Singapore International Festival of Arts 2023 Delves Into the Spectrum of the Human Experience

Organised by Arts House Limited (AHL) and commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), the programme line-up for the 2023 edition of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) has been revealed by Festival Director Natalie Hennedige.

Returning from 19 May to 4 June 2023 with the title The Anatomy of Performance - Some People, this year’s Festival marks the second year of Hennedige’s three-year tenure as Festival Director. The Festival will return to the live stage in 2023 with four newly commissioned productions and 11 invited international presentations. It will continue to keep its digital presence with a new series of writing and animated art.

Helming the direction for SIFA 2022-2024, Hennedige has defined a three-year arc intended to bring focus to performance and creation in the physical and online space, with the recurring title – The Anatomy of Performance, accompanied by a changing subtitle.

The first subtitle in 2022 - Ritual - invited audiences to consider shared social rituals echoed in performance. Returning with a new subtitle - Some People, SIFA 2023 is an invitation for audiences to come together and open their hearts to each other’s perspectives in the space that art defines.

SIFA 2023 invites audiences to meditate on the spectrum of the human experience and to find their personal response in works that encompass those who grieve, transform, remember, dominate, disappear, feel, prevail, linger, shimmer, observe, reclaim, endure, dare, and transcend.

The Festival will exist across three platforms, CREATION, featuring 15 unique presentations including festival commissions and invited works, LIFE PROFUSION, SIFA’s parallel virtual entity, and SIFA X, a platform for experimental expression.

SIFA 2023 is committed to being an avenue for creating progressive and original works that express contemporary complexities and possibilities in performance. The Festival continues to be a catalyst for creative intersections between international and local artists across different disciplines through specially commissioned works.

With more international borders open in 2023, the Festival has invited prominent international artists to present dynamic works giving unexpected dimensions to Some People. These works include reflections on the vast range of human experiences across mediums and genres.

In 2023, SIFA X embraces alternative expression and carves out platforms to nurture new writing and performance works-in-process. Setting the stage at Singapore’s iconic nightclub CÉ LA VI, SIFA X presents LOVE DIVINE featuring artists SUKKI (formerly Sukki Singapora) and Daniel Kok & Luke George in a display of burlesque, vaudeville, and rope performance installation.

Centre 42’s, THERE IS NO FUTURE IN NOSTALGIA presents a suite of new performances drawing inspiration from Arthur Yap’s 1971 poem of the same name, dramatising the rapid sweep of Singapore’s urban development. Works include a lecture performance by Robin Loon, Casey Lim and invited artists drawing on Centre 42’s archival of theatre in the 90s, double bills of new plays by writers Ahmad Musta’ain Khamis, A Yagnya, Rachel Chin and Danial Matin, and a special edition of Centre 42’s ongoing Headline Acts Series, an evening where writers present short dramatic pieces in response to archival headlines.