Teater EkamatraSingtel Waterfront TheatreApril 16, 7pm

For the longest time, the cloistered Kampung Bras Basah has been led by the tyrannical village head Tok Hassan, who bans rock music and enacts antiquated forms of physical punishment to keep villagers in line. When Hanie arrives from the city to open a women-only lingerie shop, Tok Hassan finds his patriarchal authority challenged.

Teater Ekamatra’s Esplanade-commissioned stage adaptation of La Luna – Singapore’s 2025 entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars – is crowd-pleasing fare at the Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts.

It stages a conflict between authoritarianism and freedom, urbanites and villagers. Hanie’s arrival is a literal earthquake as the villagers shake from actual tremors in the ground, a moment for physical comedy if an on-the-nose metaphor for seismic changes to come.

This rousing story of a new arrival wrecking havoc is delivered by a powerhouse cast working overtime to entertain the crowd. Many of them break out into song mid-dialogue and, were this a variety contest as it sometimes feels, it is Siti Khalijah Zainal (who plays a trapped tailor Jenab) and Fauzie Laily (Tok Siak Qahar, a community do-gooder) who emerge victorious with their power ballads bringing the audience to rapturous applause.

It is power...