This might be the funnest free outdoor performance I've ever seen in Singapore: a bilingual wrestling match between the Merlion and any one of twelve rival Singapore icons, held at the Festival Village at Esplanade Park.
Oliver Chong makes a marvelous Merlion, clad in white boots and cape, spitting mouthfuls of glitter, threatening us with an ominous reverb in his voice. Swaggering before the audience and savagely abusing his opponents, he's a patent symbol for the old PAP style of authoritarian rule. The audience picks his contender via lottery: we can get anyone from Singa the Courtesy Lion to Hungry Ghost Festival Getai to Kumar. I had the fortune to watch the Samsui woman (Zelda Tatiana Ng), shod in red clogs and spouting rhyming Cantonese curses.
The show has its limitations, of course: its references to the nationalistic curry protests are so last year, and the commentators only glide over the problems of anti-foreigner sentiment, neglecting to really mine the significations of each alternative Singaporean icon. What really impresses me is the physical training that must have gone into creating a lengthy yet essentially improvised comedic wrestling match – whatever your political inclinations, you're sure to enjoy watching the characters' crazy body slams and roundhouse kicks.