Ong Keng Sen/T:>Works, Jacintha and Dick LeeVictoria TheatreMay 29, 8pm

Lush Life is an odd chimera – part confessional, part therapy session, part cabaret, part theatre.

This sold-out Singapore International Festival Of Arts (Sifa) commission brings together three familiar veterans of Singapore’s arts scene – director Ong Keng Sen, jazz singer Jacintha Abisheganaden and composer-entertainer Dick Lee. 

Ostensibly centring on the tumultuous life and loves of Jacintha, Lush Life suffers from internal contradictions which also highlights, in damning fashion, a broader lack of context in a Singapore that has seldom paid much attention to its cultural, let alone pop culture, heritage. 

Ong, longtime friends with his two stars, makes a bold argument for the status of Singapore pop culture in his staging in the first half. 

Visuals borrowing from Renaissance paintings, classical European sculpture and Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte’s works accompany the narration by Jacintha and Frances Lee playing the young Jacintha, setting these home-grown talents on the same playing field as Western cultural icons.