Critics Live (on Telegram!): M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2022
Critics Live! is a critics-led programme series created by ArtsEquator to give arts audiences an insight into how critics formulate their responses to performances. In this session, join critics Lee Shu Yu, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia in a post-show…
Podcast 100: Singapore Theatre Year In Review
Listen as speakers Ke Weiliang, Lee Shu Yu, Matt Lyon, Nabilah Said and Naeem Kapadia share their thoughts about Singapore theatre in 2021, including observations and shows they found memorable. Mentioned in this episode: ArtsWok, Brown Voices, Checkpoint Theatre, Double…
BIPAM 2021: Delight, despair, dialogue and the despot
By Nabilah Said (1,800 words, 6-minute read) I’ve never actually attended the Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM). This year, the pandemic allowed me to, as BIPAM offered a five-day digital programme full of showcases, talks and other activities. It…
Podcast 95: Three Sisters and _T0701_ at SIFA 2021
In this episode of the ArtsEquator theatre podcast, Naeem Kapadia, Matthew Lyon and Nabilah Said discuss Three Sisters by Nine Years Theatre and _T0701_ by Zeugma, which were both part of SIFA 2021. Stream Podcast 95: ArtsEquator · Podcast 95:…
Festival of Women N.O.W. 2021: Bold claims on identity
By Patricia Tobin (1,382 words, 4-minute read) Led by artistic director Noorlinah Mohamed, this year’s online edition of the Festival of Women N.O.W. 2021 explores issues pertaining to women that are often forgotten or overlooked. There is Not Grey: Intimacy,…
Podcast 92: Critics Live: OIWA by The Finger Players at SIFA 2021
Critics Alice Saville (UK), Amitha Amranand (TH), Matthew Lyon (SG) and Taisuke Shimanuki (JP) discuss OIWA: The Ghost of Yotsuya by The Finger Players, presented at Singapore International Festival of the Arts (SIFA). The performance took place from 28-30 May…
Podcast 88: Critics Live: The Journey by Scott Silven at SIFA 2021
Critics Ben Valentine (US), Kathy Rowland (SG), Michael HB Raditya (ID), Sharmilla Ganesan (MY) chat about The Journey by UK-based illusionist and mentalist, Scott Silven. The performance took place from 18-30 May 2021 as part of the Singapore International Festival…
Women making history: Snow Whitening Revisited
By Brian Toh (814 words, 4-minute read) Snow Whitening Revisited presents an allegory on being a female artist in Cambodia, playing with imagery that evokes visceral feelings of clinging, and a sense of embodied helplessness that pays tribute to both…
Offstage 3.0: Of stage and on walls
By Vithya Subramaniam (915 words, 4-minute read) It begins with a provocation, asking if we can ‘change the way we make theatre in the future’. The concern here is in the way theatre is made, the process. While raising these…
Podcast 79: Asia TOPA (Part 2)
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by In this latest podcast episode, Nabilah Said and Carolyn Oei discuss various productions that were recently presented at Melbourne’s Asia TOPA: Are You Ready To Take The…
À Ố Làng Phố: Less trick, more treat in Vietnamese bamboo circus
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (730 words, 6-minute read) You go into a circus performance with certain expectations. You want the big shebang, the SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR. The physical feats…
Hades Fading: Modern-day Ancients
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (708 words, 5-minute read) In Hades Fading, Eurydice has a memory problem. She can’t remember where she comes from. The books all tell her…
Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands: Tongue Scrapes Against Cheek
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (670 words, 5-minute read) I watched Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands by Sipat Lawin and Friends on 26…
Metal: An Improbable Alchemy of Dance And Heavy Metal
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Carolyn Oei (762 words, 5-minute read) I am not a fan of heavy metal music – or heavy metal anything – so I took my seat…
Torch the Place: Shedding the Dead Weight
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (800 words, 5-minute read) The first thing one sees upon entering the Fairfax Studio in Arts Centre Melbourne for Torch the Place is a…
The Seen and Unseen: A Search For Self
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Carolyn Oei (638 words, 4-minute read) “Embracing life means embracing every element of dualism in it. Embracing the good and the bad, the happy and the…
Between Worlds: Café Sarajevo, ATARA and No Place
By Nabilah Said and Germaine Cheng (1,580 words, 7-minute read) What does it mean to be between worlds? To behold yet not belong? Three works – Café Sarajevo, ATARA and No Place – presented as part of M1 Singapore Fringe…
Tangled and tackled: Black Ties at Sydney Festival 2020
By Maria Herminia Graterol Garrido (550 words, 4-minute read) The challenges of fusing and representing more than one culture while planning and executing a memorable wedding are well-known to us in real life and in fiction. Movies like My Big…
A sound collaboration: 宿 (stay) at Sydney Festival 2020
By Maria Herminia Graterol Garrido (571 words, 4-minute read) There is a huge difference between watching a great piece of theatre with a beautiful original score, and experiencing a process that gives equal importance to all the creative aspects, including…
Fahmi Fadzil’s “GE14”: The sound and fury signifying everything
By Patricia Tobin ( 700 words, 5-minute read) “GE14 will be the arts festival to outdo all arts festivals,” said performer-politician Fahmi Fadzil. He is referring to the live spectacle: from theatre productions to political speeches, performativity is a constant….
C(l)ocked: “Catamite” by Loo Zihan
By Ray Langenbach (1213 words, 5-minute read) In this over-the-shoulder ‘clocking’ of Loo Zihan’s solo performance I see the silhouette of my own head looking on from the side. Having worked extensively with Zihan over the past several years, I…
“Inside Voices”: There’s Something About Malay Women
By Shanon Shah (983 words, four-minute read) I love plays with Malay women characters. Call it my Malaysian Bumiputera baggage, call it internalised Orientalism – perhaps these are two sides of the same coin – but I have long relished…
“Dionysus”: Suzuki Tadashi Brings Vengeance to SIFA 2019
By Kathy Rowland (642 words, three-minute read) Suzuki Tadashi is one of the brand names in the international tour circuit, whose productions have earned critical praise and inspired several generations of audiences. A decade on from his last production in…
Video: The ArtsEquator End-of-Year Dance Podcast 2018
ArtsEquator held a live recording of its year-end dance podcast at Dance Nucleus SCOPE #4 on Sunday 2 December 2018, 7pm. Watch Chan Sze-Wei, Soultari Amin Farid and Bernice Lee share about the works they have seen this year in…
Rianto’s “Medium”: Of Journeys, Transformations & Corporeality
By Nirmala Seshadri (990 words, four-minute read) Total darkness. The sound of sleep. Sleep of an eternal sort. Slowly the light reveals a solitary human body conveying a sense of sleep or is it semi-consciousness? Now, the entry of…
“Until the Lions” by Akram Khan Company: What About the Lioness?
By Jocelyn Chng (1160 words, six-minute read) Until the Lions, a work that premiered in 2016 at the Roundhouse in London, is presented as one of the main (Centrestage) programmes at the 2018 Esplanade da:ns festival. The Akram Khan Company…
“Invisible Habitudes”: Postcards From a Choreographer’s Journey
By Chan Sze Wei (1090 words, five-minute read) T.H.E. Dance Company turns 10 this year and Invisible Habitudes, a da:ns festival commission, reads as an eclectic postcard of the artistic signature of Kuik Swee Boon. The company, and Kuik himself,…
Padmini Chettur’s “Varnam” and Pichet Klunchun’s “I Am A Demon”: An Instructive Contrast
By Bilqis Hijjas (975 words, four-minute read) If you have ever felt that classical Indian dance is too melodramatic – if you have ever rolled your eyes at a dancer’s fervid abhinaya, or a poem narrator’s extravagant diction – or…
“Asian Festivals Exchange” at M1 Contact Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
By Bernice Lee (1300 words, five-minute read) “Asian Festivals Exchange” puts together works selected from two East Asian festivals — Yokohama Dance Collection and Seoul Dance Collection — two works performed by T.H.E. Second Company, and a work-in-progress supported by…
Three Short Films about Women at SeaShorts 2018, George Town
By Alfonse Chiu (1216 words, five-minute read) The SeaShorts Film Festival ran for its second edition as the official pre-festival to the annual George Town Festival from 1st to 5th August in a radical geographical shift away from the Kuala…