La Cage Aux Folles interview with the inimitable Hossan Leong (who plays the maid). Also, sneak peeks at the glamorous Cagelles and Ivan Heng dippy dancing!
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Freud’s Last Session: Samantha Scott-Blackhall
Summoned to Freud’s study as England enters WWII, C. S. Lewis finds himself sparring with Freud about God, love, politics, and the meaning of life. Two weeks later, Freud takes his own life.
Part existential debate, part biopic, this profound and deeply moving play brings together two great men who address life’s greatest questions.
Under the deft directorial touch of Samantha Scott-Blackhall, Mark St Germaine’s landmark play, Freud’s Last Session, is reimagined on the Singapore stage.
Sam, who’s brought madness and danger to the stage with plays like Das Experiment, Lord of the Flies and Agnes of God, talks to us about the 20th Century’s most iconic figures.
Freud’s Last Session
11-15 April 2012
Wed - Thu, 8:00pm
Fri, 8:00pm & 10:00pm
Sat - Sun, 3:00pm & 8:00pm
Sat, 10pm
Esplanade Theatre Studios
Tickets available from Sistic
Sonnets for an Old Century
Catch this poignant look at the afterlife.
One show only, 3 March 2012.
BYO picnic by the beach (Palawan, Sentosa). Doors open at 6pm. Show starts 8pm.
Tickets available from www.quintaproductions.com
This week, Urban Kulit travelled to London and caught Platform 65’s director Cui in the heat of rehearsal.
Platform 65, formerly Singapore Playhouse London stages Kuo Pao Kun’s seminal piece, The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole, 2-4 March 2012 at the Camden People’s Theatre, as part of The Theatre Practice’s Kuo Pao Kun Festival.
Now an “independent cultural arts company”, Platform 65 has grown from a tiny amateur theatre group to a respected arts group making waves in the vibrant London scene. Beyond theatre, the company has also embraced multidisciplinary art forms to create works that resonate with British and Singaporean audiences.
Cui tells us more about her vision for Platform 65.
The Coffin Is Too Big For The Hole
When: 2 - 4 March, 2012, 7:30pm
Time: 7:30pm
Where: Camden People’s Theatre
Tickets: £10 (£8 concession) available here or call the 24-hour box office number at 08444 77 1000 (UK).
For additional enquiries, please email cui@platform65.org.
*All performances will be followed by a short Q&A/feedback session.
Parental Guidance
[Arts People] is the first in a series of feature profiles of the people who make the performing arts happen! This week, we catch up with Adrian and Tracie Pang who are hard at work minding a rosy brood of young, upcoming actors in Spring Awakening.
Our nutty host Lady O’Gaga breaks into the Chestnuts dressing room and gets roasted by a startled Ivory Low Ai Kiu!
Don’t miss our interview with super funny people, Judee Tan and Jonathan Lim.
iChestnuts 15
Date: 5 - 21 Jan, 2012
Time: Tues-Fri 8pm, Sat and Sun 3 & 8pm
Venue: Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel
Tickets: $62, $52, $42 (Tickets available from Sistic)
Starring Jonathan Lim, Judee Tan, Rodney Oliveiro, Judee Ngo and Dwayne Lau!
[Audition Notice] Square Moon
Audition Call for Square Moon
Function 8 would like to invite you to come to an audition of a play directed by Lim Siauw Chong, a co-founder of Theatreworks, and written by Wong Souk Yee, formerly from Third Stage.
Date: Sat. 14 Jan, 2012
Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
Place: The Muse gallery, 22 Marshall Road (off East Coast Road, near Katong Shopping Centre)
Title of Play: Square Moon
Genre: Political Farce
Presenter: Function 8
Dates of performance: second half of August 2012
Venue: To be confirmed
Cast: 8 Actors
Synopsis
The play is inspired by the incident of an alleged terrorist’s escape from prison in Singapore in 2008. In the following year, the escapee, Mas Selamat, was caught by the Malaysian Special Branch in a village in Johor, Malaysia. Except for these two events, the rest of the plot, characters and setting of the play are fictional.
After Sid Fajardo has escaped from prison, the Homeland Security Department attempts to cover up their security faux pas. But when Fajardo’s lawyer, Kristina Allende, comes calling to take instruction from her client about his habeas corpus writ, the deputy director of the department threatens and coerces one of his detainees, Borgie Xavier, to stand in for Fajardo. To disguise Borgie as Fajardo, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Solo injects Borgie with a potent drug such that Borgie breaks out in a disfiguring rash and would therefore be unrecognisable.
At her meeting with her “client”, Allende falls for the disguise but, given the horrible rashes, also believes that Fajardo has been tortured. Her suspicion is confirmed when Borgie, in disguise as Fajardo, tells her that he wants to withdraw his writ of habeas corpus and to discharge her as his lawyer.
That night, Allende talks on the phone with a foreign journalist in her home about her plan to bring the detention conditions of Fajardo to the International Court of Jurists (ICJ). Before Allende could finish the conversation, police from the Homeland Security Department comes to arrest her in order to stop her from sabotaging the country’s application to the International Monetary Fund for a $5-billion loan to bail out the economy.
In the midst of Allende’s interrogation by the deputy director of the Homeland Security Department, the director comes into the room, takes his deputy aside and tells him that Fajardo has been caught by the Thikaka Special Branch, their political rival from across the border. In their desperate attempt to save their red faces and to excuse their blunders, they hatch a plot to put all the blame on Allende and the “loopholes” in the Homeland Security Act. Under the harsh conditions of interrogation, the deputy director succeeds in forcing Allende to write statements to incriminate herself.
Six months later, the Liberal Socialist Party, with which Borgie is associated, wins the general election and Borgie is about to be released. Before he leaves the prison, he promises Allende that he would fight for her release. But Allende is sceptical knowing that parties in power rarely deliver on the promises they make when in opposition.
Characters
Borgie Xavier: a 30-something male, any physical type and ethnicity, a realist in party
u 2politics with some idealistic pretension
Kristina Allende: a human rights woman lawyer, any age and built, feisty but buckle under pressure
Minister for Homeland Security: any gender, age and ethnicity, the stereotypical bullying, conniving, self-serving politician.
Director of Homeland Security Department: A clueless, self-important yet sycophantic bureaucrat.
Deputy Director of Homeland Security: a wily, hardened rogue police officer who hatches all the hare-brained plots for his director of homeland security. Also the hatchet man of the Homeland Security Department.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Solo: Male, in his late 40s to 50s. Having seen many political detainees come and go (or perish), he sometimes reveals his more humane side, but then, he could be just playing the good guy in the good-guy-bad-guy charade.
Woman Police Constable (WPC) & Reporter (on video)} possible doubling as the reporter. Any age, built and ethnicity.
Sergeant Labad: a sometimes-robotic, sometimes-human lackey of the system.
We are also looking for technical crew and volunteers in:
Lighting
Sound
Stage design
Stage management
House management
Function 8 is a non-profit social enterprise incorporated late 2010. Due to budget constraints, we can pay only a token fee to each cast and crew member.
For further information, please contact Wong Souk Yee at soukyee@hotmail.com
or Lim Siauw Chong at freurmine@yahoo.com.sg
Final part of our interviews with the Wicked (Singapore) cast!
We caught the Witches earlier, now we’re off to see David Harris (Fiyero), Bert Newton (The Wizard), Anne Wood (Madame Morrible), Elisa Colla (Nessarose) James D. Smith (Boq) and Glen Hogstrom (Dr Dillamond) in the Land of Oz.
Venue: Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre
Dates: Now to Feb 26
Time: Tues-Friday 7:30pm; Sat-Sun 1:30pm and 7:30pm
Tickets: $250, $165, $145, $125, $95, $55
from www.sistic.com.sg (+65 6348 5555)
or www.marinabaysands.com/ticketing (+65 6688 8826)
Singaporeans are in for a massive treat this Christmas an new Year! Wicked has been a phenomenal smash hit on Broadway, the West End and on the road. The Singapore run comes straight from the Australian tour which also played to sold out houses in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.
Watch Part 1 of our interview with the Wicked cast (above)!
We speak with Jemma Rix (Elphaba) and Suzie Mathers (Glinda) from the international touring cast of Wicked about satay, Singapore and turning green.
Venue: Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre
Dates: Now to Feb 26
Time: Tues-Friday 7:30pm; Sat-Sun 1:30pm and 7:30pm
Tickets: $250, $165, $145, $125, $95, $55
from www.sistic.com.sg (+65 6348 5555)
or www.marinabaysands.com/ticketing (+65 6688 8826)
And click here to catch Part 2 of our interview with the Wicked cast.
If there’s one show you need to catch this year, it’s Wicked. Don’t miss this Broadway spectacular.
