This Saturday, I'm hosting a talk with Singapore's top theatre reviewers!


It's the 4:30 Open Panel Discussion noted below:

Open Roads: Stage Talk -Theatre Talks Back and Open Panel Discussion
Saturday 28 January 2012, 2-6pm
Theatre Talks Back, 2-4pm
Open Panel Discussion, 4:30-6pm
The Substation Theatre
Admission: Free
This is an InHouse event

Open Roads: Stage Talk was a programme initiated by The Substation in collaboration with The Flying Inkpot Theatre and Dance in 2010 to invite members of the public to come together and converse about local plays. After two successful runs in 2010 and 2011, Open Roads: Stage Talk comes to a close.

*To end the programme on a high note, local theatre reviewers have been gathered for a final pow-wow session– an open panel discussion about the current state of theatre criticism and their personal processes of reviewing performances. Join Life! journalist Corrie Tan, TODAY journalist, Mayo Martin, local online arts journal The Flying Inkpot‘s Matthew Lyon and freelance reviewers, Ng Yi-Sheng and Tara Tan in an open discussion about local theatre. Look forward also to the first of our Theatre Talks Back sessions, where invited theatre practitioners will talk about their recent productions in a Q&A presentation.

The Theatre Talks Back session is hosted by invited theatre practitioners who will talk about their recent productions in a Q&A presentation. Cake Theatrical Productions will be showing a video presentation of Decimal Points: 4.44 and talking about the trials and tribulations of putting together the first co-presentation between The Substation and Cake Theatrical Productions.

The Soldier and His Virtuous Wife
The Theatre Practice
Reviewer: Kenneth Kwok
09/04/2008

The laughs are often cheap and obvious but that shamelessness is the essence of the play: Soldier is here to entertain entertain entertain and this it does with much colour and charm. The funniest moments are when this ridiculously over-the-top musical-comedy take on Chinese opera segues into Western pop cultural references and sensibilities (Bananarama, hip hop, vogueing) but really, the whole play is gag after gag. Kudos to director May Lan for her vibrant vision (and attention to detail - look out for the sight gags in the background) and the strong ensemble cast especially Darius Tan as the billionaire trying to lure the Virtuous Wife from her Soldier husband and Liu Hong and Katherine Tang as his sycophantic sidekicks. Utterly hilarious!

****

Reviewer: Ng Yi-Sheng
04/04/2008

A rollicking good show! Though derived from the tropes and traditions of Chinese opera, The Soldier and His Virtuous Wife overflows with zany contemporary physical humour and wit, stimulating viewers with a non-stop array of song, dance and acrobatics. Director May Lan, who originally staged this Taiwanese musical here in 1996 and 1998, succeeds brilliantly with a new cast of gifted singers and actors. Joanna Dong is especially charming as Meiying, the virtuous wife herself, defending the honour of her husband who's gone off to war with equal parts innocent charm and ballbreakin' girl power, though, in fact, the whole ensemble packs a punch: the goofy husband Qiuhu (Ric Liu), the charismatic villain Master Lee (Darius Tan) and the kungfu-kicking Officer (Gordon Choy), to name a few. And the polymorphic anarchy of the show is unbelievable: arias break into pop songs, tea ceremonies dissolve into the macarena, servants hurl chocolate ingots into the audience and old mother-in-laws or lechers burst out with tunes from The Phantom of the Opera or The Magic Flute or Teresa Teng's Greatest Hits. It is mad, and in the best way possible: I barely stopped laughing throughout the 105-minute performance.

****1/2

This first impressions review first appeared on The Flying Inkpot and has been archived here for posterity.

Clark in Sarajevo
LASALLE BA (Hons) Acting Programme
Reviewer: Kenneth Kwok
28/03/2008

Clark started off strongly with both the playwright Catherine Zimdahl and the director Steven Rassios showing much creativity in the way the situation in war-torn Sarajevo was being presented on a bare stage: besides the use of poetry and physical theatre, for example, most interesting was the risky choice of using humour as the play’s foundation. The second half, however, lacked the coherence of the first and disintegrated into a shaky series of vignettes that did not really build towards the impactful final scene (which saw the actors lighting a rectangle of fire around themselves along the borders of the stage). Even the surreal sight of Jesus as Wonder Woman singing 80s ballad Eternal Flame with a bevy of backing singers and dancers at one point which should have made you sit up and take notice felt a little contrived and not really well thought through. The production was meant as a showcase for LASALLE’s first cohort of BA (Hons) Acting graduates and, in that regard, however, Clark was a resounding success. Led by a charming performance by Crispian Chan as the bumbling reporter Clark Cant investigating the troubles in Sarajevo, the ensemble cast of actors impressed with their confidence, clarity and commitment to their various roles with Rayann Condy as a prostitute with a heart of gold the obvious standout (special mention also goes to the precision of Emanorwatty Saleh’s dramatic soundscape). It is a pity that only one of the cast was Singaporean as, judging by the quality of tonight’s performances, our local students are missing out on a real opportunity for quality training through LASALLE’s BA (Hons) Acting programme under Edith Podesta.

***1/2

This first impressions review first appeared on The Flying Inkpot and has been archived here for posterity.

Theatre Idols – Finals
Action Theatre
Reviewer: Ng Yi-Sheng
17/3/08
Esplanade Concert Hall

What a surprise – out of nowhere, young playwrights Jacke Chye and Christine Sim have appeared wielding remarkably solid scripts at this competition for new Singapore plays. Better still, their plays are completely different creatures, and both rather good: Chye's Catching Adam Cheng is a cute, feel-good comedy about four women escaping from their old folks' home to catch an Adam Cheng concert, with well-drawn characters, strong motivations and good pacing, while Sim's Numb is a mad Sarah Kane-esque psychodrama of sex, sadism and alienation, centred around the character of a surgeon who finds she is slowly losing her sense of touch. Both writers fall into the trap of spouting platitudes, and a whole lot of deadweight's had to be shed between the first reading and this presentation. But it's clear that the theatre writing scene has two new faces to contend with. Let's hope they stick it out. (Since you're curious: Catching Adam Cheng won the audience's vote, but if you ask me, it's the more dangerous Numb that brings something fresh to the table. And it bleeds.) (Oh yes, and acting-wise Jeremy Lee got the audience award, but if you ask me it was Esther Yap whose comic and psychotic roles really carried the day. I just gotta be contrary.)


***1/2

This first impressions review first appeared on The Flying Inkpot and has been archived here for posterity.