Talk

A Look at Blindness: Biopolitics of the Dystopia

Presented by Singapore Writers' Festival, In Collaboration with Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (Singapore)
Moderated by Walter Meierjohann (UK), director of Blindness with Cassandra Chiu (Singapore), Kuansong Victor Zhuang (Singapore), Hannah Ming Yit Ho (Brunei Darussalam)

12 Nov 2022, Sat, 5pm

1hr

(Intermission: None)

Esplanade Theatre Foyer

This event is over.

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Synopsis

In José Saramago's 1995 novel Blindnesss, an epidemic of ‘white blindness' consumes a city and upends its social order. Not the first apocalyptic narrative to frame disability as the inciting event, Saramago's work still bears revisiting almost twenty years later for us to unpack the troubling biopolitics which many dystopian works hold on to. In a society that ascribes power to certain kinds of bodies, how can we craft more inclusive and responsible end-of-world narratives?

 

This Singapore Writers Festival 2022 programme is held in conjunction with Esplanade's presentation of the sound installation Blindness, an adaptation of Saramago's novel by Donmar Warehouse.

Advisory:

Mask-wearing is optional. However, audiences are encouraged to continue to exercise responsibility and caution, such as wearing masks when in crowded places.

Admission Age:
6 and above.
Language: English
Things to Note:
Accessibility Advisory: We provide a range of access services and relaxed performances for patrons with access needs. For wheelchair-accessible seats, please call Esplanade Customer Experience at 6828 8377 for assistance. Concessions for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) and up to one accompanying companion are available. | View our accessibility guide
Artist Information

Walter Meierjohann

Walter Meierjohann was Artistic Director of HOME from 2013 to 2018 and International Associate Director at the Young Vic in London. At the Young Vic, his productions included the European premiere of In the Red and Brown Water by Tarell McCraney and Kafka’s Monkey, which toured to Sydney, Melbourne, Athens, Paris, Tokyo, Istanbul, Taipei and New York. The production, which starred Kathryn Hunter, also showed in HOME’s 2015 opening season, with Hunter reprising her lead role.

 

Walter has worked extensively in Germany and the UK at theatres including: the Barbican; Liverpool Playhouse; Nottingham Playhouse; The Curve, Leicester; Residenztheater, Munich; Staatsschauspiel, Dresden; Schauspiel, Graz; and Arena, Berlin, for Peter Stein’s Faust Ensemble and Impulse Theatre Festival. Prior to joining the Young Vic, Walter was Artistic Director of Neubau at the State Theatre of Dresden. In opera, he has assisted the late Klaus-Michael Grueber in his productions of Aida (Nederlands Opera, Amsterdam) and Don Giovanni (Ruhrfestspiele).

Cassandra Chiu

Cassandra Chiu is a Singaporean Psychotherapist, Social Advocate, and Equal Opportunity Consultant. The challenges Chiu faced as a blind individual led to her passion in advocating for equal opportunities for Persons with Disabilities. She has spoken about disabilities on many platforms both locally and in the region to the people, private and public sectors. Chiu regularly writes about disabilities, her work has been published on The Straits Times Opinion page, Today, and has been featured in 50 Years of ASEAN by Singapore World Scientific and The World Economic Forum’s Agenda. Her first book about the Asian attitudes towards disabilities entitled ‘A Place for Us’ was published in March 2019.

Hannah Ming Yit Ho

Hannah M. Y. Ho is an Assistant Professor at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Her teaching includes postcolonial and minorities’ literatures. She researches on the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. Her articles have appeared in Global Society, Asiatic and The Wenshan Review. She is co-editor of Engaging Modern Brunei: Research on Language, Literature and Culture (Springer).

Kuansong Victor, Zhuang

Kuansong Victor, Zhuang is Fung Global Fellow at the Institute of International and Regional Studies, Princeton University, and International Postdoctoral Scholar at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. He hopes to use his research to contribute to current debates about how inclusion happens both in Singapore and around the world.

Date & Time

12 Nov 2022, Sat

5pm

Esplanade Theatre Foyer
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