SINGAPORE — It’s not exactly sleeping with the enemy, but when you’re best buds and sharing food with the person who lives next door — who, incidentally, has just invaded our country — that’s pretty close.

This dynamic is explored in Rising Son, Singapore Repertory Theatre’s latest Stage Two production under its Made In Singapore branding. It’s a pretty solid offering from theatre stalwart Dick Lee, who pens his first so-called “serious” play, inspired by his father’s life.

Set in Katong during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in World War II, we witness the awkward friendship between young Sunny Lee (Tan Shou Chen) and his new Japanese neighbour. But Colonel Hiroyuki Sato (Caleb Goh) is hardly the evil stereotype: He’s soft-spoken, polite, reads Shakespeare, quotes Wordsworth and translates Basho.

Under Obie-winning director Eric Ting’s hand, Rising Son flows well, the clash of two worlds (all under set designer Wong Chee Wai’s wonderful canopy comprising windows) unfolding with clarity and simplicity.

There are brief moments of levity, but while the play certainly doesn’t imagine itself to be grim, the context is anything but happy. Still, it somehow misses that underlying sensation of danger.

It’s not because Rising Son is written from (and portrays) a position of privilege — Sunny might belong to a well to do family but the play constantly reminds us that something cruel is happening outside this hunky-dory bubble of a neighbourhood.

It’s because the complexity of his unique situation doesn’t come across completely onstage. Here is one conflicted character that is very much aware of the danger of befriending a member of the occupying power, of the possibility of being found out and labelled a collaborationist, of not kowtowing to a soldier in the streets — and yet he is strangely drawn to and charmed by an enemy who, actually, we know very little of apart from his cultured ways.

It’s a moral situation that gnaws at one’s soul, but there’s a lack of tension in actor Tan Shou Chen’s portrayal of a very multifaceted character having an internal tug-of-war between hate and fear and admiration. It’s a tough role, but since the entire piece rests on this this particular moral dilemma, one hopes Tan eventually grows into his very pivotal role.

The strongest sense of tension comes from that of Sato and Sunny Lee’s precocious, naive younger sister Ruby. Goh’s stoic, composed portrayal of the Japanese officer is a wonderful foil for Seong Hui Xuan’s spirited performance as a teenager at the brink of womanhood. And it is in their scenes where danger (or at least the possibility of it) eventually rears its head.

In itself, Rising Son is a likable, honest piece of solid writing by Dick Lee and an important story to boot. And when you consider that it’s also the first in an ambitious trilogy based on his family (the next one’s about his mother, and the final one, about himself) set against the backdrop of Singapore’s history, you could also think of it as the start of something special.

What: Rising Son

When: March 27 to April 12, 8pm, with 4pm matinees on weekends and Fridays

Where: DBS Arts Centre — Home Of SRT

Tickets: S$30 to S$55 from SISTIC