Helmi Yusof reviews Esplanade Studios.

Writing reviews every week would get boring pretty quickly, so it seems likely that there's a temptation to embed some gems in reviews.

Does Helmi get along with Alfian Sa'at? Characterizing Alfian's principled stand against censorship as "niggling" seems unfriendly, though perhaps we should read between the lines here.

His comment that Off Centre should be "Mandatory Viewing" could be intepreted as satirical because the play presents a normative "take your meds and act like everyone else" plot, just as censorship wants us to "shut up and act like everyone else". Both involve forcing people to do things, which is what he's recommending with "mandatory viewing".

Perhaps this is the style one needs to use when one writes for The Business Times?