Another location for Cafe Nang, Hanoi

I was strolling in the Old Quarter and chanced upon another branch of Cafe Nang. (See my previous entry of Cafe Nang @ 6 Hang Bac).

It is located along the main road Nguyen Huu Huan, which is the same street as the Restaurant Xoi Yen, the sticky rice stall.  This outlet is cleaner and quieter and the price charged for the coffee is the same.  But I still like the old-world charm and atmosphere at the 6 Hang Bac stall.  I have to stress that the coffee tastes equally good in this outlet.

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As in Dream by Ding Yi Music Company 如梦令 （鼎艺团）

Chinese music ensemble Ding Yi Music Company staged a pipa solo recital featuring Chua Yew Kok.

The program featured mostly contemporary works but still accessible to majority of audience.  Pieces like "Yin" incorporated videography and Anecdotic Drawing had Faye Tan doing a solo dance.  First half was more challenging in terms of song choices.  While Chen Yi's As in Dream was chosen as the name of this performance, it was the least favourite to me.

Tell me when to laugh and when to cry by Peter Sau

In this production, Peter Sau revisited 4 characters he had played previously and created another one: Brandon the taxi driver(from Cooling off day), Daniel (A language of their own), Mosquito Man (Nothing), Mother (House of Sins) and newly created Gaga Peterina.

In the first part, the 5 characters had encounters with the actor separately.   In the second part, the various characters interacted with each other.

One needs not understand the original setting of the play the characters were based on to appreciate this performance. However, as the characters are quite diverse in background, it was a challenge fitting them together.

Purple by Toy Factory

You entered into a circus tent and greeted by 3 not-so-friendly staff.  Well, we were supposed to see a special exhibit which happened to be transsexual Maggie Lai.  This was the setting of Goh Boon Teck's Purple, which was restaged this time at Joyden Hall.

Well it may be too obvious using the circus as a setting, but it may work if the director had put some thoughts into it.  Other than the few trapeze acts and "Maggie" doing the pole dance, the circus theme and set were not fully exploited.

Shane Mardjuki did a commendable job as Maggie Lai, though he sometimes lapsed into his other accent.  And since he is playing a Chinese character, it would be great if he could get the Chinese/dialect diction right.

La Cage Aux Folles

Caught the second last performance of La Cage aux Folles by Wild Rice.  It was a play about George who owned the nightclub La Cage and his partner Albin who was the star of the cabaret. The drama starts when George's son John revealed the news that he was getting married to the daughter of a conservative politician.

Stones Roses at Singapore Indoor Stadium, 22 Jul 2012

The Stone Roses made its first trip to Singapore, as part of its reunion tour. 

Soul Journey - Cicada Zen by Siong Leng Musical Association

It is not often one got to see 2 good Chinese productions in a row.  After attended The Theatre Practice's successful restaging of Lao Jiu The Musical the evening before, nanyin group Siong Leng Musical Association presented an engaging multi-sensory performance at the Esplanade Theatre Studio.

Lao Jiu The Musical

To use the term mentioned in the Spiderman movie, this "reboot" version of Lao Jiu The Musical, first staged in 2005, would definitely rank high on this year's (Chinese) theatre scene.  Lao Liu The Musical was one of the shows staged under the Kuo Pao Kun Festival 2012.

70th Anniversary of the battle for Singapore, 1941 - 42: Exhibitions at National Library

Two exhibitions held at the National Library of Singapore featured events related to the fall of Singapore in the 1940s.  These exhibitions have since ended its run.

The first was 4 days in February : Adam Park the Last Battle.  It was about the Cambridgeshires, a novice British infantry battalion, who fought against the Japanese 41st Regiments for 4 days until the British surrendered.

This exhibition was a result of Singapore Heriage Society undertaking an archaeological survey of the Adam Park battlefied in 2010 and 2011. It is good that a civil group took on this research.  Having said that, as artefacts and information were not much, the exhibition space could be too big for this topic.

Art Garden, 8Q @ Singapore Art Museum

Art Garden was held for the third time at the Singapore Art Museum.  This was a good initiative to attract and reach out to a young audience. 

Visitors had the opportunity to create their own work on the second floor.

On the third floor, visitors could dance and pose for the video wall, or they could use their voice to release images (Reactive Wall by Mojoko and Shang Liang).