'Video-game' murder mystery scores on dialogue

Sight Lines Entertainment

Future Stage, Last Tuesday

This production is not so much a theatrical experience as a video game.

This is a sequel to a Zoom production that was first staged in June, when venues closed during the circuit breaker period and the theatre community scrambled to pivot to other platforms.

The good news is that with veteran playwright Chong Tze Chien penning the script, this virtual escape room-meets-murder mystery boasts better-than-average dialogue.

The bad news is that unless one is a video-game or escape-room fan, the gameplay experience can feel disjointed as one struggles to navigate the interactive platform and find new points to the story.

The premise is that the viewer, who can log on any time between 8pm and 4am on the day of his ticket booking, has to solve a cold case.

Just to make things interesting, there is a countdown clock that allocates 90 minutes of gameplay, which escape room fans will appreciate.

Much of the action from the player's point of view takes place in a cluttered army office which he has to search for clues. A video wall collates clips which introduce various characters in the case.

WHEN Till Saturday, 8pm to 4am daily

ADMISSION $20 a person, $88 for a group of five, from Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to www.sistic.com.sg)

Army recruit Ilhan (Irsyad Darwood) is the murder victim in a cold case reopened by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

CID officer Lemuel Ng (Benjamin Kheng) interrogates two main suspects - Captain Ronald (Ronald Goh) and discharged Lieutenant Haziq (Erwin Shah Ismail).

The last character in the drama is army recruit Tan Chee Meng (Bright Ong), hospitalised in the Institute of Mental Health following the murder and then found drowned.

There is also a supernatural element in the form of the classic long-haired female ghost that pops up to shock players at assorted intervals.

There is much clever crafting in this production, which employs 360-degree, virtual-reality video and surround-sound design to good effect.

A couple of standout scenes involve Tan's creepy encounter with aforementioned ectoplasmic entity in a toilet and the climactic night-time sequence involving three characters and the ghost at different locations, which players can click and zoom in on for different points of view.

The narrative is fractured because of the technical and structural demands of the virtual platform and gameplay premise. This is either engaging or exasperating, depending on the player's patience.

The production's saving graces are the standout performances from Ong, a hot-tempered "ah beng" who picks on Irsyad's whinily privileged Ilhan, and Erwin as Haziq, who hides an undercurrent of frustration beneath an easygoing exterior.

Chong's scripting gives zing to some of the exchanges among these three characters, touching lightly on issues of class and race.

This is not traditional theatre, but it is old-school theatre craft - from writing to staging to acting - which has enriched this newfangled Frankenstein creation born of technology and the circuit breaker.