Benny Lim (born 1980, in Singapore) was the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

of the now defunct the Fun Stage, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

theatre group in Singapore. He obtained a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

from the Division of

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

University of Glamorgan , image_name = University of Glamorgan arms.png , image_size = 220px , caption = University of Glamorgan coat of arms , motto = Success Through Endeavour , established = , closed = , administrative_staff = , chancellor = John Morris ...

(now known as the

University of South Wales The University of South Wales ( cy, Prifysgol De Cymru) is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wal ...

) in 2012.

Biography

In 2001, at the age of 21, he founded the Fun Stage and has since held on to the record as the youngest artistic director of a theatre company in Singapore. In 2006, one of Benny's plays, ''Existence'', was published in Singapore. ''Existence'' was written in 2003, inspired by the poetry of

Cyril Wong Cyril Wong (; born 27 June 1977) is a poet, fiction author and literary critic. Biography Born in 1977, Cyril Wong attended Saint Patrick's School, Singapore, and Temasek Junior College, before completing a doctoral degree in English literature ...

, as a response to

Leslie Cheung Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003) was a Hong Kong singer and actor. Throughout a 26-year career from 1977 until his death, Cheung released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films. He was one of the most prominent ...

's suicide. The play was mentioned in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine (10 August 2003) as a story that "portrays the love of two young Singaporean men for each other as doomed". In 2015, Benny co-curated Umbrella Festival, an arts festival in Hong Kong, in response to city's

Umbrella Movement The Umbrella Movement () was a political movement that emerged during the Hong Kong democracy protests of 2014. Its name arose from the use of umbrellas as a tool for passive resistance to the Hong Kong Police's use of pepper spray to dispe ...

Censorship

Benny's works often deal with social-political issues within a

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

society. In 2004, Benny organized the Lovers' Lecture Series, which was not given a go-ahead by the Public Entertainment Licensing Unit (PELU) under the

Singapore Police Force The Singapore Police Force (SPF) is the national and principal law enforcement agency responsible for the prevention of crime and law enforcement in the Republic of Singapore. It is the country's lead agency against organised crime; human, wea ...

. In 2005, Benny collaborated with artist Brian Gothong Tan on a devised play, Human Lefts. The content of the play, which was on the issue of the death penalty, was given a total ban by the

Media Development Authority of Singapore The Media Development Authority ( abbreviation: MDA) was a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). History MDA was formed on 1 January 2003 by the merger of Singapore Broadcastin ...

(MDA).Article from The Sydney Morning Herald - Dated 3 December 2005
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lim, Benny Singaporean people of Chinese descent 1980 births People from Singapore Living people