Theatre Review: Re: Assembly gives bullying in a digital age a sheen of effective horror
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Re: Assembly is a Drama Box production co-directed by Han Xuemei and Timothy Wan for children and teenagers.
PHOTO: ZINKIE AW
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Re: Assembly Han Xuemei and Timothy Wan
Drama Box
Thursday, 2.30pm
Conflict within a secondary school photography club is injected with liberal doses of horror in this Drama Box production co-directed by Han Xuemei and Timothy Wan for children and teenagers.
Pretty and popular, recent transfer student Lina (Natalie Titus) is at first feted as a breath of fresh air for students of Green Leaf Secondary School.
But her insistent presence quickly upsets the well-established dynamic of a pair of friends, Natasha (Auderia Tan) and Joe (Izzul Irfan), who lament their own invisibility and are buckling under the stress of their imminent O levels.
When rumours about Lina soon begin spreading on the school’s online confessions page, it triggers some unprocessed baggage that quickly ups the ante for everyone.
The secret of why Lina had to transfer schools in the first place is soon out, yet it might be too late – everywhere there are clues to the tragedy that has befallen the school.
What audiences are witnessing is essentially a retrospective post-mortem, but how many casualties are there, and what exactly happened?
An update of Drama Box’s similarly horror-themed fable of school bullying in 2022, Re: Assembly asks the audience to re-examine the forms bullying can take and when someone should seek help.
The conceit might be altogether too simplistic for adults, but there are mature performances, especially from Tan and Alvin Chiam, who plays distracted teacher Mr Ong.
His perspective allows the creators to subtly ask whether monitoring social media accounts of students should be a part of a teacher’s job scope in a digital age and when, without too much policing of students’ behaviour, it is right to intervene.
This is likely the the most potent takeaway for an older audience, though for the new theatregoer, the format should also intrigue.
Staged in an effective immersive theatre mode, the creators have allowed the mostly young audience to get up close to the screaming action, all the better to feel the moments of creepiness and distress generated through flash lighting, smart blocking and recorded dialogue layered over one another.
Re: Assembly asks the audience to re-examine the forms bullying can take and when someone should seek help.
PHOTO: ZINKIE AW
More than justifying the format is the meticulousness with which the school grounds have been created, littered with faded photos, used textbooks and dull mirrors that give it a spooky specificity.
It is a simple story convincingly told, and is a different angle to tackle what would have been rather stale conversations about empathy and the reactions even the most unthinking actions have.
Where: Esplanade Annexe Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive str.sg/iwEj
When: Friday, 2.30 and 5.30pm; Tuesday to July 21, 2.30 and 5.30pm
Admission: $23
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