Theater review: Virgin Labfest 9: New(ly) creative comedy in '...Leading Lady'

A group of beautiful and handsome superheroes are saving the world. They are, for some reason, based in the Philippines, their headquarters a six story building that’s hard to find. The heroes are so named: Madre de Dios, Windang Woman, Bazookaman, Nena Babushka, Popoy Pusakal.

 

And Leading Man (Hans Eickstein). He is left behind at the superheroes’ HQ because of an injury, and the lady of the house – that is, the maid Mely (Kiki Baento) – is left to care for his needs. But Mely is preoccupied with the arrival of her younger sister Viva (Skyzx Labastilla), who had a fight with their mother and needed a place to run to. 

 

That Mely would be preoccupied with Viva, given a superhero context that is just far larger than we even imagine anyone would think of for this country, is the gift of playwriting that “Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady” is. 

 

Pinoy sisterhood unhinged

The banter between sisters is already a gift from this production, where the conversations are wont to move from the past to the present to the future, because it is between two people who have an intertwined history between them. It is funny and irreverent, but ultimately it is normal – it is how the Pinoy family creates us into individuals that know to understand, but also know to rebel, against each other, against an other, that is an Ate versus a younger sister.

 

Here, the relationship between Mely and Viva displays the kind of sibling rivalry that exists within the Pinoy family, which makes it different because it is something that we deny exists. That is, we insist that our children get along, and we do not like talk of competition because we think that unhealthy by default. We fall back on the older sister being an Ate, being role model, to a younger sister who can only fail in comparison, or have a difficult time living up to the expectations. 

 

This is at the heart of KPANLL. Mely and Viva are sisters whose history of give-and-take is embroiled in the common longing for love and romance. There is the urgency of keeping her job for Mely, and there is the flightiness and youth of Viva, but between the two sisters the possibility of a happily ever after rings true. Of course the Ate doesn’t think it might happen to her, given her heft, given that Viva is prettier than she is. Viva meanwhile is young enough to believe that she can – and will – get the man of her dreams, no matter that her Ate reprimands her for being juvenile and immature. 

 

Viva is out to achieve her dreams for a better life, too, though it is unclear what it is she wants to do at this point. She is learning English – the kind that’s correct but is about big words she doesn’t understand – and thinks this will open doors for her. Mely knows the job she keeps as maid to superheroes is one to keep, because it is better than anywhere else. Viva speaks of love as possibility. Mely thinks it far fetched, and therefore not worth thinking about.

 

Enter Leading Man.

 

The superhero factor

In this play, the real relationship – and crisis – between sisters, is balanced with the fantastic. That is, the fantasy of superheroes saving the world as they exist among us mere mortals. It is a balance that KPANLL achieves, where the realness of the relationship is not sacrificed or put into question, by the unreal circumstances within which it exists.

 

And so the set is that of the headquarters’ main computer room, where Mely cleans up after the mess the superheroes have left behind. She does not touch the computer at all, because it is off limits. Viva meanwhile navigates that room like a child, playing with the ergonomic chairs, sitting on the table, fawning over the superhero photos on the wall. Her unraveling of course would find her in front of that computer, downloading superhero files, the 'younger sister bit' all but her secret identity. Or do we have it the other way around? 

 

The big reveal is of course also about the superhero Leading Man, suddenly professing his love for Mely, the headquarters’ maid. Here, the superhero could’ve been made more human, if not given a little more time to explain why he would fall in love with someone who otherwise does not exist for him and his superhero-friends. The only indication that Leading Man even notices Mely is in relation to her being able to take care of a building with six floors, where six superheroes live. There is no clear sense of a relationship between them that would warrant the sudden change in the relationship between boss to maid, amo to katulong, Leading Man to Mely. 

 

Ah, but maybe that is also part of the fantasy that this play ultimately maintains, where can happen between the every girl and the prince. It’s exactly the kind of fantasy that would survive despite the real sibling rivalry between Mely and Viva. Which, by the way, was really only waiting for its superhero moment.

 

Control despite the fantasy
 

When this play ends, you cannot believe that it does. Because there is no happy ending (yet), and to some extent what is real about it is sustained by the fact of its fantasy. 

 

That is, we are introduced to Leading Lady, which is really what the title already suggests. We are left to imagine what else will happen after that introduction, seeing as it is also about sisterhood still, and love and romance cut short. 

 

The fantastic on the local stage, and even in local film, is hardly ever done with a sense of control, if not a sense of order. Usually things go overboard, and just become spectacle. “Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady” refuses this enterprise of merely being fantastic (thank heavens for writer and director), and insists instead that what is real about this world, what is wonderful about it, is its humanity. 

 

This is to say that this might be the best piece of fantasy on stage that I’ve seen in a while, and I am glad it is no musicale, because it would remove from its realness, which is at its heart. That conversation between sisters is what most of this one-act play lives off, and even that is controlled in its decision to focus on sibling rivalry and what it contains, its kind of history, that informs the current versions of Mely and Viva. 

 

But also this play is gifted with the best actors. I wish Eickstein those lines that would make him more human, and a set of better superhero moves. But Baento as Mely and Labastilla as Viva make two of the best things to watch on a comedic stage. 

 

Baento plays that Ate role to the hilt, as she does shift seamlessly to being maid whenever spoken to by Madre de Dios (on live video calls of course). Her affected English is exactly how it sounds in our context, where it is perfectly grammatical, but stilted and uncertain. What is Baento’s great moment is in the play’s final scenes, where she converses with Leading Man and Madre de Dios, and is able to be funny and sad, tearfully taking a stand for something that is, to us, nothing but a fantasy. Labastilla meanwhile navigates the two sides of her character, whichever of them might be a secret at any given point, with such aplomb that you cannot but be carried away. All that changes is her eyes, and you know that she’s gone on to her next character; by the time her voice and articulations change, you cannot but be laughing your head off at the absurdity. That is of course borne of the skillfulness with which Labastilla portrays Viva, who for most of the play you cannot but empathize with as the younger sister who does not know what she’s doing. Yes, she takes you for a ride. 

 

As does “Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady,” on a stage where everything is about being real and human, even as it is all just fantastic. You’d be hard put not to enjoy that ride. — VC, GMA News

 

“Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady” is written by Carlo Vergara and directed by Chris Martinez for Set C of Virgin Labfest 9. It will again be staged on July 3 at 3:00 PM and July 5 at 8:00 PM, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Huseng Batute. 

Click here for the schedule of Virgin Labfest and here for the plays' synopses.

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Katrina Stuart Santiago writes the essay in its various permutations, from pop culture criticism to art reviews, scholarly papers to creative non-fiction, all always and necessarily bound by Third World Philippines, its tragedies and successes, even more so its silences. She blogs at http://www.radikalchick.com. The views expressed in this article are solely her own.