’s pace feels weighed down by its thematic frames, just as the characters are stuck within their
“Forked” by Jo Tan: Shapeshifting Identities Read More »
By Richard Chung (738 words, 7 minute read) Jo Tan’s playwriting debut offers a simple yet familiar story of one Singaporean girl with big dreams. In Forked, Ethel Yap plays Jeanette, a young aspiring actor who heads to London for drama school. Upon arrival in London, Jeanette gets the biggest culture shock of her life
“Forked”: Privilege Gets Served Read More »
By Isaac Lim (676 words, 6-minute read) Jeanette Peh promotes herself as a ‘star’, with ‘over 500 followers’ on her ‘Stage Whispers’ YouTube channel which promises straight-up, no-holds-barred confessions. Is that the reality, or is she just a wannabe? Jo Tan’s first full-length play, Forked, directed by Chen Yingxuan, is a laugh-a-minute comedy, albeit one that
“Forked”: An Asian Crisis Read More »
By Teo Dawn (736 words, 7 minute read) (Transcript for SunSh!neGurrl*94’s YouTube video – A Reaction Video to Forked by Jo Tan) Hello everybody, ni hao and welcome back to my channel. I have been reading your comments and you asked for more of my reaction videos. Love that you guys think so highly of
A Reaction Video to Jo Tan’s “Forked” Read More »
By Ezekiel Oliveira (546 words, 4-minute read) Jeanette Peh is determined to become an actor, but she already thinks she is something of a star on her YouTube channel ‘Stage Whispers’ which has 500 subscribers. She turns down a place at Law School in Singapore to fulfil her acting dreams instead. But in London, her
“Forked”: Jeanette doesn’t do Asian Read More »
By Patricia Tobin (800 words, 6-minute read) When I was 19, I left Singapore to pursue my studies in Melbourne. I foolishly thought that any city, anywhere else in the world, would be better than this tiny island. In Melbourne, I became more aware of my “otherness”. At an Irish pub in St Kilda, a
Get “Forked”: Finding our Racial Identity Read More »
By Euginia Tan (707 words, 5-minute read) As I am waiting for the show to begin, the glint off the four silver chairs forming the basis of the set of Forked is sharp, unyielding, with a trophy rested on one of them. Forked then commences with a highly frenetic, animated monologue by protagonist Jeanette Peh,
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2018: Forked by Jo Tan Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Patricia Tobin (788 words, 6-min read) “She is a terrorist, she is a cultist, she works for sex.” “Who is she?” Like a foggy recreation of a Black Mirror episode, Rei Poh’s Attempts: Singapore
Looking within with “Attempts: Singapore” Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Isaac Lim (508 words, 4 minute read) 1957hrs: I arrive at the lobby of Centre 42, which has been converted into the headquarters of multi-million dollar corporation, ARC. In Attempts: Singapore, a theatre-game-experience created
“Attempts: Singapore”: Is the Anne nigh? Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Richard Chung In a world of innovative theatrical experiences, you often come across too many that scrimp on either execution or narrative. That’s not the case for Rei Poh’s Attempts: Singapore, which operates as a thoroughly
“Attempts: Singapore”: Game On Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Ezekiel Oliveira (589 words, 5-minute read) Humanity may be under threat, the end of the world might well be nigh. That’s the premise for Attempts: Singapore, an immersive performance where the audience is cast
“Attempts: Singapore”: The Curtains Don’t Match the Drapes Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Teo Dawn (650 words, 5-minute read) Attempts: Singapore by Rei Poh is a participatory piece of theatre inspired by Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life. Fragmented, non-linear, and similar to a video game experience,
“Attempts: Singapore”: Let The Games Begin Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Jocelyn Chng (518 words, 4-minute read) Most performances in Singapore keep the audience in their place, passively sitting and watching. Attempts: Singapore is an attempt at getting the audience up on their feet and
“Attempts: Singapore”: An Uncertain Attempt Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Sherlyn Goh Xue Ting (1295 words, 9-minute read) Entry 26,371: 25 January 2018, 2000hrs It has been a few days since the mysterious databank in J.O.A.N. appeared, and the system is overwhelmed by memories
Investigation Report for “Attempts: Singapore” Read More »
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to experience the mystery and suspense of Attempts: Singapore, read only after you’ve attended the performance. By Alicia Chong (700 words, 5-minute read) Attempts: Singapore by Rei Poh – presented as part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2018 – creates a theatrical performance that immerses its audience in an ‘escape
“Attempts: Singapore”: Fluid Fragments and Fragile Illusions Read More »
By Isaac Lim (468 words, 4 minute read) A woman’s place is in the kitchen. Or is it? Israeli theatre-maker Emanuella Amichai’s The Neighbor’s Grief is Greener attempts to quell all notions of the ideal woman we know from 1950s American pop culture. It all gets pretty bloody. Set in a pristine home, a Stepford
“The Neighbor’s Grief is Greener”: Past Imperfect Read More »
By Richard Chung (700 words, 5-minute read) A peek inside the macabrely funny world of The Neighbor’s Grief Is Greener, set in a 1950s American suburban kitchen. In 1940s America, men went off to war, leaving the running of the country to women. Many wives and daughters stepped foot into factories and worked for the
“The Neighbor’s Grief is Greener”: Exquisite Macabre meets Slapstick Comedy Read More »
By Patricia Tobin (538 words, 5-minute read) From Stepford Wives to The Real Housewives, the idealised American woman is always found in the kitchen. But is she happy? In The Feminine Mystique (1963), Betty Friedan found that most housewives of this era were unfulfilled within the domestic space. Creator-director Emanuella Amichai addresses this in The
“The Neighbor’s Grief is Greener”: There Will be Blood Read More »
By Teo Dawn (700 words, 5-minute read) 2018 has only just begun, but the women’s rights movement is already making its voice heard with #MeToo dominating social media, and the Time’s Up campaign started by Hollywood celebrities. Sexual violence against women is in the spotlight. Now, Larry Nassar (disgraced former Team USA gymnastics doctor) has
Is “The Neighbor’s Grief” really greener, or are we all the same? Read More »
By Ezekiel Oliveira (565 words 4-minute read) A dreamy, perfect 1950’s housewife stands in the middle of a kitchen, cracking eggs and stirring flour into her bowl. But she isn’t making your regular American casserole; she’s cooking up a far bloodier dish. She dashes the pot on the ground, flooding the kitchen with blood. Emanuella Amichai’s
“The Neighbor’s Grief is Greener”: A Dark Domesticity Read More »
What is the difference between finished and unfinished? No one can tell. It’s invisible to us but looms large in the artists’ minds. What the artist sees as unfinished and unsatisfactory may appear beautiful to our naked eye. Here, six local artists unearthed some of their unfinished and abandoned artworks. Tay Bak Chiang “This was from 2000 or
Live at Reading Room: UnFree & Unspoken by Ethos Books, The Reading Room, 26 Jan, 8pm At The Reading Room (Downtown Gallery, #02-09/10), Ethos Books presents a poetry reading by local poets Joshua Ip, Theophilus Kwek and Marylyn Tan at Yellow Bash. In UnFree (8.00 – 9.00 pm), Joshua Ip and Theophi Kwek will introduce
22 – 28 January 2018: Singapore Read More »
In the wake of sexual harassment scandals that dominated news headlines in the latter part of 2017, gender-based violence and discrimination have become a hot topic—and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop soon. Women (and some men) around the world are coming together to speak out against abuse (or lend support to those
#therageisreal: tackling gender inequality, one play at a time (via Esplanade Singapore) Read More »
