In The Year of The Flood

By Pang Khee Teik After the Cameronian Arts Awards, I thought there might be an outpouring of original scripts. But it wasn’t so. There was quite a number of restaging, notably: Jit Murad’s Visits and Spilt Gravy on Rice by Dramalab, The 2nd First Annual Bolehwood Awards 2003: Directors Cut by the Instant Café Theatre, Huzir […]

The RM1.2 Million Opera

By Elaine Tan Let’s face it, how many of us really know opera? If you’re honest, not that many, but we’ve all heard of Puccini and Turandot on three counts. Firstly, old Pooch was sort of an Andrew Lloyd Webber of his time (Jeremy Silver, the conductor I interviewed, was horrified at this suggestion, but […]

Krishen’s Durian

By Fahmi Fadzil I once read somewhere that a writer, over the course of his lifetime, is really writing just one piece of text. Therefore, for an editor trying to compile a selection of the writer’s works such that it represents his entire oeuvre as well as the writer’s personal journey of growth, the task […]

Where’s the Jazz??

By Jerome Kugan The late jazz trumpeter Miles Davis said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. Indeed, music (or any art form for that matter) continues to elude even its wittiest commentators. Even those who write music can only speak credibly of the experience of composing (or playing) music, while the music […]

Communal Menses

By Alfian Sa’at It would be parochial to insist that Singaporean theatre companies only produce plays by indigenous playwrights, but one cannot deny that there are stricter expectations exerted by a local audience sensitive to post-colonial nuances. Globalisation’s double-edged sword: offering greater access to material texts from other countries and yet at the same time, […]

To Kill a Lelaki Lembut

By Nizam Zakaria The riskiest gimmick in the Malay theater scene for 2003? There’s really no contest. Especially when the Lelaki Lembut (effeminate men) phenomenon is a much debated and talked about issue in Malaysia recently. Jangan Bunuh Sam (Don’t Kill Sam) is a play written by Zakaria Ariffin, directed by Nam Ron, and performed […]

The Silent Majority

By Zedeck Siew Like half of KL, I have the flu. At seven o’clock on Projek Suitcase 2003’s opening night, mucus blocked up my ears. This is inconvenient, but one side cleared up during intermission with a cup of coffee. Just in time for the shrieks of a bespectacled man with a blowpipe in Faisal […]

Kepelbagaian Dunia Melayu

By Nizam Zakaria Minggu lepas adalah minggu yang agak sibuk dengan adanya persembahan empat buah monolog di Stor Teater, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Projek Suitcase 2003 dianjurkan oleh Pustaka Cipta yang mempersembahkan sebuah pesta monolog oleh Teater Ekamatra. Dalam Projek Suitcase 2003, karya-karya oleh penulis-penulis drama yang dianggap tersohor di kalangan generasi muda dari Malaysia […]

A Whole World Behind The Everyday Meaning

By Elaine Tan Puccini’s epic opera about the beautiful but cold-hearted Chinese princess Turandot who plays violent head games (literally) with potential suitors begins in Penang this weekend. Sponsored entirely by Texchem as part of their 30th anniversary celebrations, it has been steadily exceeding the initial budget of RM600,000. It has reportedly touched the RM1 […]

From Opera To Bollywood

By Elaine Tan After the setback of losing many precious scores and instruments in the flooding of the Dataran Merdeka, Dama Orchestra has dusted off the debris and settled into their new home in Bangsar. We sit on wobbly chairs in the corner of the small room as Dama’s resident soprano Tan Sao Suan, always […]

Lyrical, Topical, Moving Asian Theatre

By Antares As a cross-cultural project for “ASEAN-Japan Exchange Year 2003” it was decided that a young Singaporean playwright-director named Goh Boon Teck – chief artistic director of Toy Factory Theatre Ensemble – be commissioned to conjure up a dramatic work incorporating diverse talents from six countries, which would then embark on a 6-nation tour. […]

The Different Colours of Asia

By Jeannie Cotter It is the sea which unites different continents of the world. Inside, that sea, lived a mermaid. Hence, the birth of PRISM. PRISM, the brainchild of Yamasaki Yasuaki, was conceived based on an ancient landmark in Hong Kong and also on the idea of linking different ASEAN countries together on a theatrical […]

Weird Isn’t Always Wonderful

By Antares Call me an old stick-in-the-mud, but I’m one of those diehard conservatives who generally hopes to gain some pleasure, joy, insight, epiphany, revelation, or even simple amusement from an evening at the theatre. All I gleaned from A Cherry Bludgeoned, A Spirit Crushed was that the Chinese avant-garde has hit the big time […]
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