Flippin' good fun at the Flipside Festival
Last weekend, we checked out Flipside at the Esplanade.
Flipside is a festival that presents the lighter side of the arts and offers lots of fun and quirky (if a little bit eccentric) theatre, music and dance programmes. It is great for adults and children alike. The best part is, most of it is free!
On Saturday night, Sean and I watched a shadow puppet comedy from Montreal, Canada called Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones.
Jeff the slightly wacky puppeteer ran the entire show himself. What was truly remarkable was, he transformed bits of household junk (like gloves, masking tape, balloons, luggage bags, etc) into surreal characters and brought them to live in a animated series of comic sketches.
Oh, we laughed so hard in the audience. Jeff ended the one-hour show with bubbles and a brilliant quote, 'Remember no matter how big or old you get, there is always time for play.' Hear, hear :)
There are also a whole bunch of free performances and activities at the concourse and waterfront area. There was so much to see - we stayed till 930pm on Saturday (way past Sean's bedtime) but still didn't manage to cover everything so the next day, I brought the whole family down again.
At the concourse, the boys made silly cat and bunny headbands out of pipe cleaners. We watched the Yaraichou Broadway Boys comedy show of 'mini proportions' out of a black box. We also posed for pics in an optical illusion of lounging chairs.
Then, out at the waterfront area, the boys met Mr and Mrs Pigeon. Ryan were a bit freaked out by their size but Sean got a huge kick from trailing them everywhere, listening to them coo and trying his best to get a glimpse of the people inside the costumes. Mrs Pigeon even laid a Kinder Bueno egg at one point. LOL!
Sean also played a game of 'Magic Toadstools' with the Human Jukebox trio who were dressed up as playing cards. They were great with the kids and really good singers to boot!
My favourite was El Laberint (from Spain), an intricate open-air maze of transparent doors and windows. You have to solve riddles and perform little tricks and manoevres to open the doors.
Sean was glued to a particular door where he had to pass a metal disc through a spinning wheel - he loved it coz it was one of the few puzzles he could complete on his own. It was all very, very cool and we spent ages here :)
Another performance we really enjoyed was by the Sharpe Brothers at the Outdoor Theatre.
They put on an impressive and hilarious performance of acrobatics and juggling diabolos and knives. Sean and I enjoyed the show so much we actually watched it THRICE over two days. Poor Sean *really* wanted to volunteer to go on stage and was very upset he never got picked :\
Truly a top-notch event - I am so glad we caught it and we had so much fun!
Flipside runs at the Esplanade till 26 May (this weekend). They have new acts this week. You can see their calendar here. I actually rushed to get this post out hoping that more of you will go for it because it is really that GOOD. PS. 5pm is a good time to arrive because that's when most of the programmes start. Have fun!
Flipside is a festival that presents the lighter side of the arts and offers lots of fun and quirky (if a little bit eccentric) theatre, music and dance programmes. It is great for adults and children alike. The best part is, most of it is free!
On Saturday night, Sean and I watched a shadow puppet comedy from Montreal, Canada called Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones.
Jeff the slightly wacky puppeteer ran the entire show himself. What was truly remarkable was, he transformed bits of household junk (like gloves, masking tape, balloons, luggage bags, etc) into surreal characters and brought them to live in a animated series of comic sketches.
Oh, we laughed so hard in the audience. Jeff ended the one-hour show with bubbles and a brilliant quote, 'Remember no matter how big or old you get, there is always time for play.' Hear, hear :)
There are also a whole bunch of free performances and activities at the concourse and waterfront area. There was so much to see - we stayed till 930pm on Saturday (way past Sean's bedtime) but still didn't manage to cover everything so the next day, I brought the whole family down again.
At the concourse, the boys made silly cat and bunny headbands out of pipe cleaners. We watched the Yaraichou Broadway Boys comedy show of 'mini proportions' out of a black box. We also posed for pics in an optical illusion of lounging chairs.
Then, out at the waterfront area, the boys met Mr and Mrs Pigeon. Ryan were a bit freaked out by their size but Sean got a huge kick from trailing them everywhere, listening to them coo and trying his best to get a glimpse of the people inside the costumes. Mrs Pigeon even laid a Kinder Bueno egg at one point. LOL!
Sean also played a game of 'Magic Toadstools' with the Human Jukebox trio who were dressed up as playing cards. They were great with the kids and really good singers to boot!
My favourite was El Laberint (from Spain), an intricate open-air maze of transparent doors and windows. You have to solve riddles and perform little tricks and manoevres to open the doors.
Sean was glued to a particular door where he had to pass a metal disc through a spinning wheel - he loved it coz it was one of the few puzzles he could complete on his own. It was all very, very cool and we spent ages here :)
Another performance we really enjoyed was by the Sharpe Brothers at the Outdoor Theatre.
They put on an impressive and hilarious performance of acrobatics and juggling diabolos and knives. Sean and I enjoyed the show so much we actually watched it THRICE over two days. Poor Sean *really* wanted to volunteer to go on stage and was very upset he never got picked :\
Truly a top-notch event - I am so glad we caught it and we had so much fun!
Flipside runs at the Esplanade till 26 May (this weekend). They have new acts this week. You can see their calendar here. I actually rushed to get this post out hoping that more of you will go for it because it is really that GOOD. PS. 5pm is a good time to arrive because that's when most of the programmes start. Have fun!