Adrian Pang hates Nathan Hartono.

"He's annoyingly handsome," says the 54-year-old theatre veteran of the singer, songwriter and actor.

Hartono, 29, however, regards Pang as a mentor.

"Working with him is always fun and oddly comforting. Adrian was the first person I did a proper theatre show with. I learnt a lot from him and continue to do so," he says, referring to the rock musical Spring Awakening staged in 2012 by Pangdemonium, the theatre company founded by Pang and his wife Tracie.

The duo will act against each other in an episode in the second season of DBS' award-winning miniseries Sparks, which premieres online next Tuesday (str.sg/JtPi).

The first seven episodes of Sparks Season 2 - which follows a group of DBS bankers as they partner innovative social enterprises to create positive social impact - have chalked up more than 276 million views and more than 10 million engagements across Asia to date.

Inspired by the true stories of social enterprises supported by DBS Bank and the DBS Foundation, the second season explores big sustainability issues - from plastic pollution to food waste to social and gender inequality.

In Episode 8, Pang reprises his role as DBS team leader Chester Teo, while Hartono guest-stars as rookie banker Ethan. Titled One From The Heart, it grapples with the topic of food waste and is inspired by TreeDots, the first wholesale redistributor of unsold food in Asia.

This is Hartono's second stint on the series. He played the young Chester in Season 1.

Both have been keeping busy despite the pandemic.

Hartono says: "I'm excited about a few things coming up, new music as well as a new studio I intend to turn into a musical playground of sorts for local musicians."

Meanwhile, Pang is beavering away at his new production. "Pangdemonium's upcoming production next month is the play The Mother, written by Oscar-winning Florian Zeller, who also wrote The Father, which we staged in 2018.

"Tickets for The Mother are on sale at Sistic. Miss it and your mother will never forgive you."

In the first season, you guys play younger and older versions of the same character. Nathan, when you grow up, do you want to be like Adrian?

And Adrian, if you were Nathan now, how would you live life? Pang: I would seriously discourage Nathan to be anything like me when he grows up. I don't even want to be like me when I grow up.

And if I were Nathan, I would go out and meet as many girls as I have the energy for.

I don't care if that sounds un-PC. I'm 55, I can say what I like. Hartono: I feel tempted to give a joke answer to this.

But in all seriousness, there aren't many role models in the entertainment scene in Singapore. Especially not one like Adrian.

I'm sure he would tell you otherwise, but I feel like he's been able to strike a balance between being a commercial success and maintaining his artistic integrity. While also raising a family and all that other proper adult stuff. So, yeah, he's definitely a role model in that sense.

In the new season, both of you play bankers - one a veteran, the other a newbie. In real life, do you think you have what it takes to make it in the cut-and-thrust world of finance?

Pang: Not at all. With Pangdemonium, my wife Tracie is the one with the artistic and business brain. She handles all the finances, budgets and money stuff. I just prance around on stage in other people's clothes and do voices. If I worked in a bank, I would be the cause of another global recession.

Hartono: Nope. I'm a horrible businessman and a chronic people-pleaser. I was not built for this world.

Episode 8 of the new season is inspired by TreeDots, the first wholesaler of unsold food in Asia. Pretend you work for TreeDots. How would you sell perfectly good chicken - but of odd sizes - to a restaurateur who likes his birds to weigh just 1.3kg?

Pang: I would either add or subtract the necessary innards to get to the right weight class.

Hartono: Invite him to my place for a "work meeting" and cook a chicken feast for him using all kinds of odd-sized chicken.

He'll inevitably commend me on my culinary prowess, then "bam", I pull the sheets and reveal that the janky chickens were just as yummy.

Since we're on the topic of sustainability and food waste, do you always pick unblemished mangoes over bruised ones when you're at the supermarket? Be honest.

Pang: One must always obtain consent to fondle mangoes in the supermarket. And it's always respectful to take one's time too. Be firm yet gentle.

But yes, I would always cop a feel before I take a mango home. But at the end of the day, whether they are bruised, blemished or battered, mangoes have feelings too and I'm not fussy.

Seriously, though, I think we all have to reassess our food wastage. Especially in Singapore, where we seem to have everything in abundance, it is so easy to get into bad habits of buying volumes of food we don't need, cooking amounts of food we won't finish and basically allowing literally tonnes of food to go to waste each year.

And it starts from the source - throwing away less-than-perfect-looking foods which are perfectly edible and nutritious. That has to stop and it's going to take us all to make the effort. Hartono: I used to because I grew up seeing my parents do that in the supermarket. So, when I started to shop for groceries myself, I would do that just to feel more "proper".

But I remember a handful of years ago, I watched a documentary about food waste and learnt that there are many more bruised and ugly-looking produce that don't make it to market, yet are perfectly edible.

Plus, working on Sparks made me so much more aware of the people and businesses out there that are trying to solve the massive food-waste problem. So, I'm a lot less picky now.

Pretend that DBS has commissioned you to write a song about a bruised mango weeping on the supermarket shelf as he watches his more beautiful siblings get picked up by shoppers. What would be your title for the song and how would the refrain go?

Pang: "I Go Where No Mango"

I come from seed and sapling

I dance to life's tango

I get plucked and pickled

I go where no mango.

Hartono: "I'm The Loneliest Mango."

Why is it me who still survives?

They have been pretty all their lives.

Whisk them away.

End of the day.

I'm the loneliest mango.

How do you hope the world will change when the pandemic is over and life returns to normal?

Pang: That we will be able to go back to doing things we love - flock to the theatre in droves, unencumbered travel and squeeze next to one another in foodcourts.

Hartono: More consciousness for the parts of society we wilfully ignore because it's inconvenient to think about - migrant workers, domestic helpers, cleaning staff, delivery people and medical staff.

They are getting their praises sung of late, but I fear that as things slowly go back to normal, so will the attitudes towards these invisible parts of our society.

We've been reminded why they are important and I hope that reminder translates into policies that create better working conditions, higher wages and better benefits.