The Curious Case of the Missing Peranakan Treasure

In the galaxy of creative solutions to restricted theatre attendance this must rank high among the successes. Set in Raffles Hotel, Singapore it capitalises on the beauty of the building, on its intriguing history and on the mystery that forever surrounds this icon of Singapore. In your search for the culprit within a story from the Eighteenth Century to today, the technology is easy enough for all to handle, allowing us to proceed through the scenes in a logical and flowing sequence.

We have just enough time to ponder the identity of the criminal before being swept along with the plot and some truly first class acting. There is beautiful singing to calm our nerves when the solution seems to be evading us and some classic love-hate interplay to make us laugh at the deprivations of lockdown. But that’s it! I can’t tell you any more about it or it will ruin your experience – and it is certainly one you should enjoy. Google will help you to the box office.

There are lessons from this production that every school and university – and all seats of training and learning – should embrace. How much more interesting will be the webinars that are this interactive, that challenge us to some thinking, that involve us in judging, not just note-taking. Whatever mood you are in, however much you are hoping for a lazy viewing, this style and clever presentation of any subject, not only mystery plays, will capture your imagination and coax you into joining in with vigour and enthusiasm.

Sensitive understanding of the wide variety of options open to the answers to questions could permit a combination of pre-programmed next steps and live interaction following the drift of an individual’s thinking. Our path down the road to understanding who we are and what we want is more like a meandering river than an aircraft flight plan.

Legitimate scoring, possibly used to part introduce and part fund the next production, will turn education into the fun experience it ought to be. I see mentoring and coaching being able to follow the style and help fulfil the search for who you are and what you want in life – making it ever more your discovery than even the best programmes today. Life is, after all, an intriguing journey and your mystery is as compelling as any story. I predict that you become your own sleuth, a detective of your own intrigue and finding a destination for your own homecoming.

We often separate education and entertainment as though they were chalk and cheese. They are one and the same thing. Both are there to stimulate, to exercise the little grey calls, to help us understand what is this precious but elusive thing we have been given for a life. When stress, pressure and worry mount in the way they have in the past eighteen months we need the spur to ginger us up and make us start anew. You only do that with firm foundations. A clear head and a bright eye are the correct basis for resilience, today’s most needed attribute.

Theatre has always been a vital prod to society’s development. From Ancient Greece to Shakespearean drama we have been enthused by brilliance, convinced by cunning and encouraged by challenge. Today more than ever we need the drive to solve our problems, the commands to cooperate and the courage to wake up. The technologists are doing it. The rest of us need to do so, too. Withdrawing from the battle is the option of failure. We must never do that.

The Curious Case of the Missing Peranakan Treasure is a good question.

Why have we not spotted the solution already?