Arts Picks
Use your Culture Pass credits for The Fourth Trimester and Singapore Ballet’s Cinderella
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Singapore artist Jimmy Ong's Musang Kings is a charcoal sketch.
PHOTO: JIMMY ONG
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Inside The Dream Of A Durian Seller
Yeo Workshop’s latest project is an intriguing pop-up show in the middle of the Central Business District.
Vitrine at OUE Downtown Gallery will showcase home-grown artists, and the first show is an engaging blend of art and accessibility.
The catalyst is Nanyang pioneer Cheong Soo Pieng’s 1981 Durian Seller depicting a street vendor smoking an opium pipe, his wares strewn in front of him, and a trio of happy customers eating the king of fruit.
Vitrine brings works by 12 other Singapore artists together in conversation with the motifs and myths addressed in the painting.
Collective Chun U Bi has some quirky takes, dissecting elements of Cheong’s work in pop-art fashion. Bao Jiak turns the handwritten sign in the painting into bright green neon lights, and Durian Man Sleeping is a tufted rug that is kitschily kawaii, its graphic lines recalling woodblock prints.
Chun U Bi's Durian Man Sleeping.
PHOTO: CHUN U BI
Chun U Bi has also collaborated with artist Teng Jee Hum to create a gachapon machine dispensing capsules with words of wisdom from Teng.
Look out for artist Jimmy Ong’s Musang Kings, which features male nudes in his instantly identifiable charcoal-drawing style, frolicking in an Edenic grove of durians. Note, too, how the composition echoes the shape of Singapore island and make of that what you will.
Yeo Workshop has also designed a series of lunchtime talks to complement the exhibition. On Dec 3 at noon, for example, there will be a workshop to advise collectors on the right frames for their art, with a focus on durian wood.
Teng will share his take on the Singapore art story in a session on Dec 11 at 12.30pm. Historian Krystina Lyon will launch her book, You Are Seen, on Jan 27 at 12.30pm, with a talk about South-east Asian women artists.
Where: OUE Downtown Gallery pop-up space, 01-36, 6A Shenton Way yeoworkshop.com
MRT: Shenton Way
When: Till Jan 31, weekdays, noon to 7pm
Admission: Free
Info:
The Fourth Trimester
Joshua Lim and Isabella Chiam play new parents in the first run of The Fourth Trimester by Checkpoint Theatre.
PHOTO: CRISPIAN CHAN
Playwright Faith Ng is one of the keenest observers of middle-class angst in Singapore. Her almost three-hour-long script for The Fourth Trimester won the 2023 Straits Times Life Theatre Award for Best Original Script and the show also earned the Best Production gong.
Those who did not manage to snag a ticket for the first run can catch this revival, which opens on Nov 20. The work follows three couples at various stages of parenthood.
Samantha and Aaron are grappling with a newborn, while their neighbours Sofia and Johan are trying to start a family. Lisa and Daniel seem to be the settled couple with two kids. Then, there is Ann the bachelorette.
Do not let the lengthy runtime scare you. If the first run was any indication, the time will fly past, thanks to director Claire Wong’s deft direction and Ng’s thoughtfully constructed script.
Where: Drama Centre Theatre, 03-01 National Library, 100 Victoria Street sistic.com.sg str.sg/pWnx
MRT: Bugis/City Hall
When: Nov 20 to 30; Tuesdays to Fridays, 8pm; Saturdays, 2.30 and 8pm; Sundays, 2.30pm
Admission: $50 to $98 from Sistic (go to
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Cinderella
The Singapore Ballet is staging Cinderella in December.
PHOTO: BERNIE NG
Singapore Ballet’s year-end blockbuster is the crowd-pleasing Cinderella, which premiered to sold-out audiences in 2023.
The ballet company’s artistic director Janek Schergen is staging this production, with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra playing Sergei Prokofiev’s score and costumes by Leonard Choo.
Expect a spectacle, with comedy from the evil stepmother and stepsisters, as well as a grand set piece for the royal ball.
This accessible ballet qualifies for Culture Pass credits, so it is a good time to introduce children and ballet newbies to the art form.
This is Singapore Ballet’s last show on home turf for 2025 before it travels to Kuala Lumpur from Dec 21 to 23.
Where: Esplanade Theatre, 1 Esplanade Drive singaporeballet.org/cinderella-2025
MRT: Esplanade
When: Dec 4 and 5, 8pm; Dec 6, 2 and 8pm; Dec 7, 2 and 7pm
Admission: $55 to $110. Eligible for Culture Pass credits
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