Cherie Gil leads striking cast of PETA’s ‘Arbol de Fuego’

Seasoned stage and television actress Gil—who was magnificent as Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s “Master Class,” astonishing as Liliane La Fleur in “Nine,” and breath-taking as Diana Vreeland in “Full Gallop”—makes her debut at the PETA stage as matriarch Enriquetta Jardeleza-Sofronio.
 

Joining Gil in the remarkable cast is Angeli Bayani, Urian best actress awardee; Jake Macapagal, British Independent Film Award nominee; Anna Luna, Cinema One 2013 best supporting actress; and award-winning veteran actors Bembol Roco and Leo Rialp, among others.

In an interview, Gil admitted to not going to college and not being familiar with the works of Anton Chekhov.

“I do not know Chekhov. I did not study Chekhov. I have no academic training in acting or theater. But I love the trust and confidence of director and production designer Loy Arcenas in me to do this play,” Gil said.

“The best way is to be most honest in attacking the role. Enriquetta Jardeleza-Sofronio is unbelievably bipolar. She lives in her own illusion,” Gil added.

Set on Negros island when the sugar industry was dying and in the dark last years of the rule of then-President Ferdinand Marcos, “Arbol” is a tragicomedy about the middle-aged matriarch Enriquetta, who comes home after having squandered the family fortune during a long extravagant stay in Madrid.

Buried in debt, she and younger brother Adjie (Macapagal) are advised to sell the estate to avoid bankruptcy. But she refuses to face the bitter reality, insisting on keeping their ancestral house and the flourishing rows of fire trees that frame the estate.

Instead, the Jardelezas hosted lavish and decadent parties, reminiscing their opulent past in an effort to forget their rapidly disappearing fortune.


Arcenas, Arbol director and production designer, said he first saw Gil as Maria Callas in “Master Class” when it was staged in the Philippines.

In New York, soprano Fides Asensio introduced Gil to Arcenas.

“I thought that Terrence McNally should meet this brilliant interpreter of his Callas. She and Terrence became friends, she and I became friends,” Arcena said.

Whenever Arcenas meets Gil in the Philippines, he would tell her that she would, “make a great Ranevskaya,” the matriarch in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”

“We would laugh about it. So when the PETA offer came about, Cherie had to be Madame Ranevskaya/Enriquetta Jardeleza-Sofronio,” Arcenas said.

Of the ensemble of Arbol, Arcenas said, “I couldn’t have been luckier with the mix we came up with: Angeli, Anthony, Lao, Ricky, Leo, Kiki, I have worked with and who I know will bring interesting and fun rehearsal quirks into the process.”

“Jake, Bembol, Divine, who I have not worked with but whose work I have seen and admired and Raffy, Anna, Gie, and the actors who bowled me over during auditions, I am looking forward to having a great playground, backed up by a great group of behind-the-scenes-personalities,” Arcenas said.

“The rehearsal process should be a joyous experience for me, as the director/designer, and for the ensemble of actors. I want rehearsals to be playgrounds for discovery,” he said

“To me, the actor’s performance is the heart of the theatrical experience. I look for actors who are interested in creating, in discovering, and breathing life to fascinatingly flawed characters. I want actors who are fearless, actors who challenge, actors who share and feed each other ideas,” Arcenas said.


Rody Vera, who adapted “The Cherry Orchard” into “Arbol de Fuego,” said it took him almost five years to complete the process of working on “Arbol”.

Vera said he was aware of the perception that the works of Chekhov tend to be “bitter and melancholic.”

While crafting “Arbol”, he said he would often ask himself where will he locate the setting of the story. “Will it be in a mango orchard or in a lanzones plantation?”

After being sidetracked by other commitments, Vera said he and Arcenas decided to deal with “The Cherry Orchard.”

“We decided to interview friends and resource persons. We even thought of setting the story in Pampanga, Tarlac, or in areas where there were vast tracts of lands owned by powerful families. In the end, we decided to use Negros as the most suitable locale,” Vera said.

           
“Negros witnessed the complex relations between land-owners and tenants. Negros witnessed the decay and death of a social class which was ostentatious in its use of its wealth and irresponsible in its ways,” Vera said.

           
“The long lines in the dialogue by the characters in Arbol symbolize the majesty of the beautiful fire tree. But they also symbolize the emptiness of the ruling landed gentry,” Vera said.

           
Completing the ensemble are the following: Leo Rialp is the money-grabbing former nobleman Chitong; Raffy Tejada plays the self-made businessman and former servant Nonoy Tiking; Riki Benedicto is the young intellectual Dante; and Bembol Roco is the old but faithful mayordomo Manoy Iking.

           
A host of talented actors round off the cast as the family’s hired servants played by Anthony Falcon, Lao Rodriguez, Gie Onida, Kiki Baento, and Divine Aucina.

           
Arbol’s costumes were designed by Carlo Pangunaling while Vincent de Jesus did its sound and music. 
 

“Arbol de Fuego” opens on February 20, 2015, with shows from Fridays to Sundays, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the PETA Theater Center, No. 5 Eymard Drive, New Manila, Quezon City. — VC, GMA News


For details, please contact at PETA at 725 6244 or 0917 5765400 or contact Ticket World at ticketworld.com.ph 891 9999.