Latest news with #ShakespeareInThePark
Straits Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
My Perfect Weekend with SRT's artistic director Gaurav Kripalani
Gaurav Kripalani is the artistic director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre. PHOTO: COURTESY OF GAURAV KRIPALANI Who: Gaurav Kripalani, 53, is the artistic director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT). Over his 23 years with the company, he has produced more than 100 plays. The company is now staging Macbeth as part of its Shakespeare In The Park series. Running at Fort Canning Park till June 1, the outdoor production reimagines the Bard's classic tale of ambition, betrayal and the devastating cost of power. Previous runs of SRT's Shakespeare In The Park include Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night's Dream. 'My perfect weekend would entail watching a good play, enjoying a plate of my favourite chicken rice, spending time with friends and family, and catching up on sleep. Every May, my friends and family organise a picnic for me in the park for my birthday weekend, as my birthday falls on May 8. In true Singaporean fashion, what is on the menu is a major part of the planning. There is usually an impressive spread and, over time, the whole thing has grown into something of a production. Each year, they choose a theme and go all out with decorations and props. It is equal parts over-the-top and incredibly thoughtful. Being able to lie on a picnic mat under the stars with those near and dear to you, enjoying a drink and a sumptuous meal, is a kind of magic you do not find often. For me, food, laughter and being surrounded by people who matter most – that is what makes a weekend perfect. And the cherry on top? Being able to sleep in late the next morning. When I do eventually surface, Sunday tends to be fairly relaxed and s tarts with coffee. I love the aroma as much as the taste – there is something comforting and almost ritualistic about it. I am quite addicted, to be honest. Gaurav Kripalani celebrating his 53rd birthday at a picnic. PHOTO: COURTESY OF GAURAV KRIPALANI I am also a bit of a news junkie, so I usually spend a couple of hours reading a mix of newspapers – local and international. It is my version of a slow Sunday. In the evening, I will often head out to catch a play and a meal with friends. Then it is back home, just in time to catch an Arsenal match or a Formula One race – sometimes both, if I am lucky. I feel very blessed to have a wonderful family and a few special friends who always go out of their way to make my birthday weekends memorable. They are the heart of it all – and the reason these weekends mean so much. ' Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Made in Johor: How Shakespeare In The Park's Macbeth set made its way to Fort Canning
Made in Johor: How Shakespeare In The Park's Macbeth set made its way to Fort Canning JOHOR – In a Johor factory, on a March morning, stands more than 200 rusty columns shooting skywards, arranged in bundles to evoke either a sinuous dune or a towering castle complex. In April, they would be dismantled, ferried in a dozen lorries across the Causeway, and reassembled in Fort Canning Park . Singapore Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare In The Park might be a Singaporean production, but its outdoor sets have always been made in a small Malaysian town known as Pekan Nanas. The productions' epic sets – this one goes up to 14m high – are too big to be built in compact Singapore, so they are fabricated in a spacious town a 30-minute drive from Tuas Checkpoint. Come May 7 to June 1, director Guy Unsworth is staging one of William Shakespeare's great tragedies – Macbeth. Actor Ghafir Akbar, two-time Best Actor winner at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards, and actress Julie Wee will reunite after acting together in 2024's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This time, they are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth at the outdoor theatrical experience where audiences can picnic under the stars. But one glance at the abstract geometry of the set, and audiences know they are not in Scotland . Unsworth, who set Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in an oil refinery, is transplanting this tale of ambition and power to another world. Set designer Richard Kent – who also worked on the 2024 set that won The Straits Times Life Theatre Award for Best Set – brings up the Star Wars (1977 to present) and Dune (2021 to present) films as two reference points, worlds 'which are human but from another place' and 'don't feel like they belong to Earth '. Unsworth says of the boom in sci-fi epics in popular culture: 'They allow us to escape to another world while, on some deep and subconscious level, are direct reflections of the world that we recognise.' Unsworth and Kent also reference places on Earth – the basalt columns in Iceland and Giant's Causeway in Ireland. Indeed, standing before the unfinished set, one already feels the sense of smallness amid the colossal set, as if one were in the presence of nature's awe-inspiring formations. Their idea is to create a version of Macbeth where copper is the currency – which is reflected in the landscape – and the title character's murderous quest for political power is also a quest to control the resources of the land. To bring their idea to life, craftsmen at Arina Hogan Builders have been working since January. The set for the Singapore Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare In The Park is built in Pekan Nanas, Johor, based on the model (front) provided by the set designer. ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO Marc Andre Therrien, 74, technical consultant for the show, is on set when this reporter visits the factory – taking SRT's group of stage managers, choreographers, lighting teams and other crew members around . 'The designer wanted sand, but it's too complicated and problematic because it's abrasive and it gets everywhere – in your shoes and in the dressing room ,' he says, turning instead to a material used for the flooring of playgrounds. The former director of technical services at circus producer Cirque du Soleil Singapore from 1994 to 2000 knows a thing or two about athletic sets. He has picked out for the main set plywood and metal, materials which he knows can withstand the elements at Fort Canning Park. Scenic designer Natalie Chung – Therrien's wife and a former interior designer – is also on set, hand-painting the columns with a reddish-brown paint for a rusty texture. Marc Andre Therrien, technical consultant for the Macbeth set, at the backstage of the set. ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO 'The biggest challenge is the towering height of the set,' she says, having to climb onto a scaffold to paint the highest parts. The duo have worked together on more than 10 Shakespeare In The Park sets and it is something they look forward to every year. 'Every Shakespeare In The Park set has its own distinct personality, and I always manage to use different materials ,' she adds, saying that one of her favourite sets to design was a large book-shaped one for The Tempest in 2015. Scenic artist Natalie Chung painting the columns of the set of Shakespeare In The Park. ST PHOTO: SHAWN HOO Unsworth is careful not to reveal too many things about the upcoming show. But he lets on that the prophetic speech of the witches has been garbled through artificial intelligence (AI) software in a combination of South-east Asian languages and the original rhythms of the Shakespearean language. 'The witches (in Macbeth) represent a source of knowledge that Macbeth very readily just believes and accepts. They are there to make forecasts of the future and he just believes them. Isn't that what we're doing right now? We're just accepting that AI knows everything.' The maze-like set, Kent says, is built in a way that makes it difficult to guess where actors will appear and disappear. In Britain , where Kent and Unsworth are based, it is not common for a set designer or director to be able to look at the set until it is bumped in to the theatre. Kent, on the car ride to Singapore after a morning in Pekan Nanas, says: 'It's a bit of a treat here to get to see the whole thing.' Book It/Shakespeare In The Park: Macbeth Where: Fort Canning Park When: May 7 to June 1, 7.30pm (Thursdays to Sundays); park opens at 6pm Admission: $60 to $188 Info: Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Times
This Malaysian actor is scoring the best Singapore roles
[SINGAPORE] The first thing Ghafir Akbar tells you about Macbeth is that he doesn't sleep. Not after the killing starts. Not after he seizes the throne. 'The play keeps returning to the idea that Macbeth is robbed of sleep,' Ghafir says. 'I started thinking – what if he really hasn't slept for days? How mad could he become?' It's not hypothetical. Rehearsing for the biggest role of his career – the title character in this year's Shakespeare In The Park production by Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) – Ghafir, 44, finds himself just as restless. His own nights have been broken by the demands of the part: the weight of the language, the choreography of violence, the long descent into insanity. 'Lines, choreography, psychological realism – it's all taking a bit of a toll on my mental health,' he admits. 'But the process is necessary. You need to feel the tension that Macbeth lives with – the pressure that's tearing him apart.' Shakespeare's blood-soaked tragedy gets a semi-futuristic, dystopian interpretation in SRT's Shakespeare In The Park: Macbeth. PHOTO: SRT Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most brutal tragedies. It centres on General Macbeth who meets three witches prophesying that he would one day become king. Urged on by his wife, Lady Macbeth, he decides to murder the reigning monarch and claim the crown. Soon after, he is haunted by ghosts and guilt – leading him to commit even more murders as he spirals toward madness. For Ghafir, the challenge is making Macbeth feel human. 'I can't play him as a villain,' he insists. 'If I do, I won't love him. And if I don't love him, neither will the audience. I want the audience to love him somehow – so they will go some way in trying to understand him.' A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up Climbing the theatre ranks But to understand how Ghafir scored the plummest role in the current theatre season, you have to look back: Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, trained in the US, he arrived in Singapore in 2015 to join an ensemble of three Wild Rice plays. Directors Ivan Heng and Glen Goei enjoyed working with him – and he soon caught the eye of other top directors such as Alvin Tan of The Necessary Stage and Natalie Hennedige of Cake Theatre. What set him apart wasn't bravado, but what directors call 'clarity' – the ability to anchor a scene with quiet force, to listen as hard as he speaks. Over time, that clarity, paired with a strong emotional control and a humble personality, made him one of Singapore's most sought-after stage actors. Other directors such as Chong Tze Chien and Samantha Scott Blackhall also came a-calling. And Ghafir kept delivering. Ghafir Akbar has risen from being an ensemble player to a leading man. PHOTO: BT FILE In March, he pulled off one of the rarest feats in Singapore theatre: not one, but two Best Actor nominations at The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, for his lead roles in SRT's Disgraced and Wild Rice's Accidental Death Of An Activist. He won for the latter. The double nod alone would have been impressive. But what makes it extraordinary is that he had already taken home the Best Actor prize the year before for his turn in SRT's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Despite his flourishing success, the actor describes himself as being 'full of doubt'. He says: 'Actors always wonder if we're good enough, if we deserve to be here. But the doubt is useful. It keeps you humble. It keeps you hungry.' That doubt, that vulnerability, might be what makes him the right Macbeth at the right time. Director Guy Unsworth has set this year's production in a semi-futuristic dystopia, where cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence hums through the witches' chants and tribal soundscapes. But beneath the spectacle, the bones of the play remain the same – a man, his wife, a prophecy, and the tragedy that follows. Ghafir Akbar and Julie Wee (foreground) play King Oberon and Queen Titania in 2023's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It earned Ghafir his 2024 Best Actor award. PHOTO: BT FILE With actress Julie Wee as Lady Macbeth – their third time playing stage partners – the production will explore the tenderness and toxicity of one of theatre's most monstrous couples, undone not just by ambition, but by their love for each other. The next dream role After nearly a decade of breathing life into the words of playwrights like Haresh Sharma, Alfian Sa'at, Ayad Akhtar, Dario Fo, Henrik Ibsen – and, of course, Shakespeare – who's left on his wish list? 'Chekhov,' Ghafir says, without missing a beat. 'I did a lot of Chekhov in drama school. It shaped me as an actor – the subtle shifts, the silences, the longing that never gets spoken. I'd love to return to it now, 25 years later. To see if I understand it differently, if I'm better.' He smiles. 'Macbeth is about going too far,' he says. 'Chekhov is about never quite getting there. Maybe that's what I need next – after I survive this production. After I get some proper sleep again.' Shakespeare In The Park: Macbeth runs at Fort Canning Park from May 7 to Jun 1. Tickets from
