Critical People: Field Notes from a Critic of Singapore Theatre and Culture
In Singapore, the stage has long been a home for people who dare to be critical. Clarissa Oon’s Critical People is a collection of essays on how Singapore theatre and its stalwarts, from Kuo Pao Kun to Alfian Sa’at, have shaped the ways Singaporeans talk about essential social issues like race, queer advocacy and censorship.
And out in the audience, sitting among us, is the critic. In these pages, Oon distils a wealth of insights from nearly three decades of observing Singapore theatre and culture. How far have we come as a society, and where are we headed? In an age when anyone and everyone can criticise, what do we stand to lose if the professional critic disappears? Written from the perspective of a critic who has grown up and grown old with the stage, Critical People is an incisive yet intimate look at what we as a society must care about.
Critical People: Field Notes from a Critic of Singapore Theatre and Culture
Slide to see
Pre-Order Paperback (Orders ship after 5 Dec Launch)
$28.00 SGD
Reviews
"For decades, local theatre has been Singapore’s most stimulating space for open conversations about identity, power and the human-scale contradictions of life in a diverse, developed city. Clarissa Oon pays tribute to the role of arts critics in cultivating that tradition. She argues that, to work its magic, drama needs more than a stage; it must be reflected on and talked about--and sustaining such conversations is the wider society’s responsibility as much as theatre practitioners’." —Cherian George, author, Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited
"Brilliantly blending history and memoir, Clarissa Oon’s Critical People traces the faces, phases and forces that have shaped Singaporean theatre over the past forty years--while carefully considering the context and contours of these conjunctures through reflections both personal and professional. The critical intimacies and positionalities offered in this book are expansive, empathetic, generous and, most importantly, generative. Beyond theatre practitioners and cultural workers, Critical People is essential reading for all who are interested in collective memory and institutional memory, and their relationship to personal experience and public knowledge." —Mark Teh, performance maker & member of Five Arts Centre (Malaysia)
"Oon’s decades-long oeuvre as a critic and thinker about Singapore theatre is distilled into this compelling collection of essays, anchored by research, and interspersed with personal stories and exchanges. They articulate why theatre and its accompanying criticism are vital to an understanding of society while building community and thinking audiences at the same time. Critical People offers a canny and compassionate overview of the drama on and off stage in contemporary Singapore from the subjective lens of a passionate critic. It is also Oon’s urgent plea for the role of criticism, and theatre’s important connection to our identity, as it examines and interrogates what it means to be human. A must-read today for anyone interested in culture in Singapore and for sure, a go-to reference for tomorrow’s theatre researchers and thinkers." —Paul Tan, former arts administrator, writer and philanthropic advisor
Non-Fiction
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-book
$26.00 SGD
This Is What Inequality Looks Like
Paperback
$16.00 SGD
E-book
$16.00 SGD
Why Palestine?: Reflections From Singapore
Paperback
$33.00 SGD
E-Book
$33.00 SGD
We Are Not The Enemy: The Practice of Advocacy in Singapore
Paperback
$22.00 SGD
E-book
$22.00 SGD
Malayland
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-Book
$26.00 SGD
The Singapore I Recognise: Essays on Home, Community and Hope
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-Book
$30.00 SGD
Unease: Life in Singapore Families
Paperback
$40.00 SGD
On Sundays, We Play
E-book
$39.90 SGD
Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singapore
Paperback
$27.00 SGD
E-book
$27.00 SGD
Not Without Us: Perspectives on Disability and Inclusion in Singapore
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Brown is Redacted: Reflecting on Race in Singapore
paperback
$20.00 SGD
E-book
$20.00 SGD
Khairat Kita: A History of Malay/Muslim Mutual Aid in Singapore
Paperback
$16.51 SGD
E-book
$16.51 SGD
What We Inherit: Growing Up Indian
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore
Paperback
$35.00 SGD
Mynah 5
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
Theatres of Memory
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-Book
$30.00 SGD
Voting in a Time of Change: Singapore’s 2020 General Election
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-book
$26.00 SGD
Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Air-Conditioned Nation Revisited
Paperback
$26.00 SGD
E-Book
$26.00 SGD
They Told Us To Move: Dakota—Cassia
Paperback
$18.69 SGD
Siglap at the Crossroads: Memories of Its Only HDB Estate
Paperback
$16.51 SGD
Growing Up Perempuan
Paperback
$11.21 SGD
Lancing Girls of a Happy World
E-book
$0.00 SGD
The CAPE Handbook to Advocacy in Singapore
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
The Art of Advocacy In Singapore
Paperback
$23.36 SGD
Singapore, Incomplete: Reflections on a First World nation’s arrested political development
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
E-book
$30.00 SGD
My Nantah Story: The Rise and Demise of the People’s University
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
Living with Myths in Singapore
Paperback
$28.04 SGD
A Guide to the Employment Act and Its Related Legislations (2nd Edition)
Out of stock
Paperback
$26.17 SGD
LGOU: Let God Owe You
Out of stock
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
A Quest for Freedom
Out of stock
Paperback
$14.95 SGD
I am not a label, I am Gary
Out of stock
Paperback
$22.00 SGD
Budi Kritik
Out of stock
Paperback
$28.04 SGD
Walking With Singapore: The Workers' Party 60th Anniversary
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
Local Encounters in a Global City. Singapore Stories.
Out of stock
Normal
$23.36 SGD
Pay It Forward
$23.36 SGD
The Birthday Book 2017: What should we never forget?
Out of stock
Paperback
$11.21 SGD
A Penniless Boy, Chew Joo Chiat
Out of stock
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
1987: Singapore’s Marxist Conspiracy 30 Years On
Out of stock
Out of print
Paperback
$23.00 SGD
Making Sense of Life @ / & SMU: A Partial Guide for the Clueless
Out of stock
Paperback
$18.00 SGD
Speaking Out & Speaking Up: Xinjiao Perspectives
Out of stock
Paperback
$23.36 SGD
The Birthday Book 2016: What is Singapore’s Next Big Thing?
Out of stock
Paperback
$13.00 SGD
A Watershed Election (新加坡政治的分水岭: 林宝音政论文选)
Out of stock
Paperback
$35.00 SGD
Godsmacked
Out of stock
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
World War II @ Bukit Brown
Out of stock
Default Title
$10.00 SGD
Human Resource Case Studies
Out of stock
Paperback
$25.00 SGD
Change in Voting: Singapore's 2015 General Election
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
In Pursuit of NEW LIFE
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
WITHIN & WITHOUT Singapore in the World; the World in Singapore
Out of stock
Paperback
$15.00 SGD
Happy Long Life to You
Out of stock
Out of print
Paperback
$15.00 SGD
The Politics of Defeat
Out of stock
Attunement
Is life hustling you out of tune? As the week roars by, we invite you to a slice of attunement penned lovingly by our authors, friends, and yours truly. Freshly delivered weekly with care. Intimacy guaranteed. Read selected letters below.
Practising Listening
Aug 14, 2025
Our language grows, and with it, new connections to things and creatures around us.
Read more
We Rise and Fall into Spring Blossoms
Jul 23, 2025
For years, pouring myself into this collection was an outlet to make peace with my past and also,...
Read more
Touch Some Grass
May 7, 2025
We’ve traded that sense of freefall for control, but maybe in the process, we’ve lost the autonom...
Read more
