How strong is your ambition? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to be the best? That was what ICN 2025 was eager to answer.
Get transported to Yogyakarta and come along on the journey of Arya Rahman Aditya – played by Owen Nigel Tjiptarahardja – a self-made producer who built a prestigious theatre company from the ground up. While many of his musicals and plays have gained recognition, things have not always been smooth sailing – behind all the fame and glory is a story of self-reliance, unchecked ambition and estranged relationships. Watch his tale unfold in Senjakala: A Musical.
Meaning twilight, Senjakala: A Musical places heavy significance on sunsets, drawing attention to them many times during the musical. Beyond just a time of transition, twilights also symbolise a time of uncertainty. As Erina (Denise Evangeline Pigety) puts it, sunsets are a marker of the day’s ending, but that doesn’t mean that endings can’t be beautiful as well.
The student-led cast of Senjakala: A Musical encompasses the essence of their characters brilliantly. Arya’s ambition and arrogance as well as his eventual change of heart, Hendra’s (Wilsen Chandra Putra) tough love and grief, Sidik’s (Farhan Akbar) loyalty and dedication as well as Erina’s optimism and hope painted a vibrant musical that innately resonated with audiences. After all, the challenges and struggles these characters face are all problems that everyday people like you and me will eventually confront.
At its core, Senjakala: A Musical tells a tragic tale of valuing the joys in life – no matter how little they may seem as well as the danger of letting the rat race consume you. Through magnificent dance numbers and spectacular songs, the students of Indonesia Cultural Night (ICN) Cultural Production from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have delivered a deeply visceral story.
Going into the musical, I didn’t really have any expectations. However, I have to say that these elements were definitely the most memorable parts of the musical – the dances sprinkled throughout different scenes and Erina’s vocals.
When audiences are first introduced to Erina in Act 2, we’ve just seen Arya’s success and subsequent fall into despair. The once ambitious and proud theatre producer was reduced into a shell of his former self, lost and bitter. A complete 180 to Arya, Erina is bright and friendly, the colour yellow often associated with her character as seen through her scrunchie.
Life Awaits gives audiences a rundown of Erina’s personality and past. While I’m not the biggest fan of how one-dimensional her overall character and song are, it’s undeniable that she is the embodiment of the sunshine character trope.
Just like her, her voice is angelic and lilting, resonating through the concert hall as she convinces Arya that there’s more to life than just work. Like a beam of light breaking through the clouds, Erina is breathtaking in her performance as she helps Arya find meaning in sunsets and the little things in life.
Another element that ingrained itself into my memory was the dances in the musical. Expertly choreographed and immaculately executed, the dancers were my personal highlight of the musical. Senjakala: A Musical weaved dance beautifully into both the plot as well as a visual representation of the tumultuous inner conflict the characters face. Featuring incredibly talented dancers, the performances captivated the audiences, especially when they are used to tell a story.
My favourite of the many dance numbers has to be during the father-son duet Reason To Listen, which showcases a duo dance number. This song showcases Arya’s change of perspective, now hopeful and seeing a reason to hope despite the unpredictability of life, presented through a dancer dressed in white, executing a more fluid and gentle choreography.
Simultaneously, it also shows Hendra’s (Arya’s father) regrets in relation to Arya and grief over the loss of his wife, displayed through a dancer dressed in black with a stronger, more dynamic choreography. This visual contrast accompanied by the song created a crescendo of emotions, reaching the peak of the musical in a dramatic and stunning way.
While the visuals and aesthetics were quite well done, one gripe I did have was with the audio. Sound effects definitely do help with enhancing the immersive experience, but some of the backing tracks here did the opposite.
During the highly emotional numbers like Menacing Fate, the dramatic music broke the immersion rather than aiding it. The song itself showed us a different side of Hendra, revealing that there is more to his anger and the ‘Asian parent’-ness of him. The song and lyrics are extremely moving and poignant, however, the sound production distracted me more than anything, making the number a tad over-the-top rather than touching.
In comparison, Life Awaits allowed Erina’s raw vocals to ring through the concert hall during the climax of her song, letting audiences hear the hope and conviction she had for life brimming in her voice. It didn’t oversaturate the stage with sound, conveying her beliefs and mindset spectacularly to the audience in a way that the sound effects and audio accompanying Menacing Fate were unable to do.
At the end of the day, Senjakala: A Musical is a dazzling narrative that reminds everyone to pause and indulge in the simple joys in life before you’re no longer able to, especially in a fast-moving society like Singapore. While I do find that more could be done for the ending, this musical is unique and worth the watch. Beyond that, this musical exemplifies themes and obstacles many of us face, making it not only relatable but perhaps a source of solace or comfort for those who’ve seen it.
Now that ICN 2025 – Senjakala: A Musical has wrapped up, I can’t wait to see what next year’s musical has in store! Wanna be the first to hear the news and keep up with ICN Cultural Production? Keep up with them on Instagram and Facebook! If you can’t get enough of Senjakala: A Musical, be sure to check out the behind-the-scenes interview we had with the minds behind the production as well as some of the main crew!
Photos by Izzah Ilyana of the DANAMIC Team
