Sail to Ubin with Drama Box for an arts festival with a twist

Under Ubin Night Skies

Theatre company Drama Box has been building a relationship with the Pulau Ubin community for quite a few years now.

After its thoughtful site-specific work Ubin for the 2022 Singapore International Festival of Arts, the company is now organising an even more ambitious multi-day arts festival on the island. 

A collaboration with the Pulau Ubin Fo Shan Ting Da Bo Gong Temple, the event is inspired by the more than a century-old annual tradition of Da Bo Gong Qian Qiu Celebration, during which villagers gather for wayang performances.

So, Under Ubin Night Skies will include a one-woman promenade theatre work written by Kok Heng Leun and performed by Chng Xin Xuan. There will also be a forest walk led by facilitators and a nature night tour. 

The grand finale evening on June 5 will feature The Finger Players’ puppet show titled Ubin Mayhem!, as well as a concert by artists Ric Liu, Audrey Luo, Suhaili Safari and Sugi Phua, with songs celebrating the villagers’ lived experiences. 

This is a rare opportunity to experience this island at dusk and evening, usually the preserve of islanders.

Festival tickets include two-way bumboat rides. Keep in mind that the boat rides from the island will be at 9.30pm, after the last programme ends, so be prepared to spend a few hours on Ubin.  

Where: Pulau Ubin, meet at Changi Point Ferry Terminal, 51 Lorong Bekukong
MRT: Tanah Merah
When: May 30 to June 5, 6 to 9.30pm
Admission: From $48 (inclusive of two-way bumboat rides)
Info: str.sg/jL5a

BIG BIG small small 

A singer, a musician and an artist get together to create an immersive work melding music, soundscape and sculpture.

This sounds like classic experimental fare, created by artists for adventurous festivalgoers. But it is actually the latest project from accomplished performer Joanna Dong, who has racked up an impressive list of achievements in her career, from stage and film roles to reaching the finals of the 2017 Sing! China competition. 

She has teamed up with equally established collaborators – Singaporean musician Chok Kerong and visual artist Dawn Ng – to create this 40-minute work.

Performed in a dark black box, the work combines music, spoken word and sculpture to explore themes of humanity’s place in the cosmos. 

Dong says this experiment is a big leap. “In Singapore, where rent and labour costs make any kind of risk-taking very costly, it is precisely only when I have arrived at a level of ‘success’ in my personal career that I feel confident enough to undertake this level of risk, and when I have the social capital to convince institutions and individuals to support me without actually knowing what the final piece would be.” 

Nonetheless, she adds: “A blank cheque must be earned, and not even I could earn it on my own.”

Hence, the involvement of Chok and Ng.

Chok is Dong’s long-time music collaborator and when he suggested applying for a National Arts Council creation grant, she decided: “If we were to go through the effort of writing a grant proposal, I’d like to be much more ambitious.”

She reached out to Ng, “whom I barely knew, but whose work I am a big fan of… I was thrilled when she said yes”. 

Dong is quick to add that although she is the “instigator” for the project, all three have equal ownership in the creation. 

While the work might have fit better in a festival context, she says: “My sense is we had to make the work first because it’s not something that we knew how to express in a deck. That’s actually comforting to me. If there was an easy shorthand to describe the work, then we’re probably not doing something ‘unconventional’.” 

Where: Studio Theatre, School of the Arts, 1 Zubir Said Drive
MRT: Dhoby Ghaut
When: June 6, 4, 7 and 9pm; and June 7, 2, 4 and 7pm 
Admission: $56 from str.sg/o2mna
Info: str.sg/hmXX

An Interrogation

Fresh off directing the riotous Makan Culture show at the Festival Village, theatremaker Krish Natarajan is helming a much darker show for Sight Lines Entertainment.

An Interrogation is a psychological thriller written by Jamie Armitage, better known as the co-director of the hit musical Six. 

This tense narrative is loosely inspired by a sensational case in Canada, in which a respected colonel confessed to a string of rapes and murders after questioning by the police. 

In An Interrogation, Ruth Palmer (Nadya Zaheer) is the policewoman questioning Cameron Andrews (Salif Hardie), a privileged man who seems an unlikely suspect in a kidnapping. Ruth’s superior John Culin is played by veteran Lim Kay Siu. 

Natarajan, who has been polishing his own skills as the scripter of Sight Lines’ popular immersive mystery series Crack The Case, says he jumped at the chance to direct this drama.

“I fell in love with the script as a fan of psychological thrillers myself, but I was also really disturbed by it. There are many things I find attractive about the work: the cat-and-mouse game the characters play, the non-verbal leakage in every moment, the layers of emotions and deceptions and the delicious subtext behind every line,” he says. 

“But I think the play at its heart is deeply feminist. It calls out the deeply flawed systems we live in that oppress and harm. It suggests to us that evil takes on many forms and shapes – sometimes in your face, but most times insidious and systemic.” 

Where: KC Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Road
MRT: Fort Canning
When: June 4, 5 and 13, 8pm; June 6 and 13, 6 and 8.30pm; June 7 and 14, 4pm
Admission: $58 and $68
Info: str.sg/yezDb