Kicking off at LASALLE College of the Arts, the Singapore Theatre Festival 2016 features an exciting line-up of Singaporean theatre
Theatre buffs, are your cultural calendars looking a little sparse? You’ve little reason to worry; the year’s packed full of drama goodies, including the return of W!LD Rice’s Singapore Theatre Festival (STF). Slated to return on 30 June, STF 2016 looks set to upstage previous editions. Featuring brand new plays and re-stagings of old faves, the month-long event celebrates Singaporean theatre through local writing.
Among this year’s highlights is HOTEL, Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstraaten’s 2015 SIFA smash hit, which details 100 years of Singapore’s social and political history through events at an iconic hotel. Noteworthy brand new plays by first-time playwrights include Helmi Yusof’s My Mother Buys Condoms, a heartfelt rom-com, and Thomas Lim’s Grandmother Tongue: a poignant observation on lost dialects and its effect on identity and family. Besides STF’s lineup of theatre productions, festival goers can also look forward to forums, workshops and late-night performances.
A celebration of contemporary Singapore, STF’s plays also lend a voice to diverse groups of people, including the LGBT community, the elderly and minorities. Despite its hyper-local theme, Ivan Heng, STF’s Artistic Director, remarks that the arts fest will “speak to the universal experience of being human and the world we live in today.”
The Singapore Theatre Festival is set to run from 30 June to 4 July, at LASALLE College of the Arts. Tickets go on sale from 18 April on SISTIC.