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Saturday, October 19, 2002
ASKING QUESTIONS ON A RAISED PLATFORM

The Esplanade — Theaters on the Bay — have been both affectionately and derisively christened "The Durians" after a spiky-looking Southeast Asian fruit — has a 2,000-seat theater, a 1,600-seat concert hall and outdoor performance spaces. The project cost about 600 million Singapore dollars (US$337 million).

Critics wonder how a censorship-heavy place like Singapore can truly become a haven for artists, who are known to always question the status quo, other Singaporeans are happy that the city-state is placing new emphasis on the finer things in life.

"We don't need censorship... we need informed responsible dialogue and discussion," says T. Sasitharan, director of the Practice Performing Arts School, and a signatory of the proposal containing 250 names calling for relaxation of censorship that has been submitted to the government. He has been quoted in the Straits Times newspaper as saying, "The existing rules are patently irrational and unnecessary, not to mention ineffective in this day and age."

Lee Weng Choy, artistic co-director of the Substation says: "As good as the Esplanade may be at trying to engage the local arts, and even deepening and diversifying local arts audiences, it's the wrong beast for this thing." The fear among local artists and critics is that the Esplanade may create demand for international acts rather than local art in a soft-spoken Singapore that has been sensually massaged and brought up on commerical theatre, American and Hong Kong television, Broadyway musicals, and Hollywood movies.

Singapore spent about US$8 per capita on arts funding in 2001, excluding capital expenditure. This was double the US$4 per capital of 2000, but lagged far behind London at US$61 per capita in 1997, New York US$19 per head in 1998. Hong Kong spends around US$28 per capita on the arts.



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