Singapore Arts Festival 2009 (SAF 2009)

Laura Dozier previews the plays, paintings and performances of Singapore Arts Festival 2009. Don't forget to check out TOS's guide to Singapore Arts Festival 2009.

Although up and running for more than three decades, maturity hasn’t mellowed the Singapore Arts Festival’s taste for edgy, original works. This year SAF will again push the theatrical envelope, having commissioned an impressive number of new plays, and presenting works that blur traditional boundaries. Even the most basic concepts – such as the division between the audience and performer – are not safe from reinvention.

Nothing illustrates the festival’s penchant for experimentation more clearly than Etiquette, a play where you and another lucky soul are the only actors and audience of a performance in a public space – the Dôme restaurant in Marina Square, to be precise. Instructions given through headphones guide you and your partner through a half-hour performance, amid oblivious passersby.

Headphones are again requisite attire in the world premiere of the similarly experimental two-part Dream-Work and Dream-Home, where audiences follow performers on a rush-hour journey on the MRT, experiencing through their headphones the sounds that shape a commuter’s trek to work and ride home. Who knew Raffles Place MRT station could be the starting point for such a dramatic journey?

Another new work commissioned for the festival, The Crab Flower Club was crafted with the magic touch of the Toy Factory’s chief artistic director Goh Boon Teck. Combining inspiration from the poems of Dreams of the Red Chamber, ‘live’ painting by artist Hong Sek Chern and music by composer Franz Liszt, this local production tells the story of five daughters from a Qing household who meet to prepare a feast of crabs and start a poetry club.

The long list of new works continues with Visible Cities by New York-based Singaporean playwright Chay Yew. The production represents a cross-cultural effort, as director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti leads an Italian and Asian cast in an exploration of international fashion, challenging consumer culture with sharp dialogue and comedic moments.

Premiering here before appearing at the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, this production is another example of the wealth of promising theatre at SAF this year – an event that continues to be a wellspring for experimental works and up-and-coming local artists.

Singapore Arts Festival 2009 features & interviews

	Interview with Arnie Roth: conductor for Distant Worlds Final Fantasy Alexis Ong interviews conductor Arnie Roth before he conducts Nobu Uematsu's music from the video game Final Fantasy. Get his take on game music before the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy (22-23 May).
	'The Magic Flute' by the Dimpho di Kopane company (South Africa) Mozart's Opera 'The Magic Flute' reinterpreted with indigenous South African music? Derek Lim finds out how it's done with performance company Dimpho di Kopane.

TOS's guide to the Singapore Arts Festival 2009 (from 16 May to 14 Jun)