SOMNOGRAM by USP Productions

“Dreaming of a Dream”

Reviewer: Gan Soon Rui
Performance: 24 January 2015

First things first, Somnogram is a National University of Singapore USP (University Scholars Programme) production. This means that the production was made by a group of amateurs and a group of students.

Now, bearing that in mind, this reviewer confesses to having watched the performance with a certain level of expectations.

He was neither pleasantly surprised, nor disappointed.

Written and directed by Denise Khng, Somnogram dramatises the complicated relationship between six characters during a freak snowstorm in Singapore, at a college café, on New Year’s Eve. Through the use of ‘dreams’ as a both a motif and metaphor, Somnogram attempts to explore the idea of isolation, disconnect and death in the human condition.

However, the performance feels like a “try hard” play; too ambitious in the pursuit of its ideals that simply falls short.

Constructing the performance in a naturalistic setting is all fine and dandy. However, the director seems to have misplaced the emphasis when devising the production. The performance is, in my humble opinion, too “dialogued-logged”, and is further complicated by the relative inexperience of the actors. This unfortunately creates a performance executed by one dimensional, line-narrating “robots”, whose energy level only seems to spike when they are swearing.

With so little action on stage, so much philosophical bantering, and so little left to the audience’s imagination, this reviewer can only liken the experience to attending an advance-level academic lecture, without having attended the prerequisite modules.

On a slightly positive note, the set design was simple and well thought out. In general, the stage was furnished to recreate the image of the typical coffeehouse chains, complete with tables and chairs. With a simple tweak to the stage lighting and a strategically placed stage light shining from upstage to the theatre circle, the same aforementioned tables transform itself into train station platforms. The ingenious use of the white cloth to cover the furniture in the later part of the performance, presents a simple, yet elegant portrayal of the snow-blasted environment caused by the freak blizzard.

All things considered, Somnogram represents a commendable effort by non-professionals to understanding and making theatre. After all, everybody has to begin somewhere.

Better to make mistakes than to not try at all.