ShiGGa Shay. Tan Pin Pin. iNCH Chua. Sonny Liew. Daniel Goh. These are just a few of the exciting performers, artists and politicians you’ll get to meet at the Singapore Theatre Festival!
Complementing the eight plays in the Festival’s main season are the FEST!VITIES – a host of thrilling events designed to engage and entertain audiences beyond the rise and fall of the curtain. These public forums, cabarets and jam sessions will bring together some of the brightest, boldest talents Singapore has to offer.
“There is art everywhere we look,” explains Ivan Heng, Artistic Director of the Festival. “The issues and ideas that we explore in the theatre are woven into the fabric of our daily lives. The FEST!VITIES give us the opportunity to kick back and relax, while also thinking and talking about the hot-button topics of the day.”
The Festival Club throws open its doors on Saturday nights in July. This fun, fabulous late-night programme – encompassing Songs of Protest, Drag Attack! and Stand Up for Singapore – shines a spotlight on emerging and established talents in the respective fields of music, drag and stand-up comedy.
Some of Singapore’s finest singer/songwriters will take to the stage of the Singapore Airlines Theatre to perform their very own Songs of Protest. Each deeply personal anthem calls for action and brings attention to stories that need to be heard. This electrifying jam session features the likes of ShiGGa Shay, iNCH Chua, Sezairi, Pam Oei’s rock band Ugly In The Morning and veteran actors Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin.
A rainbow of drag performers, led by RIOT!’s Becca D’Bus, will charm, shock and titillate in Drag Attack!. This crazy, colourful evening demolishes societal stereotypes and conventional concepts of gender – even as it allows audiences to unleash their inner dancing queens!
Stand Up for Singapore promises a W!LD, wicked night of fun, laughter and comedy. Led by comedian and television host Fakkah Fuzz, a slate of up-and-coming comics – including Sam See and Qamarul – promise to tickle your funny bone as they excavate the lighter side to living in Singapore.
Beyond the Festival Club, expect fireworks during the Art & Life Sessions. These public forums, which run throughout the Festival, will feature lively discussions about family values, free speech and revisionist histories. Forum speakers include Kok Heng Leun (Artistic Director of Drama Box and Nominated Member of Parliament); playwright Tan Tarn How (Fear of Writing); Daniel Goh (Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, Workers’ Party); graphic artist Sonny Liew (The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye) and independent filmmaker Tan Pin Pin (To Singapore, With Love).
“The theatre is a space that inspires reflections and conversations – some of the best plays are not the ones that offer neat answers but instead raise questions, often about things that society does not question,” says Festival Dramaturg Alfian Sa’at, who personally curated the exciting line-up for most of the FEST!VITIES. “We have organised these parallel events, from forums to cabaret performances, to engage with some of the issues and ideas raised in the Festival’s plays.”
Tickets to Songs of Protest are priced at $20 (inclusive of one free Peroni beer) and will be available through SISTIC from 17 June 2016. Admission is free for all other events in the FEST!VITIES.
Visit http://www.singaporetheatrefestival.com for more details.
