Celebrate separation with food and dessert at The Divorce Party!

A divorce party may push at social norms in Singapore, but Dream Academy founder Selena Tan’s original idea for interactive theatre was even wilder: a wake.

- Clement Yong Correspondent

For an event at the five-star The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore’s ballroom, where countless weddings are held, this was understandably nixed.

Yet this version that finds joy in separation might still ignite some generational fireworks.

The Divorce Party!, which includes a two-course meal and a dessert buffet — along with a generous drink of gossip — begins its wild festivities on Nov 18.

Tan, 54, disclaims: “I’m not encouraging people to leave their marriages.”

At the surprise party of the “more crazy, less rich” Choo family, even the recently broken-up and beach-loving Choo heiress Phoebe, played by Sharon Sum, is liable to be shocked by proceedings.

An uproarious cast including Andrew Marko, Eugenia Lee, Dwayne Lau and Sarah Smith is led by anchor veteran Sebastian Tan. He is best known by his stage persona Broadway Beng, but is now playing the domineering matriarch of a family forced to an inflexion point.

Selena Tan, who directs, has watched plenty of YouTube recordings of divorce parties in the United Arab Emirates, the United States and “lots and lots” in China, but has come away dissatisfied with the thrumming anger.

“They rip and splash paint on their wedding gowns. They smash things,” she says. “In this particular case, it’s more ‘I want to move on to the next page.”