Extra! Extra!

The Singapore Theatre Festival opens on July 5, with some terrific plays. The hottest ticket is Press Gang, written by Tan Tarn How and directed by Ivan Heng. Former journalist Tan looks at how Singapore news is covered through this play set in a newsroom.

The plot centres on a group of writers, sub-editors and editors who must decide how or if to run a scandalous story about the Prime Minister's wife. As with a few of Tan's previous plays such as Fear Of Writing and Undercover, the work tackles issues pertaining to power, freedom and censorship. The star-studded cast includes T Sasitharan, Benjamin Chow, Oniatta Effendi, Shane Mardjuki, Rei Poh and Amanda Tee.

The festival runs from July 5 to 22 and features eight plays. Tickets from Sistic.