SINGAPORE — Decimal Points 0 director Andy Lim described his piece as one on “Love”. So was it a sincere exploration of said theme, a deadpan put on, or a red herring of a statement?

Going for the third made it much easier to appreciate the respected lighting designer’s directorial debut, which, despite feeling rather thin and stretched on the “what’s it telling me” side, engaged as a performance installation. A sensory experience at the Substation Theatre — starring black ninjas!

Performers Rizman Putra, Hakeem Kasban and Vanda Seetoh went quasi-zentai, all covered in black, eerie as faceless, featureless performers on the rectangular space. Yet they retained their respective distinct characteristics by way of physical shape and choreography (in fact, with the anonymity, it was so tempting to give them nicknames).

You had Rizman (aka Muscle Man) crossing the length of the space at snail’s pace while Seetoh (aka Stick Lady) skittered around the borders, briskly turning sharp corners. At opposite ends, they nodded and jerked their heads. They hopped and jumped as if sizing up each other. Enter Hakeem (aka Spider-Man) who crawled on all fours on the cushioned mattress floor. He’s a rock climber, and it showed in his movements translated on a horizontal surface.

Seetoh, meanwhile, is a pole dancer (another one in a little more than a week after da:ns Fest’s ALPHA!). Spinning around the pole with such ease and in various ways, her visual grace was a calming presence while over at the other end, Hakeem clambered up his own vertical structure as if surveying the area. It’s Rizman’s role that somewhat disappointed — in particular, the use of the ropes hanging from the rafters, which he wrapped around himself. Everything did come together in the end, with a visually powerful tableaux of Stick Lady slowly twirling around the pole, Spider-Man crouched on high and Muscle Man entwined in rope in a Jesus Christ-pose. A pretty memorable image for me.

This journey of sorts was made all the more episodic with the soundscapes of sound designer Jeffrey Yue and composer Yasuhiro Morinaga somewhat following elemental patterns, from spacey cosmic to earth-inspired to aquatic echo chamber to the uplifting. As for Lim, it’s really a chance to flex his muscles, which he did — plunging the theatre into darkness before introducing the flickering beginnings of stars, and up on the rafters a glowing orange light. And that’s just all before the ninjas make their appearance. Later on, he showcased more tricks up his sleeve, which was never too in your face.

As a lights guru, we could very well assume that one of his strengths is a heightened awareness of the stage as a space filled by things. A living chessboard as it were. And it was quite evident here how conscious he was about everyone and everything’s spatial relation to everyone and everything else — from the performers to the way his lights delineate areas to the set and props (even with my gripe about the use of the ropes, as an image, its slackness was a good contrast to the steel pole). I might not have gotten the whole “Love” point in a show with three ninjas, but you couldn’t deny the TLC that Lim put into Decimal Points 0.