SECRETIVE THING 11 by Secretive Thing

“With eyes wide open”

Reviewer: Lee Shu Yu
Performance: 28 April 2019

With almost no information about the work available publicly, participants of Lemon & Koko’s immersive experiences take a leap of faith by showing up at secret locations and travelling to strange fictional worlds.

But I am no stranger to Secretive Thing’s modus operandi. It is a risk I willingly take, and I am excited for something more than yet another show in a black box. At the designated time of our appointment for Secretive Thing 11, my two companions and I are led to the third level of an old and unassuming metal works building.

Alas, I get another kind of box: a shoe box.

A guide hands us small instruction booklets. We are residents living in a small temporary shelter, waiting to be given citizenship in a post-war society. The mission? To live day-to-day and to build a home.

If this sounds simplistic, let us not forget it is precisely what many Singaporeans strive, and fail, to do.

It is said that theatre holds up a mirror to society, but Secretive Thing 11 goes further than that. The experience itself is a microcosm of society, and its mechanics are clear and effective: each participant needs to be a productive member of the district, with specific tasks to carry out. Along the way, we are fed information and required to make some difficult choices. By the end, participants are driven to reflect on our own positionality as individuals within a collective.

Without divulging too much information and spoiling the fun, it suffices to say that Lemon & Koko display a great understanding of human psychology in the design and gameplay. They skillfully graft aspects of capitalist society into the experience and turn participants into competitive, goal-oriented rats racing against time. It brings out the worst in me: unthinking and blatant selfishness. The gameplay is so sublime that I barely recognise myself and my decisions afterwards.

The most terrific part of the experience is its transparency. Time is taken to ease us into an enjoyable routine that seems simple enough, but it becomes the most insidious apparatus toward the very end. Although I entered with my eyes wide open and my guard up, Secretive Thing 11 shows how easy it is to be trapped as a sleeping member of society.

The gruffness of the experience is in itself a strong statement. It proves theatre-making does not need a loud and sleek appearance to achieve maximum impact – only strong ideas, clever execution, and good use of the active audience.