We were surprised by the size of the crowd that had gathered by the Singapore River... The French street theatre troupe, ilotopie, had kicked off the Singapore Art Festival 2008 with their unique performance on water.
The early birds were nice enough to sit in neat rows at the front. Tho' I suspect maybe they were just afraid to be pushed into the river by those behind, so it was safer to sit! -lol- But those at the back rows were less considerate and stood throughout the performance. Thus, we had on stand on the steps from far, twist and turn our heads, so as to get a glimpse of whatever was happening, through some of the small openings among the crowd!
The ilotopie is a collection of actors, sculptors, musicians and creators from France, with over twenty years of performance experience. The show they performed in Singapore was entitled "Water Fools". It was a show of ingenious contraptions that float on water, with performers on them that played with fire, and beautiful fireworks in-sync with the wonderful music. For moments in the show, I felt like the Singapore River was transformed into one of the famous rivers in Europe... perhaps the Thames - if only the Singapore Flyer was situated by the River too.
Below are some of the contraptions I found on the Internet. Notice the man in the wheel below the woman? The contraption moved as he ran on the wheel like a hamster!
There were this big bed and car...
And this men cycling on water!
The following is the description of this show on their website, "A field of experiences marrying new theatre with an ancient element. Solving countless technical difficulties in order to allow the actor to keep his expressive powers and his liberty of movement on the liquid element, we understood that each living image torn from its improbability made a new myth, from a single gesture and a single way of being ; thus a "water piece" for 15 actors and thousands of spectators was born. Actor-chimeras, fire joust, musical flights or incandescent machinery will then, carried on by masterly touches of light, colour and explosion, trace the ephemeral dramatic and utopian condition of mankind."
Looking thru' the small openings, I could not really tell what the storyline was. I am guessing it was about the simple lives of man, and man mastering the fire, playing with fire, but ended up blowing themselves up (which was the most interesting part with the fireworks!). Well, the fireworks was the only thing which we were able to see clearly cuz it was so high up in the sky! Tho' the other thing I saw was plenty of beautiful girls around. hah.
There were many people with cameras and video cam. I'm sure soon, one of those clips will make their way to youTube. In the meantime, enjoy this clip which I found of the same show performed earlier this year at Darling Habour in Sydney.
If you had missed the show tonight, catch the live performance either on Sat or Sun at 8pm this weekend! Hopefully, it will be less crowded. =)
The early birds were nice enough to sit in neat rows at the front. Tho' I suspect maybe they were just afraid to be pushed into the river by those behind, so it was safer to sit! -lol- But those at the back rows were less considerate and stood throughout the performance. Thus, we had on stand on the steps from far, twist and turn our heads, so as to get a glimpse of whatever was happening, through some of the small openings among the crowd!
The ilotopie is a collection of actors, sculptors, musicians and creators from France, with over twenty years of performance experience. The show they performed in Singapore was entitled "Water Fools". It was a show of ingenious contraptions that float on water, with performers on them that played with fire, and beautiful fireworks in-sync with the wonderful music. For moments in the show, I felt like the Singapore River was transformed into one of the famous rivers in Europe... perhaps the Thames - if only the Singapore Flyer was situated by the River too.
Below are some of the contraptions I found on the Internet. Notice the man in the wheel below the woman? The contraption moved as he ran on the wheel like a hamster!
Looking thru' the small openings, I could not really tell what the storyline was. I am guessing it was about the simple lives of man, and man mastering the fire, playing with fire, but ended up blowing themselves up (which was the most interesting part with the fireworks!). Well, the fireworks was the only thing which we were able to see clearly cuz it was so high up in the sky! Tho' the other thing I saw was plenty of beautiful girls around. hah.
There were many people with cameras and video cam. I'm sure soon, one of those clips will make their way to youTube. In the meantime, enjoy this clip which I found of the same show performed earlier this year at Darling Habour in Sydney.
If you had missed the show tonight, catch the live performance either on Sat or Sun at 8pm this weekend! Hopefully, it will be less crowded. =)
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