DAYS _ AND COUNTING
The media invitation leads me to a nondescript door tucked in a back alley behind Circular Road.
I knock five times and am instructed to enter "the realm of the sleeping man": a dim room, its corners stacked with biscuits and dry goods, its occupant dormant on a couch. In front of a noticeboard thick with leaflets about Covid-19 support grants sits a laptop. I take a seat and click to enter the matrix.
The OH! Open House art walks usually take visitors into the homes of others to view works of art, but this pandemic edition will be a virtual one.
Its first season, Walls Crumble, is a surreal adventure in teletext, a now-defunct television service that once kept Singaporeans posted on news, stock prices and the weather.
It is a digital wander through a dreamscape during the circuit breaker period, filled with nightmarish scenes of televised announcements and empty supermarket shelves.
These are interspersed with video works like Ang Kia Yee's I Am Home, in which the artist crouches inside a cardboard box with holes, through which she sticks out her limbs and awkwardly attempts various chores, from brushing her teeth to cooking instant noodles.
In the visceral performance work Topography Of Breath 2.0, Pat Toh considers how the body navigates and endures a pandemic. This work was first live-streamed on Wednesday (Oct 28), with an edited iteration appearing later online.
The OH! team wanted to present a "strange way of encountering the world" that was not too close to the present, with its interminable Zoom meetings, says OH! co-founder and artistic director Alan Oei, 44.
"It is a portrait of something ongoing. We wanted to situate Covid-19 in relation to our lives, the idea that pandemics have shaped urban living in the past and now."
Days _ And Counting is a desktop-only home experience, though viewing parties may be available to OH! volunteers and those on its mailing list.
Two future editions, The Distance Between Us and Waking Up With A Crash, will be unveiled at a later date.
WHERE: ohopenhouse.online/daysandcounting
WHEN: From Oct 30, 9pm
ADMISSION: Free, donations recommended
LIGHTS UP!
Even with theatres reopening, it may be some time before musicals can be staged live. In lieu of that, this Dream Academy revue harks back to Singapore's musicals of yore, from the pecuniary-themed Sing Dollar! (2009) to fairytale spoof pantomime Cinderel-lah! (2003).
An ensemble of performers - from Sebastian Tan of Broadway Beng fame to vintage songstress Miss Lou - take on numbers written and composed by Selena Tan and Elaine Chan.
Veteran thespian couple Neo Swee Lin and Lim Kay Siu sing duets such as Cinderel-lah!'s A Song of True Love and the more recent On The Same Page from Detention Katong (2017).
Actors Dwayne Lau, Andrew Marko and Gino Babagay appear as the Dim Sum Trollies - the latest incarnation of iconic cabaret trio The Dim Sum Dollies, originally played by Selena Tan, Pam Oei and the late Emma Yong.
Director Jo Tan, 37, says: "Most of the Singapore musical theatre material people know is from the irreplaceable Dick Lee, but the fact is there are so many other fun homegrown musicals people might not have been aware of.
"Elaine and Selena have partnered for decades to present styles of music that range from soaring to satirical, and brimming with local humour."
WHERE: Esplanade Offstage and Facebook
WHEN: From Nov 1, 3pm to Dec 31
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: www.esplanade.com/lightsup
NON-ESSENTIAL ARTIST MONTH
Blue Ocean Fine Art Gallery organised this campaign in response to a June survey by The Sunday Times in which 71 per cent of respondents voted "artist" as the least essential vocation.
It will showcase 17 mostly local artists, including portrait photographer Ngoh Shian Bang; Irene Tee's grotesque florals; and Jason Lim, whose photography series Topographies depicts him standing in Norwegian coastal-alpine landscapes with rocks or moss balanced on his head.
Profits from the campaign will be donated to Community Chest in support of families in need.
WHERE: Blue Ocean Fine Art Gallery, 6 Raffles Boulevard, 02-08, Marina Square
WHEN: Online campaign from Nov 1; physical showcase from Nov 7 to Dec 19, 11am to 8pm daily with guided groups of no more than five
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: nonessentialartistmonth.com
DIM SUM WARRIORS BILINGUAL COMIC JAM
Get kids drawing comics in English and Chinese with this comic jam hosted by humorist Colin Goh and film-maker Woo Yen Yen.
The couple are behind bilingual children's book series Dim Sum Warriors, which is about kungfu-fighting dim sum and was transformed in 2017 into a blockbuster Chinese musical produced by renowned theatre director Stan Lai.
During each session, which is hosted along with a guest Chinese teacher, they will read from the books, after which Goh will get viewers to draw alongside him and even draw anything they request at the end.
WHERE: Facebook
WHEN: Oct 31, Nov 7, 21 and 28, 10.30 to 11am
ADMISSION: Free, sign up at this website.
