Singapore Society’s Solemates

Last Saturday, I went with my housemate to watch Solemates, the event put on by Singapore Society. I had never been to any of their events before and didn’t really know what to expect. I found a packed Great Hall, which had been converted into a theatre. The first thing that hit me was the Great Hall could actually be used for things other than exams.

The show started with a couple of videos and then the two hosts came on. They were genuinely funny, got the crowd in a good mood, and really set the tone for the evening.

The main event took the form of a musical complete with a live band behind the sets. The basic story was a re-imagination of the classic Cinderella story. The hero is the quiet, sensitive, and obedient Umber Ella (Bennett Tan). His two loud, obnoxious twin brothers always boss him about and make him do their chores. To add to his woes, his father doesn’t let him go to the ball, where he’d hoped to meet the princess. His Fairy Godfather (played by the brilliant Lei Ting Wei) comes to his rescue by helping him and his mop go to the ball. There he loses his shoe, in a comically over done way. The princess finds him by using the smell of his feet, and they are united.

The script was injected with humour, and managed to pull off the boy gets girl ending without being too cheesy. The comedic aspects of the show were pulled off with ease, certainly no awkward “pause for applause that doesn’t come” were in sight. One part I particularly enjoyed was when during a dance sequence something is knocked over. Then, right at the end, the workers are fixing the table – it was a call-back that everyone appreciated and didn’t really expect. All of comic relief characters were on point – the audience certainly seemed to think so as well. The twin brothers always got a laugh for there back and forth exchanges. I think that the Fairy Godfather was probably my favourite though. In the words of one person I talked to after: “I’ve never heard someone talk Singlish so fluently”. Luckily for me, there was a guide to Singlish included. That’s not to take away from the main character, who successfully portrayed the shy, everyman character that you were rooting for.

The dance routines were all sleek and well-rehearsed, and looked quite complicated. Admittedly, my dancing experience consists of drunkenly waving my hands slightly, but still, it was impressive. The singing was all pretty good as well. I would reserve special praise to Esther Chan, who played Mop and had a great voice.

At the end of the night, when the cast and production team all took a group photo, you really get a sense of how many people are involved in this. Having tried before to organise a group of friends to meet up at a certain time in a certain place, I can appreciate how much of a headache it is to get people together.

The show had two directors, Jaren Soo and Yap Chinhua. They seemed to relish the opportunity to be involved in something so large. Yap Chinhua said: “The opportunity I was given to freely create a little world in which the story and the characters inhabited was amazing. There was much excitement within the individual teams – dance, chorale, acting, logistics, music, lights and sound – but it was the final synthesis and pulling together that I really enjoyed.” He made sure to point out that the show took a lot of effort. “It was almost magical, but there was actually no magic, only hard work and the sheer desire to create everything from nothing.” He then went on to say why the show is so important to the society: “the musical – an imperative component of our events calendar – allowed us Singaporeans to come together, to move and breathe with one aim. It created what our Society holds dear- a home away from home.”

At the very end, outside, they gave out some snacks and a free beer. A lot of people remained outside Sherfield to talk, and overall I went home happy and impressed that a group of people doing this in their spare time could come up with something as polished as it was.