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…
OIWA – The Ghost of Yotsuya: Primal story of love, or the failures of it
An epic set, an epic story, and epic four years of painstaking training is one way to describe The Finger Players’ OIWA – The Ghost of Yotsuya, an aching horror story that retells the classic tale of vengeance revolving around…
Citizen X marks the spot for a family treasure none of us can find
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…
(Episode 1) What’s in a Scene – 《大狗民》Citizen Dog by The Finger Players
In this episode, Liu Xiaoyi and Oliver Chong unpack a scene from The Finger Players 十指帮 ‘s 《大狗民》Citizen Dog and talk about the set design, costume design and more. Inspired by Liaozhai, Citizen Dog is an absurd tale of desires in their…
Bird is the word: Peepbird by The Finger Players
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…
Monsters’ Ink: A Fiend’s Diary & Heather
By Nabilah Said (1,500 words, 7-minute read) Spoiler Alert: The following contains major spoilers for the shows A Fiend’s Diary and Heather. I watched the stories of two monsters in the theatre recently. In A Fiend’s Diary, Oliver Chong…
This is what succession looks like: The Finger Players
By Corrie Tan (3,800 words, 15-minute read) I. “They are constantly making magic look like it’s very simple.” You could call it love at first sight – the moment Ellison Tan and Myra Loke encountered The Finger Players, they…
Instructions for reheating: “Forked” by The Finger Players
By Nabilah Said (820 words, 5-minute read) In the pre-show for Forked, playwright and performer Jo Tan is warming up, prepping her body. We see her assume the plank position, a fractured toe from rehearsals armoured in a padded thermoplastic…
Podcast 55: “Not In My Lifetime?” by The Finger Players
Claire Teo and Stephanie Esther Fam respond to Not In My Lifetime? by The Finger Players which was staged at Gateway Theatre from 5 – 17 March 2019. Billed as an inclusive theatre experience, it explores the special education system…
“Framed, by Adolf”: Truth as Shadow-Play
By Akanksha Raja (850 words, six-minute read) In Framed, by Adolf, playwright-director Chong Tze Chien’s fascination with Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust continues from 2016’s Starring Hitler as Jekyll and Hyde, which explored the idea of the dictator as a…
A surreal “Citizen Dog” sinks its teeth into your soul
By Corrie Tan (1,540 words, eight-minute read) Halfway through The Finger Players’ trippy, darkly comic Citizen Dog, I pause to consider the philosopher Zhuangzi’s anecdote on how we construct our realities: Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was…
The Finger Players’ Contemporary Classics Season 2017: “Poop!” and “The Spirits Play”
By Cheryl Tan (800 words, 6-minute read) Poop! by Chong Tze Chien A family left stranded in the aftermath of a father’s seemingly irresponsible, selfish suicide, must learn to navigate its way through the nooks of grief and crannies of…