Sifa 2026: Festival Village productions a mixed bag for a mass audience

Festival Village

May 17, 6 to 9pm

The Festival Village concept returns to the Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa), thanks to festival director Chong Tze Chien. The idea harks back to the heyday of the festival fringe in the late 1990s to early 2000s, when things like free outdoor shows, interactive performances and public installation art were still novelties to Singapore audiences and the cultural landscape.

But will the concept still appeal to Singaporeans today? After all, outdoor festivals are a dime a dozen with the Singapore Night Festival, Light To Night and i Light Singapore crowding the calendar. In fact, Singapore HeritageFest has set up its festival village right next to Sifa’s at the Asian Civilisations Museum, complete with performances and food and beverage options. 

Judging from Sifa’s Festival Village offerings on May 17, the programming is a mixed bag.

Makan Culture is interactive entertainment written by playwright-actress Jo Tan and directed by Krish Natarajan. The premise: A dinner theatre work, commissioned by the Ministry Of Miscellaneous (a dig at the multi-hyphenate nature of the actual ministry in charge of culture), falls apart as influencer Britney Buah Keluak (Ellison Tan) shreds the amateur efforts of banker-turned-performer Wilfred de Souza (Dennis Sofian). 

The manic energy of the performers keeps things percolating, as do members of the audience, who gamely join the action at various points as supporting characters. Early warning to attendees – expect to do some slicing if you are Hainanese. #iykyk

Makan Culture is fun fringe fare. The story, while not taking itself too seriously, nonetheless scores some palpable hits on issues obviously close to Jo Tan’s heart. The snobby Britney cites London’s Mamma Mia! The Party as an example of good dinner theatre, only to get shot down by “audience member” Rahila (Masturah Oli channelling makcik pragmatism), who points out that the conceit of a rustic trattoria on a sunny island “sounds like kopitiams in Singapore”. 

At a brisk 50 minutes, the show does not outstay its welcome and even manages to generate some sentimental, fuzzy moments by incorporating audience members’ favourite food anecdotes in the finale.  

The ridiculously low ticket price of $20 also includes a simple bento box, which intrigued some onlookers outside the open pavilion venue, one of whom stopped this reviewer to ask about the food options. FYI, the bento contained fried laksa, an achar salad, kaya sandwiches and pandan cake. 

Like Makan Culture, The Theatre Practice’s (TTP) Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming at the Wayang Stage is anchored in Singaporeana. But this piece is much more puzzling in its awkward yoking together of pensive dialogue and hyperactive children’s theatre. 

It starts promisingly enough with TTP artistic director Kuo Jian Hong seated in a tub with actress Yeo Yann Yann, discussing Yeo’s career. But their thoughtful conversation gets interrupted by performers Petrina Kow and Ang Xiao Ting, who proceed to hype up the audience with various activities including the Great Singapore Workout. 

This slightly schizophrenic switching between Kuo and Yeo’s discussion of the demands of a theatre life and the chaos of bubble blowing and ball throwing – admittedly with enthusiastic participation from many kids and some adults in the audience – is underscored by music collective Nonform’s live remixing of classic Singaporean tunes. 

The idea of veteran theatremakers in dialogue – the first show on May 15 featured Tan Kheng Hua and the second on May 16 Ivan Heng – is an engaging one. It is rare to hear from the people who have helped shape Singapore’s theatre scene, and perhaps a rowdy outdoor festival might not be the best venue, even though the free staging reaches more people. 

In between the scripted antics of Makan Culture and the disorienting dynamics of Just Keep Swimming is the much less demanding visual spectacle of Noli Timere, which comes with the imprimatur of two Guggenheim Fellowship Award winners as co-creators. 

Despite a wordy raft of big ideas in the programme notes, Noli Timere looks like any outdoor circus act programmed by festivals to attract families and audiences looking to feed the ’Gram.

From the substantial turnout, the Village does seem to have attracted plenty of people across a wide demographic. But it lacks ambition and is indistinguishable from other outdoor festivals. 

Prior iterations of the Festival Village at Fort Canning and Esplanade Park were not afraid to experiment with large-scale, non-formulaic productions. The first unofficial Festival Village in 1998 was Womad, a four-day music festival. Its success was proof of concept.

And older theatre fans might remember the spectacular, and challenging, 2011 production by Japan’s Ishinha, When A Gray Taiwanese Cow Stretched, for which a mammoth outdoor stage was built at the Esplanade Park. 

Despite quibbles about the programming, this long-time festivalgoer welcomes the return of a communal space for artsgoers to hang out at. After all, it takes a Village to grow a community. And hopefully, this new Village will grow in sophistication and scope over the next two years of Chong’s tenure as festival director.

Book It/Makan Culture

Where: Festival Village, Empress Lawn, Fullerton Road
When: May 20 to 24, 28 to 30, 6, 8 and 10pm
Admission: $20, SG Culture Pass eligible
Info: str.sg/6kvm