7 plays, 2 days
Ang Pi70 Ka Drama Sa Pebrero: A Seven Course Theatrical Feast
By Jasmine Nikki C. Paredes
Photos by Eli Razo
AS I first entered the yellow gates of the New Cebu Coliseum in the morning of Feb. 24, 2016, a man was selling me a foldable fan for x pesos. “Init sa sulod, ma’am,” he said, but I ignored his advice. I came back a second time that day, and a third time on Feb. 25 sans paypay, feeling feverish. And how could I not feel excited for the banquet that was about to come? Before me were seven plays in the language I dream — and curse — in. After all, I was not sitting inside an unfamiliar tundra of a venue, but was instead debating buying salted peanuts from a man walking up and down the aisles of a converted basketball court. I felt right at home.
Ang Pi70 Ka Drama Sa Pebrero is the fruit of the grit and pluck of Bare Bones Production, headed by local theatre veteran Rudy U. Aviles. All seven plays performed in the two-day showcase were developed in the Cornelio Faigao Memorial Annual Writer’s Workshop in Drama and Performance, which was officially launched in May 2014 by New York playwright Linda Faigao-Hall.
The age of the anxious Cebuano millennial
April Moncada’s Joke Lang, directed by Emman Mante, opened the showcase. Joke Lang begins with Maria (Khristine Gentica/Rosemarie Joy Cinco), a call center agent, spending a well-deserved night off from work with her self-employed boyfriend, Darwin (Jeff Maun/Michael Banaynal). What starts off as a banal venting session turns into an interrogation by Darwin; he implores her not to overeat or else she’ll fail to catch the eye of her ex-flame, Ray. There’s some foreshadowing in Moncada’s offering as well — his business is thriving, and he’s saving up for something. But alas they bicker as most youngish couples do, trading provocations, while Maria continues to defiantly gorge her feelings. At one point, a fed up Darwin retreats to his room, leaving a sorry Maria to sit by his door and croon. They finally appease each other by sealing a marriage proposal — and a selfie. A duet is sung.
Fret, written by Revan Sinadjan and directed by Emman Mante, features a protagonist also bent on securing his future, similar to the couple in Joke Lang. Ronald (Alfie Mosqueda/Everild Catugal) is a fatigued content writer with a deadline to meet. His scheming best friend, Irish (Aloha Padayogdog/Apple Ynclino), invites him to a party on the other side of town. He turns her down, as he’s set on not getting fired and on keeping his dream job, but is pestered by Irish anyway. In an act of desperation, she reveals to Ronald that a girl he’s been eyeing is attending the party as well. For a fleeting moment, Ronald considers going to the party, yet is ultimately compelled to fulfill his responsibilities. They duke it out, with Ronald eager to stay on track and Irish throwing an overdramatic fit, until he finally finishes his work and leaves his best friend to writhe and fret on the floor about her uneventful evening.
Haidee Palapar’s The World Is An Oyster, directed by Junrey Alayacyac, follows the story of Jacqueline (Christine Ann Capitan), an overworked writer for an NGO. Jacqueline is especially distraught because she is being hounded by her boss while on vacation in sunny Malapascua. While in the middle of throwing a tantrum (and her cellphone), she encounters Sam (Gabriel Gomez), a dashing American on holiday in the Philippines.
Jacqueline is increasingly annoyed by Sam’s freewheeling attitude on life and love (at one point, he emphatically exclaims, “The world is an oyster!), while Sam is relentless in wanting to take Jacqueline out for a grand time. They trade stories on life in the Philippines and America, eventually coming to terms with their socio-economic and cultural differences. Jacqueline finally accepts Sam’s invitation, and they walk off into a suggested sunset.
Joke Lang, Fret and The World Is an Oyster all attempt to portray the wired woes of the young, contemporary Cebuano. While the task to tell stories of the anxious millennial is necessary, it is also important that the execution of these stories be done so that an audience can appreciate, even pick apart, its subtleties and nuances. That the female players of the three productions spent much of their time stomping around the stage was a missed opportunity. The complex concerns of fledgling adults, specifically the tension to balance commitments and careers, were overshadowed by the need to use lukewarm chemistry to appease a likewise young audience. Nevertheless, Joke Lang, Fret and The World Is an Oyster were successful in being unapologetically millennial and Cebuano.
Changing sets, AlDub fever
An interesting feature of the production was the marked presence of the stagehands who moved set props and pieces. They can be compared to the kuroku of traditional Japanese theatre, dressed in head-to-toe black. The stage hands in Ang Pi70 Ka Drama sa Pebrero were like stealthy thieves in the night, unnoticed by a singing cast reminiscent of GMA 7’s AlDub. The four-person musical ensemble added comic and romantic dimensions to the theatrical feast. Their familiar interactions on stage allowed the audience a congenial respite between plays. The singing, too, was unsurprisingly top-notch.
Familial tensions
Ang Paghuwat, written by Pip Compra and directed by Mark Jude Tenedero, was the clear heavy-hitter of the set. It tells the story of a widowed mother, Anita (Ingrid Siega/Bong Camon) and her daughter, Grace (Concon Aringay/Divine Saludaga), an overseas worker based in the Middle East. The murder of husband and father Carding drives Grace to leave her family behind, working long and arduous days so she can provide for her children and mother in the Philippines. The decision to dramatize relevant issues head-on, such as forced migration and women in the diaspora, did justice to Compra’s material. The alternating female pairs bared their grief and anguish on stage; this was not a story that demanded restraint and containment. Far from being escapist, Ang Paghuwat impressed as a weighty and fearless play.
Family was likewise the focal point for Emman Mante’s Disney X, directed by Rudy U. Aviles. Ben (Choi Castellano) is a 40-something single father to an adolescent Ariel (Rachel Puray/Vennee Marie Fuentes). To say that the patriarch loves anything Disney is an understatement; him naming his daughter after the rebellious and fiery mermaid is apt to describe their imperfect relationship. Disney X begins with both characters at odds when Ariel comes home late from school. Ben is quick to pepper his sermons with Disney-isms, which only makes Ariel more agitated and compels him to reveal something about his own upbringing rife with abuse and pain. The many-layered tension between father and daughter is made more actual by Castellano’s magnetism. There is a darkness, too, to Mante’s story that made Disney X a playful triumph.
Love after love
One of two stronger plays in Ang Pi70 Ka Drama Sa Pebrero was Angelo Zige’s Katapusang Pagbalik, directed by Eli Razo. It opens with a character named Charo (Rachel Layaog) returning from a few days in the city to her alcoholic husband, Arman (Clint Solante). He is belligerent at Charo’s homecoming, alternating swigs of Tanduay rum and hurling insults at her for gallivanting in the metropolis. Her character has kept something at the back of her mind even before this spat; she is a curse word away from leaving her husband for good and reuniting with her children, whom she has entrusted to her relatives in the city. Layaog maintains a pained expression on her face for most of the play, delicately channeling the stereotypical character of a subservient wife. Here, the marital tension between spouses is achingly palpable. Watching Katapusang Pagbalik is almost like eavesdropping on a marital squabble; one can’t help but not look away.
And then there’s Missing Bising, written by Rudy U. Aviles and directed by Orlando B. Magno. We find an aged Orlando (Sonny Alquisola/Eldryn Padigos) being confronted by his frenetic, middle-aged spinster daughter Erlinda (Cynthia Abellanosa/Rhodamie Chan). Bising, a 70-year old widow from their small town, has been missing for three days. All are suspicious of the suave senior Orlando. Both Alquisola and Padigos are masters at comic timing and geriatric groin-thrusting, and it is their presence on stage that allows Missing Bising to affect the hearts and funny bones of all ages. Truly, Aviles has gifted the Cebuano audience with an irresistible love story that does not discriminate.
There was no other appropriate manner to end the showcase than to conclude with a wedding. Out came the ensemble performers, serenading the blushing bride, Bising, to her beloved. I was one among many satisfied guests, eager to applaud the rest of the players.
Ang Pi70 Ka Drama Sa Pebrero is a feast that values and dutifully takes into consideration the appetite of its audience. Now, an invitation to the next unassuming gathering of Cebuano talent is begging to be received, and, yes, all are welcome.
