Arts review: A triumph for The Observatory in multisensory concert Refuge

Refuge

The Observatory
School of the Arts Studio Theatre
June 1, 8pm

From behind an airy, translucent blanket that envelops the room, the shadow of a caveman slowly materialises.

Yogyakarta-based vocalist Rully Shabara’s crystalline voice – tribal and operatic with a rich vocal fry – cuts through the air as experimental band The Observatory’s percussive monotones patiently crescendo.

In other moments, the blanket lifts such that the scene resembles stalactites hanging from a cave’s ceiling. Artist Justin Shoulder’s alien creature – a white mask with strange ridges, like a red-eyed creature from sci-fi television series Doctor Who (2005 to 2022) – flits across the blanket in an otherworldly screen projection.

Conceived and directed by The Observatory, Refuge is a speculative pre-historic cave concert drawn from

the band’s visits to caves in Malaysia

. A soundscape of birds and cicadas, rumbling rocks and onomatopoeic voices from the past and future is an immense feat of sonic world-building which completely transforms a sterile indoor space.

Scenography and lighting by Duck Unit is a visual and tactile treat that makes the show.

Audiences are invited to move under and brush against a modular blanket that creates undulations of stalactites and stalagmites. The versatile fabric creates the illusion of moving through endless space and varying degrees of visibility – as close as things can get to cave-diving indoors.

The show opens with two pre-historic stories about Malaysia’s caves – one of the 11,000-year-old Perak Man and another of a murder on a hill. It is interspersed with documentary footage of The Observatory’s visits to the cave, narrated in Malay with no surtitles.

But even if one catches nothing from the dialogue, it is clear that the star of the show is not language but the pre-verbal, the non-verbal and the extra-verbal. The Observatory have curated an A-team in this sensory feast of a commission for the Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa).

For a long time now, “immersive” and “multisensory” have become buzzwords to meet the demand of audiences hankering for new experiences. As if art itself was not enough of an experience, people want to touch, smell and interact with objects. It is often tacky, populist, crowd-pleasing – and sometimes a distraction to art itself.

Not for Refuge – which is truly the best of multisensory experiences. This show does not adopt the alienated and voyeuristic perspective of the other

Sifa show Sun & Sea

. When the fabric in Refuge brushes against one’s head and one gets up close to the performers, the sensation of immersion is electric.

And, unlike the flat loop of Sun & Sea, there is fine dramaturgy in Refuge in this show. Throughout the hour, there is a subtle but effective form of storytelling that juxtaposes routes of descent and ascent, soundscapes of silence and cacophony, and visions from the past and future.

Among Sifa’s multisensory offerings – and there are many – Refuge is the most successful. The Observatory – comprising Dharma, Yuen Chee Wai and Cheryl Ong – have conceived a compelling experimental concert inspired by South-east Asian caves that is a treat to city dwellers. They have also pushed the boundaries of concert-making in this genre-bending show that is in a class of its own.

When the lights go out and the audience is crouched under the blanket, a calmness ensues. The twinkle of lights on the ceiling resemble faraway stars. In Refuge, human existence is but a mere flicker in the cavernous universe.