Singapore Theatre in 2019

This is our third consecutive year undertaking the mapping exercise to document all the local productions in the calendar year. Back in 2017, we started the timeline because we kept hearing from new audiences that there wasn’t much happening in Singapore theatre. But avid theatre-goers knew otherwise — some weekends were so chock full of theatre that it was impossible to catch them all.

SINGAPORE THEATRE IN 2019 maps a whopping 219 local productions, up from 163 in 2018 and 133 in 2017. It is a strong indication that Singapore theatre is producing more as a whole, but the increase could also be due to our mapping methodology. We began with the list of shows offered to our Citizen Reviewers, later cross-referencing that with online arts events listings like Arts Republic and the websites of various performance venues. The surge in this year’s total may be partly because more theatre performances (especially small productions) are documented online.
Starting last year, we’ve attempted to depict the daily level of performance activity going on in the scene. What we’ve come up with is a visualisation of the ebb and flow of Singapore theatre, with productions culminating to a fever pitch on weekends, before dying down on ‘dark’ days (Mondays) when the industry collectively takes a breather.

We’ve also had the unenviable task of deciding what could be considered “Singapore theatre”. We’ve settled on theatrical productions created and/or staged by local theatre-makers, which includes tertiary and arts schools, to independent theatre-makers, to the major established theatre companies.

But as with every year’s timeline, we rely on you to help us fill in the gaps. If you think a local theatre production is missing and should be included, or have any suggestions or spot any errors, please write to us at info@centre42.sg.

SINGAPORE THEATRE IN 2019 is supplemented with information from the following Centre 42 programmes:

THE REPOSITORY is our digital archive of Singapore theatre ephemera. Several productions in the timeline are restagings, adaptations and sequels, and hence related to earlier works. These productions are accompanied by images of Repository artefacts from these prior stagings. View more information about the artefacts at repository.centre42.sg.
CITIZENS’ REVIEWS is our critical writing programme. Productions in the timeline which have been reviewed by a Citizen Reviewer have been marked with “CR”. Read these published reviews at bit.ly/citizensreviews.
BASEMENT WORKSHOP is our residency programme which supports the incubation of new theatrical work in our spaces. The shows this year which have developed work in the Basement Workshop are marked with “BW”. To find out more, visit bit.ly/basementworkshop.
LIVING ROOM is a platform for conversations about Singapore theatre. This exhibition is held in conjunction with In the Living Room: Year in Review 2019. Presented on 8 December 2019, Year in Review 2019 invited the Singapore theatre community to chat about two key trends in 2019 — depictions of sexual violence, and decolonisation.

SINGAPORE THEATRE IN 2018: centre42.sg/singapore-theatre-in-2018

SINGAPORE THEATRE IN 2017: centre42.sg/singapore-theatre-in-2017