Who: Actor Benjamin Chow, 34, is a familiar name in Singapore theatre. He played the dashing, rebellious everyman Bobby Strong in Pangdemonium’s staging of Urinetown (2019), and writer Mitch Albom in Singapore Theatre Company’s (formerly Singapore Repertory Theatre) Tuesdays With Morrie (2020).
For these two roles, Chow was nominated in the Best Actor category at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards. He was also crowned Best Supporting Actor twice – first in 2016 for playing left-wing political leader Lim Chin Siong in The LKY Musical and again in 2018 for playing Prince Tun in Forbidden City: Portrait Of An Empress.
Chow reprises his 2022 role as the charming con artist Tartuffe in Wild Rice’s Tartuffe: The Imposter, playwright Joel Tan’s adaptation of Moliere’s 17th-century French scam satire which scored five nominations at the ST Life Theatre Awards 2023.
Tartuffe: The Imposter runs at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan from April 4 to 28. Ticketing details can be found at str.sg/j8SE.
“My idea of a perfect weekend is a cup of tea and gentle evenings, looking out over MacRitchie Reservoir from my window, and slow walks out to the nearby kopitiam for dinner. I live on a hill, so it’s nice to have a little exercise climbing down and back up again after.
Saturdays are also rehearsal days for us in theatre, so my day always begins with a quick set of stretching exercises to warm the body up and prepare myself for the day ahead. Then it’s off to work by around 8.30am, so I can get a bite to eat before we begin.
For a budget meal, my favourite place is at the Beerthai House Restaurant in Kitchener Road. I highly recommend the fried pork neck. Omote at Thomson Plaza is also a place I find myself returning to often, because it has really good Japanese food at reasonable prices.
For a fancier occasion, I’d go to Maduro at Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa for drinks and live jazz.
It’s been lovely reuniting with the actors in the Tartuffe team, who are some of the finest theatre-makers in the industry. Just within the first few days of rehearsals, we already discovered a new and refreshing way to approach the work, to give it more realism and depth.
On weekends, I love gaming with friends and family. Be it board games or computer games with controllers – it’s one of my favourite ways to spend time with people.
On my own, I’ve found a passion for a first-person shooter video game called Overwatch. I’ve been playing it for well over six years now.
I have a membership with The Projector, and I love watching movies with the people I love at the old revamped cinema at Golden Mile Tower. It also has a space at Cineleisure.
As a theatre-maker, I try to find time to catch productions too. Our theatre scene is so alive and vibrant, there’s always something for everyone. Actress Oon Shu An did a fantastic job in Grounded, a one-woman play by Singapore Theatre Company.
On weekend evenings, I write. I’m putting a show together at the Esplanade titled A Sea Of Stories: Music And Myths From Southeast Asia, on July 17 and 18.
I’m part of a team of traditional musicians from the music ensemble Open Score Project, which is putting on the show, and I will be performing and narrating. We’re adapting South-east Asian fairy tales and dramatising them for children, but adults are more than welcome too.
I’ve been having so much fun researching these myths and legends from our shared cultures, and working with the musicians to dream up a world for the kids to immerse themselves in.
As a freelance arts professional, my hours aren’t usually your typical 9am to 5pm, so very often I probably have rehearsals, a performance or a voice-over recording gig on the weekends. It’s a very fulfilling life, and I’m blessed to be able to do what I’m passionate about for a living.
If I’m not performing or doing voice-overs, I try to take it as easy as possible and have a quiet evening at home, either playing games or bingeing on a television series. I just started the animation series Invincible (2021) on Prime Video and it’s brilliant.”
