Last year's runaway hit goes on first overseas tour at Singapore International Festival of Arts
National Theater Company of Korea’s 2025 runaway hit, “Hedda Gabler,” is touring overseas for the first time at the Singapore International Festival of Arts 2026, which kicks off Friday.
The contemporary reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s play — helmed by the company’s artistic director Park Jung-hee and featuring veteran actor Lee Hye-young, who reprised the role of Hedda Tesman after playing it in 2012 — performed to a sold-out audience for all 22 shows at the Myeongdong Theater in Seoul in May 2025.
In Singapore, “Hedda Gabler” will be staged in Korean with English subtitles, May 28-30 at the Drama Centre Theatre.
Other highlights of this year’s festival led by Festival Director Chong Tze Chien include a bold reinterpretation of “Hamlet” by Teatro La Plaza of Peru featuring actors with Down syndrome. Blending Shakespeare’s text with the performers’ own experiences, the production explores existence, desire and frustration.
On a lighter note is “Salesman,” inspired by Arthur Miller’s 1983 visit to Beijing to direct a Mandarin production of “Death of a Salesman.” Written by Jeremy Tiang and directed by Danny Yeo, it is a warm and funny, multilingual tale of cultural confusion and the chaos of theater.
Meanwhile, “Lacrima,” an epic drama by French director, author and filmmaker Caroline Guiela Nguyen, looks into the world behind a fictional Parisian haute couture commission for a royal wedding. Bringing together a cast of professional and non-professional performers, the work examines labor and the emotional burden of those who create objects of desire.
No performing arts festival would be complete without a spectacular aerial show. “Noli Timere” by Canadian director and choreographer Rebecca Lazier and American sculptor Janet Echelman explores how we navigate an unstable world through Echelman’s net sculpture and eight performers. It is marking its Asian premiere at SIFA 2026.
The Human Expression Dance Company, which staged “Infinitely Closer” at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul in April last year, explores the intertwining of culture, digital identities and everyday norms in “Strangely Familiar,” a transcultural dance production.
In addition to the “Hedda Gabler” production, there will be other Korean presence at the festival.
Korean actor and Laban Movement Analysis expert Lee Ho-young and Singapore’s Li Xie, a biomechanics expert, collaborated on “We Live Here,” an interactive movement event that pushes the boundaries of physical theater.
Veteran actor Jung Dong-hwan and mime artist Nam Geung-ho take part in “Last Rites,” a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary work by Singapore’s Liu Xiaoyi that brings together five iconic performance artists from across Asia to discuss endings and legacy.
Organized by Arts House Group and commissioned by the National Arts Council, SIFA 2026 will run May 15-30 at several indoor and outdoor venues across Singapore.
khooran@heraldcorp.com
