Dwarf is a contemporary opera by The Opera People, performed on 12–14 July at Esplanade — Theatre on the Bay’s Annexe Theatre. Adapting from Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (1922) to a contemporary and more familiar context, Dwarf follows the story of a male student from a regular public school who catches the eye of Clara, a popular student from an elite girls school. Jealousy and malicious plotting ensues as Estoban, Clara’s romantic interest, casts that male student as the Dwarf in a theatre production of The Infanta’s Birthday as a cruel joke.
Throughout the promotional design for the production, the idea of the grotesque is manifested via the variations of large, crude and distorted hand-drawn typography haphazardly placed in stead of an image of the dwarf; these act as the production logotypes in the promotional materials throughout the period leading up to the opening of the production. A palette of bold and jarring colours set against a light grey background further creates a uneasy, disruptive dissonance in the design, highlighting the unnecessarily repulsive reaction that certain people within society may have towards others might be different or live on the fringes of society.
A hand-drawn illustration of a dwarf is progressively revealed within the programme booklet when audiences come for the performance. However, it is made to be barely visible to subtly remind all of us that we should not judge people for their appearances.
