"Singapore theatre has never seen anything like this and HOTEL is a five-star production that lives up to its lofty ambition… HOTEL celebrates Singapore in a very unique way through the everyday lives of ordinary people instead of famous historical figures. Don’t be put off by its length; once you check in, you’ll probably forget the time and enjoy the stay."
The Business Times
"HOTEL isn’t just theatre. It’s an act of healing... It brings back the past – not in a teacherly way, but in the fashion of a loved one coming to us with a photo album and filling in our forgotten names and faces, joining up the dots of our family trees. We’re overwhelmed by a sense of recognition: remembering what we once knew… It reminds us of the richness and diversity of this island’s past… Yes, it’s a four and a half hour commitment. But you’ll be getting a hundred years of memories. I’d say that’s more than a fair exchange."
The Online Citizen
"There are few theatre companies that attempt to tell a country’s entire history and succeed at being simultaneously accurate, entertaining and emotionally gripping. W!LD RICE has always pushed political and artistic boundaries, but HOTEL is almost certainly one of the absolute best they’ve produced so far."
Bakchormeeboy
"HOTEL mourns what we have lost, but celebrates what we've held on to and ponders what we may yet become. And theatre, like history, flourishes where there are a spectrum of views. Some of the best theatre experiences I’ve had were enriched by fierce, excited debate after, where friends and colleagues pointed out moments and shared insights that I’d missed from my narrow vantage point. HOTEL, I’d argue, does the same for Singapore history."
Corrie Tan
“W!LD RICE’s HOTEL is a five-star experience! Once in a while, there comes the sort of show that makes you set your critic’s notebook aside and sit up in your seat. HOTEL is one of those rare creatures. With its five-hour epic, divided into two parts, W!LD RICE has created the sort of superb, astonishing show that is both a set of finely crafted individual stories but also a breath-taking journey through Singapore’s history on the other side of the history books... This is a permanent notch in Singapore theatre history, the sort of play that declares to the world – we have arrived.
W!LD RICE, please bring this back. I'll check in as your first long-term guest.”
SPH The Straits Times, LIFE!
"An instant classic! W!LD RICE’s HOTEL is one of the most ambitious and richly-imagined plays in the history of Singapore theatre... Audacious, exhilarating, splendidly funny and at times heartbreaking, HOTEL sets a new benchmark for Singapore theatre that will not likely be surpassed by any other soon. Within each story, directors Heng and Goei create a rigorously-detailed, self-contained universe with a kind of take-no-prisoners intensity that keeps audiences laughing out loud throughout the farces and deeply invested in the dramas.
W!LD RICE has already announced that it is restaging HOTEL next year. You’d be crazy to miss it."
The Business Times
“It’s the theatre company’s most ambitious work yet... Perhaps the best SG50 type of theatre production we’ve seen this year... as episode after episode rolls out, the audience is taken on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, from the hilarious to the hysterical, the melodramatic to the heartbreaking. And then there’s HOTEL’s biggest wow factor: its use of language. One of the delights throughout those five hours is opening one’s ears to a stream of languages beyond English: Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, Japanese, Urdu, Tamil, Mandarin, Tagalog, which collectively highlight just how culturally diverse Singapore was and is.
We hope this HOTEL opens its doors again post-SIFA — it deserves a longer run."
TODAY
"What I really enjoyed about HOTEL was that, rather than focusing merely on a different narrative about Singapore, it allowed Singaporeans to be portrayed as who they are, not just ubiquitous workers. The strength of the play really stems from its characters and their fascinating stories. I love the direction that W!LD RICE and SIFA has taken with HOTEL and am definitely looking forward to their next production. After a little taste of how good local theatre can be, I am greedy for more."
WhatsNext.sg
"Co-directed by Ivan Heng and Glen Goei, it is a tour de force for the superb cast, who must master multiple characters and extended dialogues in multiple languages and dialects. The cast are put through many emotional gambits, and each member is given a time to shine.
Overall, the play is such an enjoyable rollercoaster that it is bound to become one of W!LD RICE’s classics to be brought back, hopefully very soon!"
Blouinartinfo
“…one of our finest pieces of original writing and the state-of-the-nation play we so desperately need. HOTEL is a celebration of Singapore’s intensely rich history, both glorious and grim. Co-directors Ivan Heng and Glen Goei manage the action on stage with incredible flair and there is enough variety to please even the most fussy member of the audience. Comedy is balanced out well with hard-hitting moments of drama and there is a good mix of spectacle and intimacy in the scenes. HOTEL will immediately go down as a Singapore theatre classic, a play that should be seen, read and discussed by both young and old for years to come.”
Crystalwords
