Intimacy in Isolation: Experiencing Live Performance In The Pandemic in Singapore

PUBLISHED December 3rd, 2020 06:00 am | UPDATED December 13th, 2020 10:10 am

As an avid arts lover, I’d never gone as long without watching a live performance as I did this pandemic. I still remember nights in circuit breaker watching online performances and clinging to memories of the last live show I watched — a chamber opera production back in February — to tide me over.

The already debilitated arts industry – suffering from years of reduced funding and public support – is undoubtedly one of this pandemic’s biggest fatalities. Indeed, as an industry that counts on bringing large groups of people together, it was one of the earliest and longest paralysed. While its swift migration of some activities online, from virtual exhibitions to live-streamed archival performances, was laudable, it soon became clear: nothing beats being at the theatre. So, when the government announced pilot live performances in August, I was joyful, relieved, and more than ready.

It was this palpable sense of relief and excitement that suffused the theatre for WILD RICE‘s An Actress Prepares. A one-woman show starring the charismatic Siti K, the theatre burst out in raucous, fevered applause — louder than you’d expect given its depleted capacity — as she came onstage. We were all more than ready to, once again, be moved, in the way only art can do. And move us she did, in this semi-autobiographical ode to live theatre. The recollection of her life and how irrevocably it was changed by the theatre was, for all of us in the audience who no doubt had been touched by the theatre too, a moment of togetherness and solidarity.

This is what art is about: shared moments. And in a time where isolation is the new normal, art becomes that much more necessary in bringing us together. While watching an online concert or movie can definitely do that, the live performance experience — sitting in a theatre watching performers put their heart and soul into moving you, alongside an audience that’s ready to be moved — is something else.

Interestingly, the types of performances we’re seeing today are uniquely poised to be intimately moving. New requirements have fundamentally shifted the types of performances we will see in the near future. Gone are packed concerts with mosh pits or ensemble-cast musicals, making way for smaller set-ups like An Actress Prepares or the two-person Tuesdays with Morrie by the Singapore Repertory Theatre. We are entering an era of performance that emphasises intimacy, and it’s never been more welcome.

It was that sense of intimacy I felt when an errant tear trickled down my face watching Remesh Panicker’s heartbreaking performance as a professor deteriorating from ALS. And as I watched a man slip off his glasses to wipe off a tear here, listened to a woman sniffle there, I felt an intimacy in knowing I wasn’t alone in that moment; every single member of the audience was experiencing and sharing its impact. Together. That’s the magic of live performance.

Art has always sought to distill the essence of humanity, and the live performance of today embodies the balancing act between loneliness and togetherness, comfort and discomfort, that defines our time. So whether you’re a regular theatregoer or averse to the arts, take yourself to a show. You might be surprised at what you’ll find.

Top image: Tuesdays with Morrie. Images courtesy of Singapore Repertory Theatre (Tuesdays with Morrie) and WILD RICE (An Actress Prepares).