It was a laid-back day at the end of April, when I got the email from ArtsEquator informing me that I had gotten into the Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) at the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2021. This was to be the start of my career as an international arts writer and researcher, so […]
By Joel Tan To borrow and distort the title of David Shield’s lyrical manifesto against fiction: I’ve been HUNGRY for reality in the month of May. And so for this month’s edition of SEE WHAT SEE, I’m training my sights on documentaries from Southeast Asia or about Southeast Asian subjects that you can stream right
SEE WHAT SEE (May 2021): SOUTHEAST ASIAN DOCUMENTARIES Read More »
By Shahril Salleh ( 1,215 words, 6-minute read) We thought about after a year of not singing together in a live performance, we wanted to have a concert about beginnings and about trying to become like the new normal again as a choir. So of course the idea of morning and dawn and sunrise came
At dawn’s first light: “Matins” by the SYC Ensemble Singers Read More »
A new addition to the genre of online theatre, Oppy & Professor Communitas by Five Arts Centre is a thoughtful, humorous, and self-reflective examination of the role and struggle of Malaysian theatremakers. Anchored through a series of workshop lectures, the play centres on Oppy, a young actor and musician who is at a crossroads about
Oppy & Professor Communitas: Meanderings of the Malay male theatremaker Read More »
Note: This review contains some spoilers. Why do we do the things we do? In the beginning, we are dreamers. We remain true to ourselves and our purpose, until some forces along the journey manoeuvre us, changing our trajectory. Our society and its present system pushes us to fit into certain templates. We react in
Model Citizens: Pursuit of happiness, prosperity and progress Read More »
Filled to the brim at 25% capacity, Singapore Repertory Theatre’s Robertson Quay theatre was cold. The starched whiteness of Petrina Dawn Tan’s set — comprising piles of books that would function effectively as furniture, storage space, and the psychological landscapes of the play’s two characters — added to this austere atmosphere. I didn’t know what
The Sound Inside: Duet of life and loss Read More »
By Azura Farid and Nabilah Said The pandemic led theatre collective HATCH to dream up Keturunan Ruminah (Ruminah’s Family), a play that takes place entirely on WhatsApp. Rightly, HATCH identified the potential of the WhatsApp group chat to be a site of potent family drama, this one centred on ghostly possession, complete with videos of
Keturunan Ruminah: WhatsApp play on family inheritance Read More »
After a short hiatus, the ArtsEquator theatre podcast is back. In the latest episode, Kathy Rowland, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss three productions at the 2021 M1 Singapore Fringe Festival – a line could be crossed and you would slowly cease to be by Koh Wan Ching and Andrew Sutherland; i am not here
Podcast 86: M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2021 Read More »
By Joel Tan Welcome back to See What See! It’s our monthly round-up of interesting stuff by Singapore and regional makers that you can stream right here on the Internet. In this edition, I thought I’d pay a little attention to film, TV, and shorts with a genre fiction flavour, so I went around sniffing
SEE WHAT SEE (Mar 2021): GENRE FICTION Read More »
By Corrie Tan (2,050 words, 10-minute read) Over the course of Citizen X, my father nudges me in the arm several times, whispering loudly and theatrically: “It’s so similar leh!” All throughout the 75 minutes, he wiggles around in his seat, emitting sighs, laughter, tsk-tsks, and the occasional “wow”. My father – a stoic and
Citizen X marks the spot for a family treasure none of us can find Read More »
By Patricia Tobin (665 words, 4-minute read) The story of Oedipus is undoubtedly known to all. From the classic Sophocles’ play to Freudian theory, this Ancient Greek myth has bled into our cultural consensus over a few millennia. Yet, Nine Years Theatre’s (NYT) take on Oedipus feels fresh and timely. Held at KC Arts Centre,
A predestined fate: Nine Years Theatre’s Oedipus Read More »
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 cultural heritage and a deep historical trauma. Presented digitally as part of this year’s M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, the piece masterfully explores
Women making history: Snow Whitening Revisited Read More »
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 questions might seem to suggest upending theatre as we know it, Offstage 3.0 presents a
Offstage 3.0: Of stage and on walls Read More »
Not many people can endure the traumatic experience of losing a child to suicide, let alone be of sound mind to write about it in a painfully self-aware manner. In Loss Adjustment, Linda Collins weaves together the late Victoria’s journal with her own journey as a grieving mother into a heart-wrenching memoir. This book is
Tender reading: A review of Loss Adjustment by Linda Collins Read More »
Looking through the 35-page programme booklet for the 9th edition of Singapore Art Week (SAW), I was fully struck by my Malaysian-ness. Never before have I gone through a brochure for any art event with so much content – 100 events across both physical and digital spaces featuring over 300 Singaporean and international artists, all
A Malaysian under lockdown reviews Singapore Art Week 2021 Read More »
Is it enough to be not unhappy? This is what Yeoh Jo-Ann’s Impractical Uses of Cake sets out to interrogate, framing the question in terms that speak to both existential crises at large as well as the uniquely Singaporean predicament of progress and prosperity. Yeoh’s novel pokes at the façade of the Singaporean Dream with
House of Cardboard: A review of Impractical Uses of Cake by Yeoh Jo-Ann Read More »
The statistics below are based on data gathered by Ke Weiliang and Centre 42, as part of Year in Review, an annual discussion and round-up of the performing arts in Singapore taking place on 19 December, jointly presented by Centre 42 and ArtsEquator. These statistics* were gathered as part of the process of putting
Year In Review: Singapore Theatre 2020 in statistics Read More »
In our end-of-year roundup, Nabilah Said, Naeem Kapadia and Matt Lyon take stock of the year in Singapore theatre, alongside guests Lee Shu Yu from Centre 42 and Max Yam from Arts Republic. This podcast is published as part of Year In Review, an annual discussion and round-up of the performing arts in Singapore organised
Podcast 85: Singapore Theatre, Year in Review Read More »
ArtsEquator and Centre 42 jointly co-present the fourth edition of Year in Review, an annual discussion and round-up of the performing arts in Singapore. With the theme “Tracing SG Theatre Together”, this event will attempt to tackle the mess that is 2020 and examine our community’s resilience to adapting to uncertainty. For the first time,
Year In Review: Tracing SG Theatre Together Read More »
Nabilah Said, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss Waiting For The Host by Pangdemonium. The play is written by Marc Palmieri and directed by Tracie Pang. Waiting For The Host ran from 15 Oct to 1 Nov on SISTIC Live. Stream Podcast 83: ArtsEquator · Podcast 83: Waiting For The Host Download Podcast 83 here.
Podcast 83: Waiting For The Host by Pangdemonium Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (739 words, 4-minute read) In grainy close up, we see segmented views of one woman, fighting to breathe with every fibre of her sinewy body. She grunts, writhes, sweats, hyperventilates. Her body multiplies by video effect but perhaps also by mass audience hallucination. Depending on which way you lean, Pat Toh’s Topography
Harrowing and sublime: Topography of Breath 2.0 by Pat Toh Read More »
Nabilah Said, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss Who’s There by The Transit Ensemble (Singapore/Malaysia/US); and Two Songs and a Story by Checkpoint Theatre. Who’s There ran from 4 – 8 August on Zoom as part of Ice Factory 2020 by New Ohio Theatre. Two Songs and a Story is an online video series on SISTIC
Podcast 82: Who’s There & Two Songs and a Story Read More »
By Nabilah Said (950 words, 4-minute read) If hope is a thing with feathers, then Peepbird, a 60-minute-long non-verbal show, would be it. This offering by The Finger Players was my first live theatre show since COVID – the one that was promised, had been prophesied and invoked in many a panel and Facebook post
Bird is the word: Peepbird by The Finger Players Read More »
By Jocelyn Chng (1,550 words, 5-minute read) Attending From Here On, my first live performance since COVID hit, evoked a very strange mix of emotions in me. Unfortunately, before getting anywhere near the performance itself, the experience of attempting to get to the Esplanade was already one of sheer frustration. Anyone in Singapore who has
From Here On: Going to the theatre in the time of COVID Read More »
In this month’s theatre podcast, Nabilah Said, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss two plays from the Festival of Women: N.O.W. 2020: King, written and performed by Jo Tan and directed by Jasmine Ng; and The Book of Mothers, written by Eleanor Tan and directed by Edith Podesta. N.O.W. is presented by T:>Works. King ran from
Podcast 81: King and The Book of Mothers Read More »
By Joel Tan Okay, as if we needed another existential crisis during the Pandemic of 2020, more than a hundred classic Singapore TV shows and movies just got dumped on Netflix. For our younger Gen Z readers who grew up when terrestrial television in Singapore was already a joke-category, this moment might be bewildering, even embarrassing.
An Elder Millennial’s Guide to Classic Singapore TV & Movies Read More »
As ArtsEquator’s theatre podcast returns since the start of the pandemic, Nabilah Said, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia appropriately discuss two recent Singapore productions created for digital platform Zoom – Murder at Mandai Camp by Sight Lines Entertainment and Fat Kids Are Harder to Kidnap on Zoom by How Drama. Murder at Mandai Camp ran from
Podcast 80: Murder at Mandai Camp And Fat Kids Read More »
By Jocelyn Chng (1,800 words, 4-minute read) When I accepted the opportunity to write this piece on Purⓔ《纯ⓔ》, I did it feeling a bit like a shipwreck survivor re-approaching water for the first time. As someone who was already struggling to make sense of my triple roles as an artist, audience member and reviewer in
Purⓔ《纯ⓔ》: How do we talk about Art Form X? Read More »
INTRODUCTION TO REVIEWING BOOKS by Kathy Rowland Course Synopsis: This introductory course will teach you how to think critically and review a book, by drawing on both techniques of literary analysis and criticism writing. The course will examine the various contexts of the book being reviewed, as well as the multiple platforms upon which the
[Online Course] ArtsEquator Introduction to Reviewing Books Read More »
INTRODUCTION TO REVIEWING THEATRE by Nabilah Said Course Synopsis: This introductory course will teach you how to write and think critically about a show, from doing research, to watching, preparing to write and finally, writing and editing. By examining the various contexts in which a play resides as well as its performance languages vis-a-vis the audience,
[Online Course] ArtsEquator Introduction to Reviewing Theatre Read More »
