Sunday, 5 April. Somewhere between The Garden path and a brunch table at Kaya, a story begins. Not in a theatre. Not behind a velvet curtain. But in a space where guests arrive expecting avocado toast and leave having chased a rogue rabbit through a maze of imagination.
This is where How Drama thrives. Since 2007, the Singapore-based collective has been bending the rules of performance by crafting interactive, site-specific works that have travelled from Paris to DC, Sydney to the Kennedy Center. And yet, for all their global stages, they keep returning home.
Because in Singapore, they say, something clicks.
"We are storytellers, who create interactive and site-specific theatre and experiences.”
Simple. But what they build is anything but.
We caught up with Melissa Sim, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of How Drama, to talk about their world—and what happens when storytelling slips into brunch at The Standard, Singapore.
For anyone who hasn’t encountered How Drama before — how would you describe what you do, in your own words?
We are storytellers, who create interactive and site-specific theatre and experiences.
How Drama has been around since 2007 and taken your work to stages in Paris, DC, Sydney, the Kennedy Center. What keeps bringing you back to Singapore, and what does performing here mean to you?
It's great performing overseas to see how a work lands with an overseas audience, and to be able to collaborate and learn from other artists, but it's always amazing to perform for the audience in Singapore, where we are familiar with cultural nuances and OB markers and can sometimes take greater risks
You’ve performed at the Esplanade, the Singapore Night Festival, fringe festivals around the world — and now a hotel garden in Orchard. How do you think about the kinds of spaces and audiences you want to reach, and where does hospitality fit into that picture for you?
Spaces really inspire us. When we look at a space, all these ideas start popping up. Hospitality is all about holding space for people, making them feel welcome in a new space, and that's what we want to do too. At the same time, we also want to challenge them -- push them to think not only about what the space is, but what it could be.
“Fat Kids Are Harder to Kidnap” is a deliberately provocative title for a show that’s actually very inclusive and accessible. What’s the thinking behind that tension?
I guess we can break it down into format and content.
The format is very inclusive, the audience has a list of plays numbered from 1 to 31, they shout the number they want to watch and we perform the play. Even little ones love it when their number gets picked.
But we also want the title to be an indication of what our content is going to be like. We push boundaries with political jabs and social commentary but approach it in a humourous way, so we want to audience to be prepared for that, and we think the title does that job.
What does it mean to you when a “third space” — somewhere that isn’t a home, isn’t a workplace, isn’t a theatre — becomes the stage? Does it change how people receive a story?
Yes, I think it does, when something happens in a "third space" it sparks curiosity and a sense of wonder. That lays a good foundation for a story to unfold.
When we first approached you about turning our Easter brunch into an immersive theatrical adventure, what was your reaction? Had you done something like this in a hotel setting before?
YES! No, we had not done an interactive piece in a hotel before.
The Standard’s spaces — The Garden, Kaya — became your stage for the day. How do you approach a space that isn’t a traditional theatre? What do you look for?
We write for the space. We look at the space, figure out what makes it special, and design the show to fit it. The multi-tiered garden at The Standard, Singapore is so magical, it really wanted an audience to discover its many nooks and crannies and what better way to do that than through an Easter egg hunt.
There’s something interesting about guests who came in expecting brunch and ended up solving riddles and hunting for eggs. What does that moment of surprise do for you as a storyteller?
We love the element of surprise, it jolts us out of the everyday. It makes everything sparkle a little more.
But we also realise that for some audiences, surprise needs to come in manageable doses. Audiences want an element of surprise, but they also want to feel safe. So you need to get them to trust you, only then will they relax and allow you to take them on a journey -- with tiny surprises along the way. So, as with many things, balance is important.
What was the most unexpected or memorable thing that happened on the day?
The kids were so invested in the story, that they physically tried to stop the evil rabbit character from running away with the prizes. The actor actually looked at us with mild panic as she was being mobbed by the kids. The momentary glance was priceless.
This is just the beginning of our collaboration. Without giving too much away — what kind of experiences do you think a space like The Standard unlocks that a traditional stage can’t?
The possibilities are endless. We want to work with windows and lights, we want to work with water and music, we want to work with food and the senses and every one of these ideas can happen at The Standard.
If How Drama were a hotel guest, what kind of guest would you be?
A grateful guest, visiting a gracious host.
It wasn’t just brunch. It was a moment—if you were there, you felt it.
