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Straits Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Theatre review: Dido & The Belindas a safe party for the abandoned
Dido & The Belindas T:>Works 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road July 18, 9pm Part of the fun of this is in the late-night, underground ambience, the audience dragging their chairs round little cocktail tables, bottles of drinks already flowing. In a theatre scene more familiar with the cushy theatres of the Esplanade or Wild Rice, here is immediately a sense of possibility. Then Singapore drag queen Becca D'Bus strides onto the runway stage, plumped up with heaps of garment and wearing as her crown a tin foil-lined helmet of antenna, belting aria: 'Ah! Belinda, I am press'd... Peace and I are strangers grown.' The lament from Henry Purcell's 1689 opera Dido And Aeneas is mournfully sung by American lyric tenor Thomas Michael Allen, equally heavily made-up and sat amid the audience in a high chair. D'Bus mouths the words in sync, gesticulating mockingly, sometimes impatient. The clash of aesthetics is at once brazen but also familiar to drag culture, where model poses in the photo shoots of vogue and the boldest fashion pieces have always been appropriated to glamorise and empower. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Mindef, SAF units among those dealing with attack on S'pore's critical information infrastructure Asia How China's growing cyber-hacking capabilities have raised alarm around the world Singapore Vessels from Navy, SCDF and MPA to debut at Marina Bay in NDP maritime display Singapore 1 dead, 1 injured after dispute between neighbours in Yishun HDB block Asia Autogate glitch at Malaysia's major checkpoints causes chaos for S'porean and foreign travellers Asia SIA, Scoot, Cathay Pacific cancel flights as typhoon nears Hong Kong Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died Here it is, attracting a theatre crowd, set to the twangs of the harpsichord played by Japanese musician Toru Yamanaka. Dido & The Belindas is the theatre part of theatre company T:>Works' celebration of its 40th anniversary. Under the DnA Fest umbrella, it is a third of a trilogy that also includes a film and an afterparty, which people can experience together or in parts. Each is an inflection on the classic story of spurned love and duty, originally told in Virgil's Aeneid, but wrenched in radical directions by artistic director Ong Keng Sen. So Dido & The Belindas becomes set to the key of abandonment and societal ostracisation, in a kind of whiplash roulette that both truncates the opera and expands its relevance. Greek hero Aeneas is an afterthought, cast as an easily turned-on chandelier. Dido's closest companion Belinda becomes a tribe of misfits – including a confessional intersex character – though the show really tries to centre itself on the real-life story of wheelchair-bound Singaporean Valerie Eng, also known as V4LCY, paralysed from the waist down after a suicide attempt. The heft of the show brings the fantastical fun of the opera back down to earth. Carthage queen Dido D'Bus signposts: 'This is here. This is now.' She becomes facilitator to a live video call with V4LCY, during which the now para-athlete reads her poems and rehashes an interview she did with local media channel Our Grandfather Story. Of course, like Dido, she once chose to die rather than suffer a lack of love, an act rehabilitated to become a brave one here, reaffirming the fundamental right to hugs and care. This reviewer is reminded of British author Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2020), in which the novelist writes: 'Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time.' This can be seen as a painful rejoinder. T:>Works' Dido & The Belindas. PHOTO: DEBBIE Y And of course, more meta-textually, there is a reordering of priorities from the original, which centres on Aeneas' higher duty of founding the city of Lavinium, his descendants later founding Rome – that city of riches, violence, slavery and eventual imperialism. In Dido And Aeneas is also an alternative path for the modern world: What if Aeneas, instead of leaving, had stayed to nurse his tendresse? The ceding of this space to V4LCY is telling of director Ong's priorities, given that it inevitably takes the spirited momentum of the show down a notch. The attempt to kick-start it again after this is a difficult transition for audiences, which is a shame, with the next florid, durian-filled funeral offering some of the best tableaus and cathartic weeping. But the point of Dido & The Belindas is really not in acting or conventional theatre. Through the rough sketches of a known story, it builds solidarities, between theatre and drag culture, between queerness and other axes of exclusion. In the Arcimboldo-esque fruit and gimp mask showpiece costumes designed by D'Bus and Khairullah Rahim, the final hurrah of 1998 gay anthem Believe by American singer Cher, and the pushing of the singular Belinda to the plural, it manages to create the safest of spaces. And is that not the point of theatre, which has allowed generations of those who have felt a tiny bit left out of the mainstream to discover confidence in who they are? Book It/Dido & The Belindas
Time Out
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
DnA Fest
Photograph: T:>Works If you're down to get edgy, mark your calendar for DnA Fest – an unexpected collision of different arts disciplines, served with a side of sass. Sit back for a screening of The House of Janus – a modern film take on Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas – starring and directed by Ong Keng Sen who's also responsible for local comedy hit movie Army Daze . Or, get wild with Dido & The Belindas , a vibrant drag spectacle featuring none other than queen Becca D'Bus. End it off with Afterparty, an underground ballroom event with flashy runway battles and wicked beats. Find out more here . Wed, 16 Jul 2025 Thu, 17 Jul 2025 Fri, 18 Jul 2025 Sat, 19 Jul 2025 Wed, 23 Jul 2025 Thu, 24 Jul 2025 Fri, 25 Jul 2025 Sat, 26 Jul 2025 By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. 🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed! Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! Discover Time Out original video
Straits Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Arts Picks: DnA Fest, Hannes Schmid, NLB Read30
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Dido & The Belindas by T:>Works was first shown as a work-in-progress during Singapore International Festival of Arts 2024. T:>Works' DnA Fest Singapore theatre vanguard T:>Works is marking its 40th anniversary with 11-day DnA Fest. The acronym is short for English composer Henry Purcell's Dido And Aeneas, but the classic 17th-century opera of spurned love has been wrenched in radical directions. Artistic director Ong Keng Sen reframes the lament to tackle mortality, inclusivity and, more rambunctiously, drag and underground ballroom culture. There are three parts to his maximalist vision, with tickets available separately. First is a film The House Of Janus, which premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2024. Ong directed it in his Italian hillside home in Bettona with an international crew. His homestead with his nonagenarian partner, Adriaan van der Staay, becomes the setting for a reckoning with old age and separation, immersing viewers in the clashing aesthetics of cinema verite and operatic fantasy. Dido And Aeneas was the first opera the partners listened to together in the house 16 years ago, and remains a summer tradition. Second is an extension of T:>Works' work-in-progress presentation at the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2024, an unabashedly theatrical twist on the original Dido And Aeneas story. Dido's rejection becomes a defiant statement from a place of social marginalisation. Drag queen Becca D'Bus is Dido, queen of Carthage. Her handmaid, Belinda, proliferates to become the Belindas, a whole 'tribe of the abandoned'. Ong reserves some surprises here in its composition. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump's ambassador nominee to Singapore Anjani Sinha has a rough day at Senate hearing Asia Dr Mahathir at 100: Still haunted by the Malay Dilemma Singapore What's next for PSP following its post-GE leadership shake-up? Singapore 'Give a positive review': Hidden AI prompt found in academic paper by NUS researchers Singapore NDP 2025: Diamond formations, 'multi-axis' fly-past to headline parade's aerial display Business New Career Health SG initiative launched to support both S'pore workers and employers Multimedia 60 objects to mark SG60: Which is your favourite? Singapore Apex court upholds SMC's conviction of doctor who gave patients unapproved hormones This is a fully fledged production, with live singing by lyric tenor Thomas Michael Allen and party atmosphere supplied by DJ Toru Yamanaka. Late-night parties that centre the glamour of trans and queer culture with runway competitions and high energy voguing – dancers striking poses inspired by those of models in fashion magazines – is the final piece of the trilogy. Ong says DnA Fest is about building solidarities. 'Nightlife and voguing are very separate from the theatre scene, but we need to have more alliances, to open up the space to talk about being at the margins without necessarily becoming agenda-full. There must be more in our lives apart from the mainstream.' Still from The House Of Janus. PHOTO: T:>WORKS Where: 72-13 Mohamed Sultan Road MRT: Fort Canning When: July 16 to 26, various timings Admission: $12 for film, $40 for show, $25 (advance) and $30 at the door for night parties. Entry to all at $58 with DnA Pass Info: Hannes Schmid: A Life In Pictures For Gods Only series by Hannes Schmid on show at Appetite. PHOTO: MICHELLE MEI In 2001, Swiss photographer Hannes Schmid chanced upon a Taoist opera theatre in an open field in Punggol, where the actors insisted on playing to 100 empty chairs. Initially shooed away, he spent the next four years earning the troupe's trust until he was adjudged to have won the favour of the gods. His subsequent photo series, For Gods Only, offers a glimpse of the backstage and propitiation rituals of the since-disbanded troupe. These are overlaid with his Singaporean father-in-law's calligraphic Chinese characters, and are on display at restaurant, record lounge and art gallery Appetite in Amoy Street. The Swiss artist has led a storied life of immersing himself in his subjects. At a media preview, he regales listeners with stories about piercing his tongue for Thaipusam – 'I was bleeding like a pig' – and being held captive by cannibals in the mountains of now South Papua, Indonesia, when he went in search of American Michael Rockefeller, who vanished in Dutch New Guinea in 1961. Schmid's photos from another series, Blackstage, in which he photographed members of legendary bands AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, and another bringing together fashion and wildlife – think woman standing atop a herd of elephants – are also on show. Today, he spends much of his time fund-raising for the Cambodian commune he founded called Smiling Gecko, comprising farm, culture and music school, and spa, which has been labelled 'social art' for the way it uplifts local communities. Proceeds from the charity auction on Aug 2 will go to this project. Photo from Hannes Schmid's series combining fashion and wildlife. PHOTO: MICHELLE MEI Where: Appetite, 72A Amoy Street MRT: Maxwell/Telok Ayer When: Till Aug 10, from 6pm or by appointment, Tuesdays to Fridays; noon to midnight, Saturdays Admission: Free Info: NLB Read30 Visuals paired with book quotes are part of NLB's sensorial experiences for Read30. PHOTO: NLB To mark the National Library's 30th anniversary as a statutory board, it is hosting NLB Read30, a marquee edition of its biennial Read! Fest. Multi-sensory experiences have been created to ensure words leap off the page. Smell the world of C Pam Zhang's Land Of Milk And Honey or run your fingers over an installation inspired by Rachel Heng's The Great Reclamation at the National Library Building. The weekend will also usher in a charming market for literary accessories, including customised book sleeves and artisanal wares. Singaporean personalities like playwright Myle Yan Tay and celebrity chef Violet Oon have handpicked books for browsing and buying in eight pop-ups in central locations, from Ion Orchard to The Cathay. It is a good occasion to purchase that book you have been eyeing, with 10 per cent discounts on selected titles on the webstores of Closetful Of Books, Wormhole and Basheer Graphic Books. There is also a heavyweight panel at the National Library building on July 26 bringing together four current and former Singapore Writers Festival directors, titled The SWF Directors' Cut: Sing Lit, How Are You? This is free with registration at
