By Pavithra Raja (831 words, 5-minute read) On November 5th, acclaimed literary figures Gwee Li Sui and Boey Kim Cheng both spoke on the topic, Unwritten Country, as part of the Singapore Writers’ Festival Lecture series. The softly lit Chamber Room at the Arts House – formerly the old Parliament house – set a fitting […]
Ownself Check: SWF 2016 Lecture, Unwritten Country Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (1000 words, 8-minute read) When SRT Artistic Director Gaurav Kripalani revealed that the Media Development Authority approved of Disgraced without making any edits to the script, in answer to a question about censorship, there was an audible gasp from the audience at the post-show dialogue on 22 November. Regulatory authorities are known
Losing My Religion: “Disgraced” by SRT Read More »
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 Caspar Productions. Stream Podcast 7: To download Podcast 7, right-click here and select ‘Save Link
Podcast 7: The Second Breakfast Company’s Family by Leow Puay Tin Read More »
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 Shaw’s parliamentary-debate dialogue. To be fair, Akhtar recognises that his play might engender a “stilted
Low Octane: SRT’s Disgraced Read More »
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 premiere of the Malaysian film, Interchange. Dain Iskandar Said’s third feature is a ‘fantasy noir
Don’t Say Cheese: Interchange Read More »
Tags: Susan Sentler The Substation
Review of Signs of a Nest with Susan Sentler Read More »
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 piece was to endow a racial stereotype with such verisimilitude that when she fails her
Crisis of Masculinity: Best Of (His Story) Read More »
By Bilqis Hijjas (1536, 20-minute read) The recent US election has Bilqis Hijjas reflecting on the politics of minority safe spaces and her Southeast Asian identity. In the weeks since the US election, I have had ample opportunity to ponder the nature of social unity and division. Within the broadly Democratic enclave of New York
Safe Space: Southeast Asia Choreolab Read More »
Asian works were part of the main programme in this 50-year-old festival From 24 September to 2 October 2016, the jubilee edition of the Belgrade International Theatre Festival (BITEF) with the subtitle “On the back of a raging bull”—with contemporary dance and theatre performances, film screenings, exhibitions, workshops and conferences—was held at various venues in
Changing Notions: On the Back of a Raging Bull Read More »
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, impoverishment, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The discussion touches on the theatre company’s trend of staging
Podcast 5: Rent; Musicals Read More »
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 to be finalised in the syariah court. He is kept company by the familial expectations,
Necessary Nuance: Best Of (His Story) Read More »
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. Tags: Criticism
Histories, Practices and Interventions: A Reader in Singapore Contemporary Art Read More »
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 Bimbo Sakti’s The Malay Man and His Chinese Father, created and directed by Noor Effendy
Podcast 4: The Malay Man and His Chinese Father; Dramaturgy. Read More »
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 about the latest performances, exhibitions and arts news in Singapore and other parts of Southeast
Podcast 2: SIFA Review Part 2: The Last Bull: A Life in Flamenco; I am LGB. Read More »
Chen May Yee explores the contradictions of Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister in her review of Ilham Gallery Kuala Lumpur’s Era Mahathir show. (Source: New York Times) Tags: Era Mahathir Ilham Gallery
Review of Era Mahathir Exhibition Read More »
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. Tags: Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies Post-Colonialism
In Conversation: Review of Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies Read More »
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 of the Singapore International Arts Festival 2016, we are joined by performance maker and researcher,
Podcast 1: SIFA Review: Five Easy Pieces; Ibsen: Ghosts; Riding on A Cloud Read More »
