Highlights from Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Tuesdays With Morrie
by Godot Theatre Company (Taiwan)

20 – 22 Jul
Performed in Mandarin with English surtitles

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

Photo credit: Esplanade

One of the world’s top selling memoirs of all time, Tuesdays with Morrie is a moving rumination about life and death, based on author Mitch Albom’s interviews with his college Professor Morrie Schwartz. Schwartz was afflicted with the terminal ALS disease (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and the story chronicles his thoughts about living a meaningful life over a series of meetings—always on Tuesdays—that Schwartz had with Albom before his passing. The runaway bestseller of a novel/memoir was published in 1997, the book and its proceeds helped to pay for Schwartz’s medical bills.

Photo credit: Esplanade

The book was adapted by Godot Theatre Company into a heartwarming play which premiered in Taiwan in 2011 and features Golden Horse Award-winner Jin Shi Jie as Morrie and popular host Pu Xueliang as Mitch.

Performed since 2011 with over 200 shows and highly recommended by 200,000 audience, this gentle, charming and thought-provoking play is full of vitality and has touched the lives of many. “I approached Godot Theatre about this heart-moving play and said it might lose money, but it actually became a crowd drawer,” director Daniel Yang told the Taipei Times.

Photo credit: Esplanade

Why Watch It
To get a shot of good feelings in the arm and leave the theatre with a greater appetite and appreciation for life.

Click here to purchase tickets to the show.  

Baybeats

Photo credit: Esplanade

Baybeats is an annual 3-day alternative music festival organised by Esplanade, held in Singapore from 17 to 19 Aug. It showcases various local acts as well as regional and international artistes. The festival is located at Esplanade and is non-ticketed.

The festival was launched in 2002 primarily to create a platform to showcase indie-rock musicians in Asia, especially local musicians, and to expose Singapore audiences to quality acts in the genre as well as to develop the industry. Esplanade saw a gap in the market in terms of platforms for indie musicians to perform at and the need to satisfy the audience needs for this kind of music, which no other commercial presenter was bringing into Singapore at that time. The festival provides opportunities for youths and the music community to participate and enjoy their own music at low cost – musicians, writers, photographers, designers as well as fans. The festival has been recognised as a launchpad for local indie talents and play an instrumental role in the development of these bands. With a discerning selection of quality performances from diverse Asian countries and a wide spectrum of alternative music genres, the festival is starting to attract international musicians as well as music-lovers to Singapore by offering Baybeats as the essential destination to experience the spirit of indie music in Asia.

Photo credit: Esplanade

2018 marks the 17^th edition of Baybeats. In the past years, we have witnessed significant growth and change in the Singapore music community. This includes the type of music and the way musicians present their work. The definition of what constitutes alternative music has also changed. Against this backdrop, we are inviting musicians and the creative community who support their works to revisit and explore this evolution of alternative music. Through stories of their creative journey, we can understand the process of this evolution and, more importantly, find out what is next for this community. Along with the local artistes, this year’s edition features regional/international artistes from countries such as United States, Israel, Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.

This year also happens to be the final year that the powerhouse will be situated at the edge as the space will be giving way to the new waterfront theatre. As such, we are presenting artists that have journeyed with the festival and had headlined the powerhouse stage in previous years.

Photo credit: Esplanade

Baybeats has been an integral component of the scene for the last 17 years. While the festival has influenced the scene, the Baybeats team is envisioning the festival to expand its influence and become more regionally active, foster new relations with other festivals/presenters.

Visit Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay’s website here.