Looking away for clarity: “First Fleet” by Nine Years Theatre
By Nabilah Said (1,100 words, 6-minute read) “The best seats are on the sides.” A friend’s advice guided my decision when I went to review First Fleet by Nine Years Theatre. Mindful of spoilers, she had not said why, but…
Celebrating the monstrous other: “Anak Pontianak” and “Nobody” at LumiNation
By ila (1,100 words, 6-minute read) The year is 2049: two hundred years since the Pontianak first appeared in writing, marked insignificantly in Hikayat Abdullah as residues of superstitious and foolish beliefs of the Chinese and Malays that have persisted…
The working processes of artists: .gif
In this video, indie-electronic duo .gif, made up of Nurudin Sadali and Chew Wei Shan or Weish, are interviewed by LASALLE students Narrel Wisaksono and Aqid Aiman. They talk about their sound, the nature of cross-disciplinary collaborations and wearing chicken…
“In Time To Come” at LumiNation 2019
We asked our readers what they would put in a time capsule. The answers were heartwarming, quirky and intriguing – through each of them, there was a consideration of what deserves preservation, and an imagination of our futures. In Tan…
“MAT” at Objectifs: Pluralisms, perceptions and podcast failings
(3,747 words, 12-minute read) Editor’s note: This is a transcript of a podcast recording which cannot be shared due to poor audio quality. It has been lightly edited for clarity. ArtsEquator (AE): Hello everyone. Welcome to the ArtsEquator podcast. My name…
Staying woke: “Awakenings” at National Gallery Singapore
By Nabilah Said (1,000 words, 6-minute read) My friends that have visited Singapore in recent times have been given the following non-food recommendations by me: I point them to Haw Par Villa for its wonderfully macabre dreamscapes of punitive Asian…
Hitting the right (heart) notes: 10toONE by ONE Chamber Choir
By Shahril Salleh (932 words, 5-minute read) ONE chamber choir has a formidable reputation. It is one of Singapore’s premier community choir – one that made waves and built bridges for our nation in the international choral music scene. Its…
Migrant Ecologies Project: A Grain of Wheat Inside a Salt Water Crocodile
By Lucy Davis (600 words, 5-minute read) Another Chinese tradition, which probably has no connection with the previous one is that the Butterworth cannon belonged to ‘Panglima’ (Warrior) Ah Chong a bravo of the Inter-Chinese wars which took place in the Larut tin…
Transgression, triggers, and the thousand cuts of “Blunt Knife”
By Corrie Tan (2,700 words, 13-minute read) Content Warning: Mentions of a sexual relationship involving a teenager This response contains major spoilers for Blunt Knife by Eng Kai Er and A Doll’s House by Theatre of Europe. Dear Kai,…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
“Disappearing Act” “NAMUH” “DBL.TAP”: What’s In A Name? DiverCity at M1 CONTACT
The M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival returns this year for its 10th edition with 20 shows and over 30 classes and workshops. Returning platform DiverCity, which in past years was combined with M1 Open Stage, stands on its own this year…
Pretty Displaced: Staging Sexual Assault in the Age of #MeToo
By Nabilah Said (1,887 words, 7-minute read) Trigger/Content Warning: Discussions of sexual assault I watched two shows in the span of two weeks recently. Besides the fact that they were Singapore plays, they did not, from the outset, seem…
Go Big or Go Home: “Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner” Takes Flight
By Helmi Yusof (1,387 words, six-minute read) Why do people choose to go into poor, dangerous, war-torn countries to work as humanitarian workers? Do they have boundless courage, hope and kindness? Do they have a death wish? Do they believe…
“A Dream Under the Southern Bough: Reverie”: Down the Ant Hole
By Jocelyn Chng (1,138 words, five-minute read) My strongest memory from the first instalment of this three-year series by Toy Factory, A Dream Under the Southern Bough: The Beginning, was its dramatic cliffhanger of an ending. There, the protagonist, disgraced…
Mad women, divine punishment, and “Dionysus”
By Corrie Tan (1,700 words, eight-minute read) This review contains spoilers and/or plot points for The Bacchae, a 2,500-year-old ancient Greek tragedy; Beware of Pity, a 1939 German novel adapted for the stage by the Schaubühne Berlin and Complicité; as…
“Invisible Habitudes”: The Personal Goes Political Goes Global
By Nabilah Said (621 words, three-minute read) On a Monday afternoon in Goodman Arts Centre, I am watching a group of dancers working. They are leaping. They are climbing. They are pushing. They are sweating. They are making me feel…
Podcast 59: The Truth About Voguing in Asia
Duration: 20 min Podcast host Chloe Chotrani (assisted by Chan Sze-Wei) uncovers the world of vogue culture and voguing in Asia from legendary mother, Koppi Mizrahi, who hails from Tokyo, Singaporean drag queen Vanda Miss Joaquim and Singaporean dancer Amin…
“Beautiful Water”: Intercultural Theatre Made in Threes
By Ken Takiguchi (1,229 words, 6-minute read) As I enter the auditorium of Kirari Fujimi, a public theatre located about one hour away from the centre of Tokyo, I find myself in the waters of somewhere in Asia. The audience…
Reframing Colonialism: “Civilised” by The Necessary Stage
By Naeem Kapadia (954 words, 4-minute read) There has been a slew of works responding to the bicentennial of Singapore’s founding by Sir Stamford Raffles, an event that the authorities have chosen to spend all year celebrating through a series…
Silent Rooms, Silent Memories: “Flowers” by Drama Box
By Akanksha Raja (1,155 words, 5-minute read) It’s a series of plastic white flower-fans lining the fence of 74 Jalan Kelabu Asap that lets me know that I’ve arrived at the site of Drama Box’s first work of 2019, Flowers,…
Does Singapore Theatre Have a Directing Problem?
By Adam Marple (1,781 words, 9-minute read) I always tell people this, right, if there was an international convention that invites the main people, directors from Singapore over, and that plane crashes, we’re screwed, right? We don’t have anything…
Confronting Truths in Ho Tzu Nyen’s “The Mysterious Lai Teck”
By Patricia Tobin (736 words, 3-minute read) Spoiler Alert: This review contains spoilers for The Mysterious Lai Teck, which will run from 17 to 19 May at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. “I am the shadow of Ho Chi Minh,”…
“Miss British”: Embodying the Post-Colonial Complaint
By Aparna Nambiar (1440 words, six-minute read) “How has colonialism affected you?” This question flashes upon the giant screens that span the studio walls of The Esplanade Theatre Studio. Miss British, directed by Felipe Cervera and devised by The Art of Strangers…
Frontier Danceland’s “LEAP 2019”: Showcasing the Scholars of PULSE 2018/19
By Jocelyn Chng (930 words, four-minute read) LEAP is an annual platform from contemporary dance company Frontier Danceland, showcasing the young trainee dancers of the M1-Frontier Danceland PULSE Programme. The PULSE Programme is now in its ninth year, and since…
Book Review: “The State and The Arts in Singapore: Policies and Institutions”
By Chin Ailin (734 words, four-minute read) Commissioned by the Institute of Policy Studies of Singapore (IPS) to trace the course of cultural policy in Singapore from the 1950s to the present, The State and the Arts in Singapore: Policies and…
“orbit” by Ethos Books: the gravity and pull of insignificant destinies
By Nah Dominic (1550 words, six-minute read) “I reached for those insignificant destinies again; the smallest collision of time and incident that throws life out of orbit” – “Stillborn”, Khin Chan Myae Maung A new series by Ethos Books titled…
SIFA 2019: Top Ten Picks
By Akanksha Raja The 42nd Singapore International Festival of Arts returns this year from 16 May to 2 June 2019. In its second year under Festival Director Gaurav Kripalani, it promises a larger smorgasbord of critically acclaimed international performances as…
Podcast 54: “FOUR FOUR EIGHT” by Emergency Stairs
Duration: 41 min As part of ArtsEquator’s Critics Reading Group programme, we got together three arts writers – Corrie Tan, Jocelyn Chng and Loo Zihan – to discuss FOUR FOUR EIGHT by Emergency Stairs. Corrie, Jocelyn and Zihan’s conversation sets the work…
“A Disappearing Number” at NUS Arts Festival 2019: Approaching Infinity
By Eugene Koh (945 words, five minute read) Part of the NUS Arts Festival 2019, NUS Stage’s A Disappearing Number, directed by Edith Podesta, presents a world of imperfect humans aspiring to fully grasp the wonder of this world. Like…
Podcast 53: Songwriter on the Spot – Ng Sze Min of Artwave Studio
Duration: 21 min Ng Sze Min, a young emerging music composer and producer, whips up a song based on Akanksha’s teenage poetry, and shares about the other projects that she has worked on as part of Artwave Studio, which she…