It's the end of the year and so it's time for the Inkpot to spread a little cheer! Our writers have once again drawn up lists of our favourite dance performances and plays of the year for your reading pleasure.

Now excuse us while we go back to our New Year's party! Joy to the world!

Obviously, each of our writers can't catch all the plays and dance performances that are put on in Singapore in any given year, so we're keen for you to fill in the gaps. What do you think about the shows you saw in 2007? Which were the best and brightest of the year? Use the comments option at the bottom of the page to let us know!

Inkpot Picks 2007

Matthew Lyon's Picks

1. Gin and Tonic and Passing Trains by Ramesh Meyyappan in conjunction with Spike Theatre

Sublime storytelling, pure and simple. Meyyappan out-Dickenses Dickens, crafting a tale by turns cheeky, magical and sickening. The world may have lost Marcel Marceau this year, but it is in no danger of losing first-class mime.

Performer Ramesh Meyyappan says:

Many thanks for including Gin and Tonic and Passing Trains in your list of productions of the year. Any feedback is always appreciated and this level of appreciation is certainly very encouraging. Performing solo rarely feels lonely as audiences engage and respond so positively to the simple narrative style that I use. Developing the work is also never solitary and there are a few folks I would like to thank again for their creative input: Spike Theatre (UK), Mark Smith, Justin Breman, Paul Skinner, Richard Kent, Karen Lorimer and Wendy Ng (Singapore).

2. Angel by Duda Paiva Puppetry & Dance

A tramp meets an angel, a little cherub boy. They dance, they sing, they fall apart. Is the cherub the tramp's dead baby, a child he abused, or the child that died inside him long ago? We never find out, but we do learn how blistering pain can be wrapped in surreal comedy, and how they keep each other hot. Deeply disturbing, impossibly well-performed, and supernaturally good.

3. Good People by The Necessary Stage

Continuing proof of TNS's renaissance. Playwright Haresh Sharma goes one better than last year's already excellent Fundamentally Happy to produce a beautifully layered work that director Alvin Tan then massages into a gently numinous realism. This is a humble and generous work that admits it can't explain who we are or why we do the things we do, but nonetheless encourages us to forgive ourselves for being human.

4. The Train by Cho-In Theatre (external review by Ng Yi-Sheng)

There is a wistful shabbiness to all the surfaces of this war-torn world of beggars, soldiers and pimps - but everything beneath is bright and pure: pure delight, pure hunger, pure terror. Director Park Chung-euy tightly choreographs his gifted cast of mime artists, finding clockwork magic in simple human actions - the turn of a head, the flash of an eye. Though slightly slow, this is a rich and beautiful, bittersweet production.

5. King Lear by The Royal Shakespeare Company

Let's hear it for Serena! If there's one thing us Brits pride ourselves on, it's old Willie Rattlestaff, and although this production, by Trevor Nunn, didn't do everything right (why did you hang the Fool, Trev?) it had more than enough going for it to impress. The staging was simple and elegant; the play's elemental themes couldn't have been clearer, and Sir Ian's central performance was a blustering force of nature unaware that it was close to being spent. I will remember an old man, once powerful, once fawned on, who simply could not understand why no one wanted to listen to him any more. It sounds simple, but it's sad and hurting and true.

Kenneth Kwok's Picks

Note: Kenneth was based in the United States from Sept '06 to June '07

1. The Pillowman by the Singapore Repertory Theatre

Truly horrific - and I mean that as a compliment to this dark fantasy. Also boasts stand-out performances by Daniel Jenkins, Michael Corbidge and Adrian Pang.

2. Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3 by W!ld Rice

Happy Endings speaks movingly not just about what it means to be gay in Singapore - the prejudice, pain and pride - but also more generally about unfinished childhoods and what it means to truly live a full life. It is a play about change, about equality and about acceptance, of yourself and of others. Not flawless but still a wonderfully Beautiful Thing. Karen Tan, meanwhile, cements her position as arguably the finest actress on the local stage today with an impassioned and truly heartbreaking performance.

Playwright Alfian Bin Sa'at says:

I'm very heartened that Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3 made the list this year. It means a lot to me that our work was recognised by The Flying Inkpot, which is dedicated to in-depth reviews and whose archive is an invaluable resource to the theatre community. I'd like to thank Ivan Heng, Johann S Lee, as well as the cast and crew of the play, for bringing both a novel and a play to life, and for making literature matter once more.

3. Good People by The Necessary Stage

Haresh Sharma's script is one of the most intricately crafted I have seen on stage this year: for all its daring and complexity, it is deceptively simple and controlled. Fine work by every single member of the cast and the crew enables it to come to life on onstage as a whole theatrical experience. Deeply satisfying on multiple levels.

Deanne Tan's Picks

1. Beijing Ren by People's Art Theatre

Its length notwithstanding, this powerful, elegant work was given an unforgettable, nightmarish spin by the immensely accomplished Beijing People's Art Theatre. Kudos to the Singapore Arts Fest for including this in the 2007 programme.

2. The Pillowman by the Singapore Repertory Theatre

A compelling script, gifted cast, seamless staging and enlightened use of multimedia. This is one of the few plays this year I would recommend to all my friends! (Just don't bring your kids along.)

Director Tracie Pang says:

Thank you so much for making The Pillowman one of your picks of the year. It was a tough script for all of us to work on, and although we thought the play was brilliantly written, we really were not sure what the audience response would be to such a harsh piece of theatre. I have to thank my cast for trusting whole-heartedly in my direction, all of the cast were so dedicated to creating the best possible performances for themselves and their fellow actors. It was really great to have that level of buy-in from your cast and crew, and for the audiences' benefit, I think it really showed. I am very proud of this production as I believe all who worked on it are. Thanks guys, and thanks to the audience who came and sat through a very disturbing play in the name of Theatre. We will strive to do our best to give you something to enjoy again next year.

3. The Dim Sum Dollies: The History of Singapore by Dream Academy

Consistent quality deserves honourable mention. The much-loved Dollies have made an indelible mark on the local comedy and satire scene with their razor-sharp wit and fabulous production values. This year's "history lesson" underscored all of the above.

Ng Yi-Sheng's Picks

Note: Yi-Sheng is a Creative-in-Residence with TheatreWorks

1. King Lear: The Avoidance of Love by Ho Tzu Nyen and Fran Borgia
(review by Ng Yi-Sheng for The Substation Magazine)

A gorgeously mind-bending event, insanely collapsing the categories of conceptual art and popular theatre, and terribly important for both. Kudos to the Esplanade's SPARKS programme for curating such an unlikely happening.

Ho Tzu Nyen (on behalf of co-creators Ho Tzu Nyen and Fran Borgia) says:

King Lear - The Avoidance of Love is many things to us. It is a small adventure into the world of theatre-making, a dream of a different kind of drama, an experiment in creating conditions for a new kind of film-making, a chance to revisit Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, as well as an engagement with a marvelous essay, The Avoidance of Love, written by the philosopher Stanley Cavell. But the project was also an attempt on our part to begin some kind of dialogue with people who are involved in making, thinking and watching theatre, and we are grateful whenever we get responses - assuring us that we have not been involved in making monologues all this while.

2. Sacred Monsters by Sylvie Guillem and the Akram Khan Company

The most memorable of the ra-ra international megashows of 2007: a spellbinding union of two traditions of classical dance as practiced by their masters with a streak of contemporary conceptualism. Gorgeous to behold, both magnificent and intimate.

3. 0501 by The Finger Players

Another very beautiful but under-publicised experiment. Instead of just doing another puppet drama, the company truly stretches itself with performance art/dance vignettes by tech creatives. Both visually arresting and adventurous in process - a dynamite mix. (Wah lau, I'm really rooting for interdisciplinary work this year, huh?)

4. Mad Forest by Young and W!LD!

A last-minute addition to the list - this reprise of Caryl Churchill's 1990 play about the Romanian revolution is suffused with intensity, strangeness and relevance to our times, performed with remarkable aplomb by the young cast. Why don't we write plays like this in Singapore?

5. 120 by Theatreworks

Sure, it had flaws, and plenty of people didn't dig it. But I love the fact that the National Museum - a government institution - was able to give the go-ahead to Theatreworks to create an investigative piece, highlighting the uncertainties and ironies involved in the construction of such an institution. Also, the epic excess of stories and exploratory use of space just thrilled me -takes you back to the more pioneering days of the group, with specific comparisons to their Broken Birds project in Fort Canning in 1995.

Amos Toh's Pick

1. Nothing by Cake Theatrical Productions

Nothing's dreamlike pastiche of human relationships reveals that death does not merely end a life, but is also an intrinsic part of life. Natalie Hennedige's inventive treatment of death is touched by an unwavering liveliness: butoh dance moves, a deft sense of humour, gaudy wigs and flashy costumes pervade every sequence, adding a touch of comic surreal to even the bleakest and most morbid of scenes. It is also compelling to see Nothing's virtuosic cast speak in their native languages or dialects. While these multilingual performances show death to be a shared experience transcending cultural boundaries, they also reveal it to be an intensely personal encounter that magnifies our current state of existence and the individual choices we make. A glorious theatrical experiment that reorients us to the pleasures of bona fide drama.

Playwright / Director Natalie Hennedige says:

Thank you Flying Inkpot. Theatre is such a collaborative effort - everyone contributes, everyone offers something unique - actors, writers, designers, production people, crew, technicians - each offers something precious, a gift, something deeply valuable that brings something special to each work. The work doesn't belong to one person, it belongs to everyone who had any part in it. All this passionate work, springing from creativity and generosity, is done so that we can share it with others, those who come and watch and partake in an experience that is created for them to be uplifted, transported, for a brief period, somewhere else. The Flying Inkpot - especially Matthew, Kenneth, Amos, Yi-Sheng and Musa - I have deeply valued your writing and thoughts about Cake's works in the past two years. I have often read and re-read your reviews and I have gained a great deal from your various perspectives. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and wish you all the very best for the new year!

Stephanie Burridge's Picks

1. Blind Date by Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Challenging dance theatre that truly reflects on the dilemmas of the contemporary world from an intensely human perspective. The onslaught of imagery, combined with the live music and dance on stage, made the work not only engrossing but also, in a sense, claustrophobic - there was no escape or reprieve.

2. Romeo and Juliet by Stuttgart Ballet

John Cranko's ballet, Romeo and Juliet stands the test of time with its human approach to the narrative, its colour and its humour, but, above all, as a showcase for the classical ballet genre performed at the highest level.

3. Three Sisters by Pappa Tarahumara

"Sweetly controlled, dismembered chaos" was how I described Three Sisters performed by the Japanese dance theatre company Pappa Tarahumara. The sisters sang, shrieked, laughed and moved through an intertwined narrative that propelled the audience through the various episodes in their lives.

4. Aether by Lucy Guerin Inc

If you really wanted to shift your perspective on contemporary dance, Aether was the show to see at da:ns 2007. Quirky, whacky and post-post-modern - it was a dance about a new world order ruled by technology, media barrages and chaos.

5. Impressions by the Singapore Dance Theatre

Jeffrey Tan's new choreography Negro Y Blanco, played to the company's strengths. It is an attractive piece which has found a place in the company's repertoire.

Ratings out of 5, based on Practitioner's Vision / Reviewer's Response: ***** = Transcendent / Rapturous;
**** = Crystal / Appreciative; *** = Transmitted / Thoughtful; ** = Vague / Unsatisfied; * = Uncommunicated / Mystified.

To break between paragraphs, type <br<br>

Readers' Comments