On the last night of the Night Festival, I went to see a performance called “Globe” by Close-Act Theatre, a Dutch street theatre company that’s part circus, part light and noise, and a lot of spectacle. I still have no idea what language the actors were speaking (it wasn’t Dutch), but that didn’t really matter. This was all about the show, which largely took place on and around a giant spherical frame:

The characters also moved through the crowd. Some were on stilts …

… some had pretty incredible hair …

… and one was a really great evil queen:

Her skirt was about twenty feet tall and was mesmerizing to watch:

It’s not entirely clear to me who won in this theatrical struggle between the forces of good and evil. The queen seemed to vanquish most of the good guys, but we did end with a tiny moment of hope.

I also wandered to see “The Tree That Blinked,” an art piece that shows faces (yes, they blink) in a giant banyan tree:

And someone gave me this funny mask:

A note to anyone visiting the Night Festival in the future: on the final evening, it’s far too crowded. I had to wait in line to cross the street (it’s Singapore, so the street crossings were carefully orchestrated — but the idea of waiting in long lines to get from one corner to another is not my cup of tea). It’s better to attend earlier in the festival when word hasn’t yet leaked out about how much fun the whole thing is.

On an entirely separate note, I’ve been admiring the latest MRT (subway) signage featuring Move-In Martin, which seems to me to be a dual message of “let’s make space for everyone in here” and “hey, Singapore, let’s conform!”