Harrowing devolution of schoolboys

SIGHT Lines' staging of Lord of the Flies has one of the most impressive production designs of the year. Set designer Wong Chee Wai turns the small SOTA Studio Theatre into a dense and claustrophobic jungle. The leaves and branches loom over some audience members, as if to strangle them.

Wong's set is in turn brilliantly lit by James Tan, who evokes the heat and humidity of the jungle through ingenious lighting, while sound designer Jing Ng completes the illusion with a soundscape that makes the audience really feel like they've been dropped right in the middle of a tropical jungle.

The setting, of course, is extremely crucial. William Golding's 1954 English novel charts the devolution of a group of boys stranded on an island with no hope of rescue. Over time, half the boys drop all trappings of civility and regress into savages.