A comedy pokes fun at the military. A drama depicts a local stripper from the 1950s. A satire portrays an ethnic Malay Muslim general who becomes a dictator.
The biennial Singapore Theatre Festival showcased how artists here are taking advantage of relaxed government censorship to explore once-taboo subjects — even, to some degree, the charged issues of race, religion and politics.
“There’s a huge difference in what’s allowed now compared to five years ago,” said Gaurav Kripalani, who has helped stage Rent, Death of a Salesman and Avenue Q as artistic director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre.
There are limits. The government banned a 2006 play for “portraying Muslims in a negative light,” along with documentaries about opposition figures and even a couple of Janet Jackson CDs for racy lyrics.
Still, the notoriously straight-laced city-state is finally letting its hair down, a few strands at a time.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) recently said the government would lift a ban on films with political themes, while maintaining one on political ads and what he called “partisan stuff.” The ban was lifted in part because of widespread Internet use, which has undermined government censorship efforts.
“I don’t think an outright ban is still sensible because this is how people communicate on the Web in daily life,” Lee said. “So we’ve got to allow political videos, with some safeguards.”
Another reason for loosening up is economic: Faced with a shortage of skilled workers and an aging population, the government is trying to attract qualified foreigners to live here. It also wants to keep locals from migrating abroad.
So Singapore, which still suffers from a reputation as a quirky place that canes vandals and bans gum, is trying to become more hip. Making the city of 4.6 million people an “arts and theater hub” is part of that drive. Singapore also will host the first nighttime Formula One race next month and unveil a casino resort next year.
The government has poured money into theater, music and dance during the last decade. The number of theatergoers has almost doubled since 2000, while registered theater companies grew to 73 last year from 18 in 1997, the government’s National Arts Council said.
Artists applaud the government for establishing the Media Development Authority (MDA) in 2003, which put in place a ratings system that can prohibit Singaporeans below the age of 16, 18 or 21 from attending certain performances.
“Now there’s a buffer between the police and the artists,” said Alvin Tan, who has directed plays about capital punishment, pedophilia and marijuana use. “Before the MDA came about, it was more high-handed. We would just get a letter that would say, ‘Take this line out, take this paragraph out.’ Now we can negotiate.”
The authority requires playwrights to submit scripts for approval and bans plays that threaten “stability and harmony.”
“Race and religion remain powerful and emotional subjects, especially in our multiracial society,” said Amy Chua, MDA’s director of media content. “Such issues should continue to be dealt with and presented sensitively.”
To avoid the censor’s wrath, playwrights often use satire or metaphor to discuss sensitive topics such as the People’s Action Party, which has ruled since independence in 1965.
Some Singaporeans doubt the greater freedom given theater will spill over into other media.
“Theater only challenges the mindsets of a limited, middle-class audience,” said Stefanie Chan, a 20-year-old university student. “Censorship is stricter in mass media.”
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils