The Virgin Labfest is all about “untried, untested, unpublished and unstaged plays” by both budding and recognized artists. On its fourth year, it has accumulated a variety of fans, critics and curious viewers because of its stimulating and innovative line-up of one-act plays, about 30 to 45 minutes each.
I have not been much of a theater-goer these past years because of the two decades I’ve spent as an artist of Ballet Philippines at the CCP. Like many burnt out people, I’d rather stay home, avoid traffic, not bother to dress up and watch tv.
Just a few weeks ago, my husband was asked to be one of the judges at the Wifi Dance Festival. I decided to take a peek and was hit by a torrent of sentiments in the choreographies that I saw. I decided to write about it.
Amazingly, my daughter auditioned for the Labfest Theater Festival and got a role in one of the plays; her debut as an actor. As she took the role home with her each night, I found myself getting involved. Analyzing a script is a far cry from analyzing movement. Words have a different energy from steps. I watched the run of the three plays in the trilogy she was in and was enthralled. If, in dance, the message is interpretative the imagination has to work double time. I surmise this is the reason why many people are intimidated by contemporary dance. Theater is easier to grasp. You can hear the words, watch the action, follow the story and there is less guesswork.
Seeing the bevy of good actors working passionately to shine, I thought it would be a pity if people missed the plays. So here I am writing about Labfest too. I am now a theater groupie! This is not a review. Consider it more of a reaction paper.
All I want to do is drive people to the CCP – regardless of traffic and, you can even wear jeans and shorts – feel the tangible force of a live performance and go home a different person.
Kapamilya, Kapuso, Kabisyo
Las Mentiras de Gloria by Layeta Bucoy
Directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio
Featuring: Bart Guingona & May Bayot
Playdates: June 26 – 3PM/8PM (Thrusday), July 5 – 8PM (Saturday), July 6 – 3PM
(Sunday)
Venue: Tanghalang Huseng Batute
The play opens with a favorite song of mine, “Gracias a la Vida”, sung expressively by
Gloria (May Bayot) as she ‘floats’ behind a plastic wall towards a rough outline of a destitute bathroom. We see nothing but a broken toilet, a sink, a bath cubicle and a box of ‘butabots’ containing her history.
Gloria, who has succumbed to cancer, appears to her twin brother, Utoy (Bart Guingona) and prods him to transform their bathroom into a “kubeta ng mayaman’ for her wake. This is what her colleagues from UP expect to see in their ‘antique’ house.
The conversation begins with an amount of tenderness estranged twins might have but the voyage to perdition closely follows. A valve is opened; childhood memories, connections, isolations, posturings, accusations and absolutions pour.
Finally, the twins’ ugliest truth seeps out – what it is you’ll have to find out for yourself.
Guingona’s and Bayot’s powerful stage presence keeps us glued to the dialogue even as we wince through its sordid revelations.
Director Rutaquio knows his actors well and allows them to maneuver the drama with their own delicate nuances.
Layeta Bucoy’s play speaks of a relationship that has gone out of kilter, as most human relationships do. Like the greasy toilet Utoy tries to
fix, obstructions may be dislodged but the grime clings to each soul for eternity.
Las Mentiras de Gloria merges two compelling actors, an insightful writer and a
responsive director.
Powerful!
Ang Mga Halimaw by Carlo Garcia
Directed by Paolo O'Hara
Featuring: JK Anicoche, Amihan Ruiz, Kristine Balmes, Alvin Obillo, Nar Cabico, Isab Martinez, Mara Marasigan,Philip Evangelista and Oscar Garcia
Playdates: June 26 – 3PM/8PM (Thrusday), July 5 – 8PM (Saturday), July 6 – 3PM (Sunday)
Venue: Tanghalang Huseng Batute
Infiltrating the dark world of assassins can be hilarious if done in a taxi of Ang Mga Halimaw. The play is about hired criminals on a mission; in a pace so fast you pant as you watch. The hoodlum characters are portrayed with such zeal, they end up so endearing you’d take them home to mama.
Because of the ferocious energy of these young graduates from the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA), I advise you not to sit in the front row.
JK Anicoche, as the Taxi Driver, is especially effective. He is a bewildered character, crude and mermerizingly real. He is the one I want to take home. Kristine Balmes, the
Operadang Bakla, is the transvestite who utterly charms us with her dark sexy wit and wintry façade. Nar Cabico, as Lalaking May Pakpak, amuses the audience with his casual detachment on a twitchy baby face.
Isabelle Martinez, the Babaeng Buntis, grips with her screeching yet believable angst. Fantastic role for the talented girl. Oscar Garcia, as Boss, gives relief by being quiet but being there.
I had to see this play twice to understand the story and I’m still groping in its surrealism – the dreamlike juxtopositions applied in text. Writer Carlo Garcia dared to go beyond parameters – as young artists should – and took a good risk.
I congratulate Director O’Hara for making me laugh and probe with awe. This is his first direction at the CCP and I see a fantastic career ahead of him. (Good job Paolo!) He and Garcia are what Labfest is all about: risk, courage and triumph.
A must-see!
Amoy ng Langit by Hase Hiroichi
Featuring: Mailes Kanapi, Martha Comia, Ana Deroca, Mica Froilan and Tara Cabaero
Playdates: June 26 – 3PM/8PM (Thrusday), July 5 – 8PM (Saturday), July 6 – 3PM (Sunday)
Venue: Tanghalang Huseng Batute
What, really, is the smell of heaven? Three students, a teacher and a ghost would know. The story unfolds in a setting as minimal as Japanese designs go – one bench.
The play is light and funny – thanks to (the Teacher) Mailes Kanapi’s brilliant comic timing and injections of convincing Japanese jargon by the cast. But a familial heartbreak seeps out in the giddy chitchats of the three college sophomores.
The story revolves around a ghost, Chihaya, (Tara Cabaero) who makes her presence known in a rooftop. Her sister, Yu (Mica Froilan), and her friends (Martha Comia and Ana Deroca) defy school rules to visit the forbidden place which eventually becomes a site not only for recreation but for closure. The two siblings, one dead but very much alive and one alive but virtually dead, reach their conclusion four years after the tragedy.
Writer Hase Hiroichi does not spoon-feed us with deliberate information. Candid banter leads to the drama, climax and resolution. Everything is unpretentious. The script, direction and acting are so chaste you want to hug everyone in the play. Director Yoshida, with his simple blocking and lighting effects, presents Amoy ng Langit with refreshing purity.
Like Japanese masters who tell their students to ‘learn by watching their back’, Hiroichi and Yoshida let the audience pick up the clues on their own.
I know the actors found their paths too, given plenty of room to discover their characters personally.
Very Japanese. Very simple. Very light. Very deep, if you penetrate that prohibited place where loss resides. It’s refreshing to watch Pinoys become Japanese. Or Japanese become Pinoys.
Mailes Kanapi is one divine diva of theater, a sparkling diamond who can manipulate her audience at whim. So exciting to watch. Tara Cabaero is a winning performer, pretty, perky and lovely. Martha Comia is a robust actress who can command attention. Ana Deroca is one impressive Japanese which means she can be anything and anyone. And Mica Froilan,
who is my daughter, I’ve given my comments to in private.
The Kapamilya, Kapuso, Kabisyo series of Labfest 4 is all about stories of ghosts in different perspectives. Maybe the word Kamatayan or Kalulua should have been added but never mind. All three plays succeed in making us reflect on mortality yet go home pretty ecstatic.
With the sordid transgressions of Las Mentiras de Gloria and the hilarious malice of Ang Mga Halimaw, Amoy ng Langit is a good ender for the trilogy.
A joy!
The electrifying thing about allowing ‘virgin’ plays on stage is that the creativity of playwrights and directors is not strapped by rules and formula. Some experimentations may work, some may not, but the artists are allowed to succeed, fall short and learn as their works progress. Art is about change and evolution. Those who are strange now may be mainstream of the future … until someone breaks their rules. This is the beauty of Art. It keeps moving forward.
Thank you to the Labfest pioneers: Artistic Director Rody Vera, Dennis Marasigan, Herbie Go and the Writer’s Bloc, Inc. Tanghalang Pilipino, CCP and NCCA for opening doors to the pool of creative and talented Filipinos. Bravo!
Photos by Joma Dela Vega and EVRF
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