Flipside Festival at Esplanade to feature theatre performances, puppetry from May 26 to Jun 4

The Esplanade will hold a series of circus, comedy, and puppetry events as part of the Flipside Festival from May 26 to Jun 4. 

Returning for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the 10-day festival – which showcases circus arts, music, humour, and technology – will feature a mix of local and international artists hailing from seven countries such as Canada and France.

Most of the festival’s programmes are free, including Circus 101 by Bornfire Circus where visitors can challenge themselves to circus activities such as plate spinning and juggling.

The programme will be held at 5pm on Jun 3 and 4 at the Esplanade Courtyard. 

Visitors can also marvel at high-flying aerialists for free at the Aerial Open Stage at 8.45pm on May 26 and 8.15pm on May 27 and 28. 

The performance will feature 13 Singaporean aerialists performing on apparatus such as the hoop, hammock, pole and silks.

The 30-minute performance can be viewed at the DBS Foundation Outdoor Theatre.

Another free performance is Bakéké (Bucket), by French artist Fabrizio Rosselli. 

It follows a man as he begins to manoeuvre buckets like a worker performing repetitive tasks. However, the operation never concludes as planned and the buckets become objects of play and invention.

The 30-minute performance will be held from Jun 1 to 4 at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre.

Chimpanzee is a ticketed puppet play programme by puppet artist and theatre practitioner Nick Lehane and is based on the stranger-than-fiction stories of chimpanzees raised as children in human homes in a series of cross-fostering experiments conducted in the United States.

This play illustrates a bunraku style chimpanzee reminiscing about the comfort, curiosity and freedom she had growing up in a human family, in contrast to her bleak present-day reality in a biomedical facility.

The one-hour play will be held on May 26, 27 and 28 at the Esplanade Theatre Studio. Tickets can be purchased at a standard price of $38. 

Visitors should note that the performance contains flashing lights and scenes that may be potentially disturbing.

A parent-child workshop called Fun with Improv will be held at the Esplanade Bay Room. 

Organised by SABOsTAGE! Co-creators Joanne Ng and Lewis Bernard, participants can learn acting improvisations through fun and easy-to-play games.

The event will be held on May 29 from 11am to 12.15pm. Tickets, priced at $15, must be bought in an adult-child pair.