FESTIVAL DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

ubin

ubin

By Drama Box (Singapore)

25 – 29 May, Wed – Sun 1 – 5 Jun, Wed – Sun 6.15pm

Please arrive by 6pm to allow for pre-registration. Due to the nature of the performance, latecomers will not be admitted.

This is a shine-only event. Participants are recommended to come dressed comfortably for walking.

Meeting Point: Changi Point Ferry Terminal

Approx 4h, No Intermission

Rating to be determined Recommended for audiences age 13 and above

Multilingual with English translations

Tickets: $58*

*Ticket price is inclusive of round-trip boat transfers to Pulau Ubin. Limited concessions available for students, NSFs and seniors.

Part theatre, part collective experience, ubin by Singapore theatre company Drama Box invites you to an immersive walking tour uncovering the stories and sites of Pulau Ubin – and share in a moment to reimagine the island’s future.

There is another reality alongside ours – one where nature, community and a slower rhythm quietly stand against the march of urbanisation.

This is Pulau Ubin: an island mere 15 minutes away from the main island of Singapore. Ubin, which means “squared stone” in Javanese, was once a thriving kampong with a bustling economy. With records of inhabitants tracing back to the 1800s, today its native islanders number at a hundred; come nightfall, only around 30 remain.

As the population on Pulau Ubin ages and dwindles, what will happen to life and culture on the island? Who will safeguard its rustic beauty and cultural relevance? Will there be new inhabitants and how will they sustain the island’s vibrancy? How will the living, the spiritual and the embedded continue to exist in the future?

Billed for its socially-engaged productions, Singapore theatre company Drama Box invites you to this extraordinary three-hour journey through the sites and scenes of Ubin. From the forests to the birds to the islanders and the iconic granite quarries, leave behind the bustle of the city and immerse yourself in the stories of the island, as you meet stakeholders of the land and join in the re-imagining of its future.

A reflective intimate journey through one of Singapore’s most rustic sites, ubin promises to be an unforgettable evening of history, nature and culture.

project SALOME

By Ong Keng Sen / T:>Works (Singapore)

27 May, Fri, 8pm 28 May, Sat, 2pm & 8pm Victoria Theatre

1h 15m, No Intermission

Rating to be determined Admission only for audiences age 18 and above

Performed in English and Arabic with English surtitles

Tickets: $48*, $58

*Limited concessions available for students, NSFs and seniors

A T:>Works (Singapore) production. Conceived, Written and Directed by Ong Keng Sen (Singapore) In collaboration with Camille Lacadee (Berlin), Elizabeth Mak (Singapore), Heman Chong (Singapore), Janice Koh (Singapore), Kaffe Matthews (Berlin), Michael(a) Daoud (Berlin) and Shahrzad Rahmani (Berlin)

With the text of Oscar Wilde

From internationally acclaimed Singapore director Ong Keng Sen, comes an arresting evocation of the enigmatic character Salome from Oscar Wilde’s renowned play. Ong joins the ranks of towering artists throughout history who have re-imagined famous classics to make ground-breaking art. In project SALOME, Ong unveils the rituals of projecting – via social media and creative documentary film-making – to finally recast the idiom “heads will roll”.

“How do we express ourselves, and remain free, during the challenging restrictions of the pandemic? As our bodies are locked down, can we find the imaginative freedom to roam the wildest fantasies in our apartment? This was the beginning of the project to transform my apartment in Berlin into the world of SALOME. Two, juxtapose that with a live performer in Singapore. Three, harness social media as the site of performance which have long superseded our theatre buildings. It’s necessary to assert performance with the limited resources available, as we become debilitated by regulations and our theatres continue to be under threat. The rest as they

Image Credit: Ceren Saner

say is history. We know we are now in a new world of reimposed barriers, in a precarious future where we are struggling to regain our imagination of the possible.” Ong Keng Sen

Salome is a larger-than-life character who has from time immemorial horrified and fascinated all. Who is SALOME in our contemporary times, who attempts to transform their position of no-power into some kind of power?

Based on English playwright Oscar Wilde’s symbolist play from 1891, SALOME fights to be free from the systems of morality and patriarchal power which have imprisoned them. Salome stoked both controversy and acclaim when it was first performed – and today, Ong’s SALOME strikes a provocative and ferocious double portrait of individuals unafraid to pursue their deepest instincts to become emancipated.

Ong collaborates with Berlin-based performance artist Michael(a) Daoud, to navigate the edges of documentary film, and Singapore actress Janice Koh, to occupy social media with a love at all costs. Set in an unexpected installation by Heman Chong with the energising rhythms of composer Kaffe Matthews, they jointly contemplate the SALOME complex from diverse directions.

In an intriguing pre-performance on social media, The SALOME Complex is performed, even before the audience enters the theatre. Koh embodies her character Seah Loh Mei on Instagram @thesalomecomplex from now till 26 May 2022.

Meanwhile, Daoud performs their mesmerising autobiography on film from Berlin, recounting their perilous journey into the European Union fortress and the shedding of different selves in order to survive en route to freedom.

A meditation on the rituals of projecting, transitioning, becoming and self-mythologising, project SALOME is a startling performance from one of Asia’s most accomplished directors.