In the wake of the pandemic, independent arts organisation OH! Open House ventured into a brand new programme different from their previous art walks and art experiences, with OH! Stories’ audio immersive experiences. This took the form of New World’s End, where participants went on an audio tour around the Jalan Besar area, from the busy streets of City Square Mall to the back alleys of Little India, relegated with a star-crossed love story set in the ’60s ending with the devastating collapse of Hotel New World.

Two years on, and the experience has gotten an upgrade, now home to the glamorous ’60s-inspired Exit Stage Left bar, serving up local tipples inspired by the grit and glamour of the 1960s. The bar will now be the final stop on the audio tour, allowing participants to stay within the world just a little longer, and of course, play host to other programmes and events as well to dive deeper into these quintessential Singapore stories. Speaking to Gwen Pew, Business Development Director, OH! Stories, and Carissa Low, Marketing Manager, OH! Stories, we found out more about the development process of the bar, and how the team hopes the audio immersive experience will be enhanced with this new ending.

“OH!’s aim has always been to tell Singaporean stories, and in its initial form, it really introduced participants to all these spaces within the Jalan Besar neighbourhood, where you’d get people who were exposed to its history for the first time, and of course, history nerds who wanted to talk more about it after the experience,” says Gwen. “Initially, the experience just ended with a series of images, and guests expressed how they wanted to stay in this world a little longer. So we wondered how we could expand on that and enhance the experience further.”

That was how the team came up with the idea for Exit Stage Left bar, where the otherwise sombre ending filled with rubble and disaster now gives way to something much more benign, and even pleasant, a moment of escape from the hectic 21st century life outside. “As an arts company, it made sense to open a bar, and truly make it multi-sensory by giving guests a chance to even taste Singapore with the experience,” says Gwen. “We did a full revamp of this final room, knocking down the walls and working with Chun-Kie Filmhouse to help design the space. What we offer that’s unique is how hyperlocal we are, as the first bar in Singapore to work exclusively with local distilleries, using locally-grown botanicals and ingredients to deliver nuanced local flavours, from hawthorn berries to the rojak flower. It’s been getting good feedback so far, and tourists have been very happy to enjoy a nice drink at the end of a long walk, while learning about Singapore beyond the gilded surface.”

More than that, the bar truly presents a unique way to explore and uncover Singaporean culture, and sparks curiosity in a different kind of crowd from just the history or culture buffs. “It starts a different conversation, where people could come in for a casual drink rather than something specifically artsy fartsy, and they walk into this beautiful neon cabaret space, and some even get convinced to try out the tour after,” says Gwen. “It’s a new avenue for audiences, and a new entry point via F&B. And if anything, it helps grow the experience through word of mouth, where you do get people bringing friends along and expanding on the number of audiences, which helps sustain interest and keep the dialogue going.”

Exit Stage Left is the first bar to only use locally distilled spirits from Tanglin Gin, Brass Lion, Compendium Spirits, and Singapore Distillery. These liquors are then blended with natively grown or found ingredients to express the flavours of Singapore. “We’re still trying to find our voice and expand on the experience, and over the course of setting this up, we’ve even ended up getting to know the local community in Jalan Besar, like sourcing the kaffir lime from a vendor just a street away from Desker Road, and making daily trips to Mustafa to get local ingredients,” says Carissa. “There’s so much you can achieve with food and drink, and puts a different perspective on how cultural and history can be experienced.”

“We’re also constantly looking at new events to activate the space, from jazz nights to festive events over Christmas, and even a vinyl night where we invited guests down to bring their favourite vinyls to play and share at the bar,” says Gwen. “There’s a freedom and flexibility to it, and it’s always surprising the kinds of people that come down or how they come to know about it, and we’ve had some very good conversion rates where they end up booking the tour after coming to the bar.”

On the difficulty of keeping such a project thriving through the years, both Gwen and Carissa express their gratitude to partners, as well as the creative freedom they’ve been given. “There are so many challenges to working in an old shophouse space like this, but I think as a small arts company, we welcome how it pushes us to think more creatively, in terms of maximising resources,” says Carissa. “Ultimately this becomes a proof of concept, where it’s the first time we’re doing this but gives us a chance to examine and figure out audience consumption patterns and what the marketing spin should be like, And if it’s a success, in the long run, we do hope that a bar will almost always end up a part of OH! Stories experiences, and improve with each version.”

“We’re always grateful to organisations like the National Arts Council and the Singapore Tourism Board who partner with us, and with the bar, it helps create another revenue stream and sustainable model for the company,” says Gwen. “Plus, it’s given us a chance to work with Klook and others within the neighbourhood, like how lyf helps push it to guests and their own manager even brought their kids down.”

The team at OH! might be small, but they are mighty, working closely with each other to give support, while also simply enjoying the experience of making such a project come alive. “Not all of us are from an arts background – we come together because we just want to do cool things with cool people. And for me, I’ve always enjoyed doing new things to learn more, and rather than a more typical corporate world where the bottom line is most important,” says Carissa. “Here we’re allowed to be a little more experimental, and given the chance to actually try new things.”

“We just want to make good work, and we were gung-ho about simply giving this bar a try – it doesn’t need to be perfect, and we wanted to give it our best shot. It feels a lot like a startup, where you’re always finding better ways of doing things and improving your processes,” says Gwen. “You learn to trust the people you work with and the people coming through the door – that they’ll give honest feedback when the time comes, and we keep building upon this world we’ve created. It’s an extremely invigorating line of work, and somehow, it’s the motivation to keep striving for excellence where there’s a kind of magic, and that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, knowing how worthwhile it all is.”

Exit Stage Left is located at 85 Desker Road. Exit Stage Left is open to attendees of New World’s End from Wednesdays to Saturdays, and to the general public every Sunday. Bookings can be made here