Visible Cities May 22, 2009

New York-based Singapore playwright Chay Yew collaborates with Italian director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti in a cross-cultural foray featuring a mixed cast from Singapore, China, Italy and the US.

Did you know more than a hundred people around the world made your dress? Do you know if your handbag is real or fake? Is your shirt really made in Italy or in China? How much does your blouse really cost?

Visible Cities explores the high stakes realities of international fashion, globalism, immigration and counterfeit culture that traverse two separate continents and narratives. In one story, we meet Bianca, an agoraphobic Italian woman who strikes up an unusual friendship with a Fish in a post-apocalyptic world. In another, we meet an Italian merchandiser and an ambitious Singapore Chinese fashion buyer who visit clothing factories in China. Interspersing these narratives is a sharp glimpse at the real and imagined lives that connect these two stories from two different worlds.

Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities that describes conversations on real and imagined cities between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, Visible Cities is a modern tale that contemplates different cultural journeys, their historical and contemporary realities, and their common interest: trade.

A co-commission and co-production by the Singapore Arts Festival and the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia

Official Website: http://2009.singaporeartsfest.com/event/view/name/visible_cities/