Murder At Mandai Camp: The Case Reopens - Trailblazing towards the digital age
By: Joel Young
Date Published: 11 January 2021
In recent decades, the theatre industry has taken a huge hit in popularity as the digital age takes over, however this all about to change with “Murder at Mandai Camp: The Case Reopens” paving the way.
Entrance to the crime scene (Photo courtesy of Sight Lines Entertainment)
In light of Covid-19’s impact on Singapore’s theatre industry, “Murder at Mandai Camp: The Case Reopens” is paving the way towards a bright future.
Following the success of the original “Murder at Mandai Camp – A Supernatural Murder Mystery” which was held online over Zoom during the circuit breaker, Sight Lines Entertainment has come back with its’ sequel “Murder at Mandai Camp: The Case Reopens”, this time upping the ante with the use of the new 360-degree live-streaming technology, The Future Stage, making it more engaging and interactive, as well as Asia’s first virtual horror-mystery escape room with live-action gameplay.
Gathering evidence around the room as something lurks around the corner. (Photo courtesy of Sight Lines Entertainment)
“This was a long time coming,” said Derrick Chew, the Executive Producer of Sight Lines Entertainment, as they have been in talks about how they could produce entertainment that would be able to appeal to the masses, especially the younger generation, and also grow their audiences.
Chew mentioned that theatre has always been seen as a very elitist, high-brow and expensive form of entertainment which the masses will never attend, and even if they do, it will just be once a year so the question for Sight Lines Entertainment was how they could reach out to the masses.
According to Chew, these were things that they were considering and therefore, when Covid-19 and the circuit breaker happened, they decided that virtual entertainment was something that they should explore as there was no way for them to organize any live events.
However, despite the success of the event, Chew does not think virtual entertainment will replace live entertainment. “I don’t believe this [virtual entertainment] will replace live entertainment and it shouldn’t as there are also merits to live performances,” said Chew, “instead I see them going hand-in-hand, and moving forward, there are plans to do hybrid events.”
Participant Lee Shi Ting, a third-year diploma student in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), agreed with Chew as well, saying, “[Virtual entertainment] has its limits (…) and in its current state cannot replace the engagement and immersiveness that live entertainment offers, and so unless we have another pandemic, I don’t think virtual entertainment will replace live entertainment.”
So instead of saying that virtual entertainment will replace live theatre, Chew believes that mixed reality, which is the combination of live and virtual reality, is the future and will definitely be the new form of entertainment, especially for the younger generation.
“For example, we have a project planned for 2021 where we are working with Raffles Hotel to create a detective story in the hotel with two versions, one being an online virtual version, and another being a hybrid version, combining live, virtual reality and augmented reality components together, for the hotel guests,” added Chew.
This hybrid way of doing things has not only been done in the theatre industry, but it is also being done in education with local universities and tertiary education institutions blending face-to-face classes together with home-based learning (HBL) as restrictions due to Covid-19 begin easing up in phases 2 and 3.
“Murder at Mandai Camp: The Case Reopens” was held online from 22 December 2020 to 2 January 2021. As of 11 January 2021, “Murder at Mandai Camp: The case Reopens” has been extended due to popular demand and will run until 16 January 2021.