I required my students to experience this year’s Virgin Labfest at CCP last Friday and Saturday (July 6-7) particularly the set dubbed as "Ang Pagdadalaga at Iba Pang Rebelasyon" and "Identity and Politics."
I chose to watch "Ang Pagdadalaga" at 8 p.m. last Friday. Most of my students were there. It was staged at Tanghalang Huseng Batute and composed of three short plays: "Kuyom" by Argel Tuason, "Three Unsent Letters" by Arlo de Guzman, and "Ellas Inosentes" by Layeta Bucoy.
"Three Unsent Letters" was a disappointment. I knew it right away the moment the lights went on and the actor-narrator started his spiel. I don’t know what I was looking for but the dialogues came to me as dry; the delivery flat. There was the narrator of the 3 unsent letters. Center stage, in a bath tub, the gay lovers dealt with their "commitment" issue. Very contemporary and yet, for me, it lacked the ‘fire’ - even grace - of a fluid, witty dialogue and acting that for the most part, I felt like a timid high school girl shivering on the sight of a naked male in public (and I’m not conservative, mind you. hehe). I found the ‘bathtub’ scene awful and unnecessary.
For shock value? ! There was no fire to spread of.
The night before that, I watched the best of Virgin Labfest 2, "Palanca on My mInd" by Job Pagsibigan, which was also a disappointment since I thought it was a spoof of the The Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Yes, it tried to be but I must say that it was only good as a skit. Guess it did not really capture the plight, the drama, the gossips, the legends, the stereotypes, the idiosyncracies of both the characters and narratives that inhabit (ed) Palanca.
Because my idea of a drama, of theater, was best embodied by Liza Magtoto’s "Hubad." It helped that it was performed by two noted Filipino actors: Nonie Buencamino and Irma Adlawan as married couple trying to save their sexual relationship through role-playing. Denisa Reyes’s direction and choreography was brilliant. Magtoto’s lines were fresh and witty. The acting brilliant. It was bold, daring, sexy, and honest that how I wished I was with my students so I can say to them back in the classroom how orgasmic sex can really be as a material when in the hands of brilliant artists. That’s how art should be: pleasurable not only to the senses but to the mind. Crafted by the masters, there is no vulgar or awful topic.
I was also happy and proud with "Ellas Inosentes." Lalie Bucoy was my classmate in MFA. Her script redeemed the night. It was a remarkable performance of the two young graduates of Philippine High School for the Arts and direction of a guy whom I recognized as a good theater actor. Tuxs Rotaquio? (Directors’ are not included in the program brochure).
"Kuyom" will be cited in my Creative Writing class as an example of ‘failure of craft.’ Aside from poor acting, the narrative was in itself a failure because it tried to achieve many things at the same time. Classic case of lack of focus and clarity when I even tried to forget about the "organic unity" of Formalism. Whose story was it? When the lights went on, it was about a drag queen with a ’straight’ male partner who decided to adopt Yum-Yum (or Yam-yam), a mute street kid. The argument started there. As a struggling couple, the drag queen was unhappy with his lover’s messianic gesture. Anyway, I was expecting it will unfold into the dynamics of gay-male relationship made more complex by the will of the straight lover to keep the kid. Sort of. Until all I heard and saw as the play moved on was "Yum-Yum" (who did not appear until the curtain call. He was ‘projected’ on screen - multi media sila). To the point that I heard myself saying, "Ano ba ‘to? About street children pala ng Pinas e nagkukunyari pang about kabaklaan with all the parloric sisters there ng bida nating divah." I got bored.
I rushed out, worried that majority of my students were also disappointed and scandalized (!). Well, I said to myself, that explained the "virgin" and the "lab" in the festival.
Saturday night, I watched "Don Quixote" as performed by Ballet Philippines. I dressed for it and felt so fabulous. I had no escort and it was perfectly okay. J had to go back to his place right away that night and H turned out to have a "date." Actually. Late that afternoon, J was in a "drama" mood/mode and his vulnerability caught me off guard (anyway, this is just for the record; this deserves another entry or perhaps, I’ll just immortalize this in my laptop). That morning, I texted J, a high school friend whom I haven’t seen for quite sometime. Not available. Also P, another high school buddy whom I was reconnected recently. Lunch time, I tried A, a college batch mate now a lawyer friend, and also not available.
Talk about friends busy with their own lives and having no boyfriend to drag along.
The show was a feast. Made me proud. In the powder room, I was with Amalia Fuentes and one of Albert and Liezel’s daughters. They appeared as mortals and fabulous as me. Hehe.
Since I also required "Identity and Politics," I dragged myself out of my place that Sunday afternoon. It was held at Bulwagang Amado Hernandez , a labyrinth of its own at the CCP groundfloor. It was also composed of three short plays: "May Bumubulong" by Job Pagsibugan, "Pobreng Alindahaw" by Dennis Teodosio, and "Sa Pagdating ng Barbaro" by Rogelio Braga.
"May Bumubulong" appeared to me as a psycho-thriller. The performers were good. The narrative was okay: the past and present were fleshed out and the symbolisms of "may bumubulong" and "tumutulong tubig" created suspense and mystery. It was about the reunion of two brothers after their mother passed away. The elder brother, who was said to be a rebel and revealed as a son of a priest, who was the cause of their mother’s penitence, was demanding for the copy of the land title. The younger brother, the one left alone, the one hearing those voices, the one fantasizing himself to be transformed into an alien, was the narrator-protagonist. They had a secret and it was discovered by their mother: they always took a bath together and there, the elder bro initiated him into "manhood." In the end, he killed his elder brother.
I loved the use of folk song in "Pobreng Alindahaw." I enjoyed the music and the acting. The language and the treatment of the material made me think though that theater now seems to imitate television. Where is art now? All I know is that I can recognize it when I see it.Good acting. I was entertained. Two lowly tutubi dreaming to be paruparo as representations of jologs and sosi groups of gays.
I was fretting in the middle of "Sa Pagdating ng Barbaro." It was set in Lanao though the milieu was unclear (because it appeared to me as the stereotype image of Mindanao: economically depressed and a war zone. I was in Davao-GenSan-Saranggani last summer and what I saw was abundant natural resources. I was in Iligan-Cagayan de oro in 1997). I reminded myself of "the past as present." It was an attempt to deal with Maranao-Christian power relations and the peace problem in Mindanao. The play opened with a young man in a bench playing a guitar, singing an unfamiliar song. Because it was in one of those Philippine languages, if not dialects. There was a mention of Maranao so that settled the issue of language and prepared me for the narrative. This young man hanged himself. That started the commotion among the villagers, represented as ever tsismoso and tsismosa.
But this young man was not the protagonist of the play. No. It was "Tagalog" - hmmm, the "barbaro" in the title - and Bakak (not her real name but the villagers call her this way, labeling her as a liar. Hmm, did I hear it right? Hehe). Tagalog, with his big suitcase, in pants and tie, came one day to this place looking for Bakak (I forgot her "real name" in the play), his classmate in UST (DLSU and UP and Silliman were also mentioned. I kept on waiting for Ateneo but seemed like the writer has no affiliation to it. Hehe) who used to tell him stories about Maranao-Christian feuds and the peace situation in Mindanao, their town being the site of a gun factory. Anyway, Tagalog came because of his fucked-up life in Manila (he lost his job and most of all, his wife to - surprise, surprise - Bakak’s husband) and now wanted to go to that "forbidden town" mentioned by Bakak during their college days. That was his idea of "peace." Hehe.
More so, Bakak has a Maranao helper. Their arguments revolved on who needed whom. She can speak Tagalog but her most important dialogue was articulated in Maranao so I was lost there. Anyway, remember the big suitcase of Tagalog? Guess that was the climax: he gave it to this Maranao girl who acted grateful for it. What was in it? How significant was that? I had no idea. It was not highlighted in their conversation as a symbol of something important. That was a gesture of what? Of Tagalog’s attempt to link with the Maranaos? I was not sure. I got bored.
I cannot actually recall how it ended. But I pitied that actor who played the young man who committed suicide. He acted several roles and he died in all of them. I did not even know why he killed himself.
At 8 that night, I was supposed to come back for "Madadramang Pamilya." But I got lazy and read instead to sleep.
