COLOURS OF HOME
The fifth Singapore Theatre Festival is a month-long celebration of local plays that centre on issues close to our hearts
mall and seemingly sterile as Singapore may be, there are always fresh ideas and new perspectives to discover if one bothers to look. In the lead-up to National Day in August, the Singapore Theatre Festival presents eight thoughtprovoking plays written in and about our nation—a good mix of recent hits, brand new plays and reworked productions that spotlight people from all walks of life. If you missed its sold-out premiere at last year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts, catch the restaging of Wild Rice’s epic play Hotel, which picked up four wins, including Production of the Year and Best Original Script, at the recent M1- The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards. The play by Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstraaten explores notions of nationhood, migration and identity as it revisits Singapore’s colonial history. Making its world premiere is Thomas Lim’s Grandmother Tongue, one of three new plays by first-time playwrights, which is a humorous yet heartbreaking tale of a young man’s struggle to connect with his 84-year-old Teochew-speaking grandmother. The festival will also feature reworked plays such as Rodney Oliveiro’s Geylang, a clever interplay of four stories shedding light on the underbelly of Singapore’s red light district. Fringe activities include workshops and panel discussions where audiences can engage with artists, academics and politicians. From June 30 to July 24, at Lasalle College of the Arts. singaporetheatrefestival.com