“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.

“It Didn’t Happen Like That”

Reviewer: Sam Kee
Performance: 23 January 2015

The highlight of the night was Alfred Wan, playing the role of Desmond – a Starbucks barista. His character is a “been there, done that” big brother. Wan is deftly helped by the fact that his character is rooted and rises above all the philosophical discussion. His interpretation is matured and nuanced.

In Somnogram, Denise Khng, director and playwright, aims to explore isolation and death via the theme of eternal recurrence in life and dreams. I have always felt that student-written plays can often produce very valuable perspectives and explore subject matters that established theatre companies seldom contemplate.

However, in Somnogram, most of the scenes are merely dialogues between pairs of characters on stage. Everything was said, not shown. The constipated momentum of the play certainly did not help: there are scenes that could use a little more stage time to bring out the emotions and non-tangible aspects of each character; there are scenes that could have really been glossed-over. It seems like there are two separate storylines, mangled and alternated. The director’s approach is too ‘tele-movie’, not using the form of theatre to its full potential. The idea of pursuing philosophical and hypothetical questions about life in theatre is pertinent and appropriate but the use of parallel universe and bending of space-time in this performance is one-dimensional and inadequate.

Given the complexity of the story, I am glad the visual and audio aspects were meticulously thought through. The set design was kept neutral and clean, mostly comprising straight lines – just enough to manifest a cafe interior. A lamp poised right in the middle of the backdrop, pointing at the audience is a bold, but beautiful, move by the students. Very basic theatre props like these often present very clean and elegant theatre. The sound design helped to create a surreal environment with the sounds of trains leaving a station and strong basal beat underscoring the scenes.

Although Somnogram remains very much a typical student production, if the creators had more experience with theatre, they could have employed more devices and alternative theatrical approaches to bring out the magnitude of the ideas embedded in the script.