Butterflies Awakening
Victoria Theatre, Singapore, December 2016
Director: Sim Siew Tin
Set Designer: Aaron Yap
Lighting Designer: Aaron Yap
Produced by Sim Siew Tim Hokkien Opera Troupe
Butterflies Awakening is a new adaptation of the popular legend of The Butterfly Lovers, but with an entirely different plot. The concept of the set design was derived from two main considerations: the director’s vision of a stage world that is romantic and dream-like, and the playwright’s very elegant and poetic text. In view of these two considerations, I went for a minimalist look, using very simple forms to create a basic look, and then lit with different colours to heighten the stage ambience. Through the research process, I ended up with two major elements that made it into the set design: traditional ink painting and traditional Jiangnan architecture. While the incorporation of elements of traditional Jiangnan architecture gives the set a sense of locality, infusing it with traditional Chinese ink painting styles softens the whole set, giving the stage space a fantasy-like quality.