“New World’s End” brings theatre to walking tours
Most people think of Augmented Reality as adding another layer to your mobile device, that is, you point your phone at something and something pops up in your screen, animated and telling you something about what’s in front of you.
To me, Augmented Reality can also be audio – especially audio that whispers in your ear – as you are having a physical experience, such as a tour. And I don’t mean the kind of audio commentary you get at museums or some tours which give you the same kind of facts that you can find anywhere.
To me, it’s audio that tells you stories, that immerses you in the place you’re experiencing, that gets you to feel the place, the people, the way it was and the way it is.
The tour begins at this shophouse, with its neon-lit displays.
New World’s End, a new tour in Singapore, is such an experience. Described as an “immersive theatrical experience (permanent)”, it is guided by audio through the lives of two star-crossed lovers who grew up in the district of Little India and takes you, into the history of the area, through the New World Park (the neighbourhood amusement park built 1923, demolished 1987) up to the collapse of the New World Hotel in 1986, in which 33 people died and 17 were rescued.
Shop signs along the way.
The experience starts at a shophouse in Desker Road, a once-notorious red light area known for its sleaze and spice. The night I was there, a few American tourists had just finished the tour. A couple, on a Royal Caribbean cruise, had heard of it from their hotel concierge at the nearby lyf Farrer Park.
“How was it?” I asked.
“Great, I learnt something about the history of this place,” said the wife, who’s from Las Vegas. Their grandkids, in early teens, didn’t look that enthused. “Uh-huh,” they said. I am sure they’d rather be catching Pokemon somewhere than out on the streets of Little India, listening to an adult story of love, loss and life.
Created by film maker Brian Gothong Tan, the tour (with story written by Kaylene Tan), is produced by OH! Stories, a company that embeds artists and theatre in places in Singapore and brings them to life through stories. New World’s End is its first permanent installation. Supported by the Singapore Tourism Board and National Arts Council, it is part of Singapore’s national movement to bring art to the streets and everywhere, and where artists are being encouraged to bring their creativity into sectors such as tourism. (See related article)
At the shophouse starting point, you are given a paper map (in case you get lost and can’t follow the audio commentary) and a pair of headphones. You’re told the history of the New World Amusement Park which was built in 1923 by two brothers, Ong Boon Tat and Ong Peng Hock, who later entered a joint venture with Shaw Organisation. The park was the heart of entertainment in early Singapore.
The voices (by actors Moira Loh and Salif Hardie) then guide you through the streets, while telling the story of the two star-crossed lovers, Kiran, a cinema projectionist at New World Amusement Park, and Rosa, a cabaret dancer at the Park, track by track. It’s pretty easy to follow – even for someone as directionally-challenged as I. I managed to stay on track and stopped at the right spots for the right sights.
The story guides you deep into the back alleys of Little India.
You do have to watch out for traffic – but it’s such a teeming, busy area, full of pedestrians that you feel, at times, like you’re in a movie set. At one moment, in a back street alley, I saw a man carrying a gunny sack of goods on his head I thought I was in a movie – it’s such a rare sight these days in Singapore.
What I liked about the tour is it does take you through the back alleys and narrow streets of Little India, while giving you context – something you’d miss on a normal walking tour. The tour also makes you question the cost of progress as it talks about the disappearance of the old amid the constant upgrading that goes on in Singapore.
The flat where the two lovers lived – it’s like a stage set, but without any actors, only your imagination to make it come alive.
About midway through the tour, you are told to walk up to the fourth floor of an apartment. In “An apartment lost in time”, you can imagine the lives of the two star-crossed lovers who lived there, their little black-and-white television set in the living room, her clothes hanging and his typewriter and well-used ash tray next to it. In one of the rooms, you relive the collapse of the New World Hotel (sirens and bright lights going off) and several black-and-white movies playing on screens. It’s like a stage set for a play, without the actors.
The backdoor entrance to the secret pop-up bar where the tour ends.
The tour ends at a backdoor from which you enter a secret pop-up bar, a mysterious painter’s studio – the paintings are of children lost in the second world war – and over drinks, we are told (rather mysteriously) that they will form the backdrop for the second tour by OH! Stories.
Well, it’s certainly whet my appetite for Part 2.
Meantime, with my head full of Kiran and Rosa (I will not reveal the ending here), I decided to augment my “New World’s End” experience with a meal at a nearby Indian restaurant – somehow the chicken masala and dhal curry tasted even better after the 90-minute tour.
