Arts Picks
Singapore arts guide (July 11 to Aug 2): Children’s Chinese theatre festival and Dracula in ballet
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Taiwan's Flying Group Theatre will present its acclaimed puppet show, The Three-Legged Crab-Eating Mongoose And The Giant, as part of The Theatre Practice's Berries Chinese Theatre Festival: Family Edition.
PHOTO: FLYING GROUP THEATRE
- The Berries Chinese Theatre Festival: Family Edition features Taiwan’s Flying Group Theatre and interactive workshops for children and families.
- The Dennis Lee Piano Series honours the late pianist with performances of Beethoven concertos by soloists Abigail Sin and Lin Xiangning.
- The ballet Dracula makes its Asian debut in Singapore, presenting a dark, visually stunning adaptation of Bram Stoker’s story, choreographed by Joel Burke.
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Berries Chinese Theatre Festival: Family Edition
The Theatre Practice’s (TTP) annual Berries Chinese Theatre Festival: Family Edition has an overseas attraction for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Taiwan’s Flying Group Theatre will bring its acclaimed show, The Three-Legged Crab-Eating Mongoose And The Giant, to the Practice Space on Aug 1 and 2.
This adaptation of renowned Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-yi’s picture book combines puppetry, shadow play and immersive projections to tell the stories of a brave mongoose, a little girl and her dog, as well as a giant.
Families can also expect the return of old favourites at the festival. The Breakfast Kakis are back with their Imagine Our Songs series, which revives favourite Mandarin nursery rhymes, while the Play With: series will offer two different workshops led by veteran arts educators.
Play With: The More We Make Together, helmed by Ang Lay Hoon (Teacher Red), is a wood crafting session targeted at children aged four to six and their families. Play With: Story Quest is a collaborative storytelling experience designed for children aged seven to nine and will be led by storyteller and performer Ng Mun Poh.
The festival extends TTP’s philosophy that play is serious business, and artistic director Kuo Jian Hong adds in a statement: “These programmes are not created solely for children. They are spaces where adults and children can create memories together and rediscover the joy of play.”
Where: Practice Space, 54 Waterloo Street
When: July 11 to Aug 2, various timings
MRT: Bras Basah
Admission: From $35.70. Family and festival bundle discounts available till July 25
Info: str.sg/rBoB
Dracula: Ballet At Its Darkest
Bram Stoker's Gothic classic is reimagined as a dramatic ballet in Dracula: Ballet At Its Darkest, choreographed by Joel Burke.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF BIG LIVE
Put a beloved Gothic story together with a ballet company specialising in international tours and armed with marketing savvy, and you have a sure-fire attraction.
This production of Bram Stoker’s tale of a long-lived monster feeding off the blood of innocents makes its Asian debut in Singapore after a sold-out London season.
The choreography is by Australian dancer Joel Burke. As the co-founder, artistic director and choreographer of BIG Live, a ballet company focused on touring spectacular productions aimed at both balletomanes and newcomers to the dance form, he says in a statement: “Ballet, in its most honest form, is not solely an art of beauty and refinement, but also one capable of expressing brutality, desire, fear and humanity.”
This production of Bram Stoker’s tale of a long-lived monster feeding off the blood of innocents makes its Asian debut in Singapore after a sold-out London season.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF BIG LIVE
Judging from the trailers, this is a visually stunning staging, with dramatic lighting and Gothic-inspired sets. The Instagram-friendly ghost bride quartet is like a darker riff on Swan Lake’s famed Little Swans.
Tickets for the first two nights are already sold out, but they are still available for the weekend shows.
Where: Esplanade Theatre, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: July 15 to 17, 8pm; July 18, 3pm and 8pm; July 19, 2pm
MRT: Esplanade
Admission: $69 to $185
Info: str.sg/GGbv
Dennis Lee Piano Series
Pianists Abigail Sin (left) and Lin Xiangning will perform at the inaugural concert for the Dennis Lee Piano Series.
PHOTO: BOBAN JAMES
Chamber orchestra outfit re:Sound is launching a series that honours the late Penang-born pianist and educator Dennis Lee.
A long-time champion of chamber music, his last concerto performance was with the then newly formed re:Sound’s concert in 2017, where he played Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto In G Major. So it is apt that the outfit is celebrating its 10th anniversary with this series, which kicks off with soloists Abigail Sin and Lin Xiangning playing Beethoven’s Third and Fourth Piano Concertos.
Sin says in a statement that she met Lee and his wife Toh Chee Hung – who collaborated frequently with him – at a charity concert at which they were all performing when she was nine or 10.
She also recalls watching their 2005 recital for the Singapore International Piano Festival, adding: “It was probably my first time seeing an entire recital performed by a piano duo. Though I lost touch with them, I remember that they were very generous and kind, and they were inspirational figures to me as a young pianist. I feel honoured to be part of this initiative that pays tribute to Dennis.”
Led by Yang Shuxiang, the orchestra will also perform Stravinsky’s Concerto For Strings, which the group played in its inaugural concert in 2016.
Where: Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Concert Hall, 3 Conservatory Drive
When: July 11, 7.30pm
MRT: Kent Ridge
Admission: $32 and $48
Info: str.sg/4ojCS
