Theater review: Hard choices and relationships put to the test in Virgin Labfest 10

The Virgin Labfest  (VLF) is 10 years old this year, and it looks like it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. With sold-out performances, this annual festival of “untried, untested, unstaged and unpublished” plays continues to gain a loyal audience for setting thought-provoking performances that tickle the mind and funny bone both.

The VLF, a yearly project of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in cooperation with Writer’s Bloc, Inc. and Tanghalang Pilipino and with the assistance of the National Commission for Culture and Arts, opened last week with three plays from VLF veterans.

I was able to catch Sets A and C of this year’s fest, and the plays did not disappoint.

Set A

Anonymous
Liza Magtoto
Director: Audie Gemora
Actors: Cris Pasturan, Randy Villarama, Olive Nieto, Gian Miguel Landayan, Kristine Bernal, Ronirick Salcedo Romal

Liza Magtoto’s “Anonymous” starts a little stilted, but perhaps that’s how it’s meant to be, when two people meet again after having anonymous sex two years ago. Cris Pasturan’s first line of explosive dialogue (“Didn’t we have sex before?”) sets the tone of the play, which forces the viewer to confront his or her views on female sexuality. Pasturan’s physicality in his acting is in sharp contrast to the way the female lead—Olive Nieto—holds herself. The polarity is obvious: Pasturan is a bull in a china shop and Nieto is the fragile plate on display.

The premise is simple enough; boy and girl have sex, boy allegedly records said tryst, boy extorts money from girl by threatening to post their sex video. The conceit is complicated by the fact that Nieto’s character is now in a happy relationship, and is on the verge of getting engaged. Her soon-to-be fiance, played to comic perfection by Randy Villarama, is clueless about her past, and she’d like to keep it that way.

Nieto blooms in the half an hour or so it takes for the play to run its course, first as a girl running away from her past decisions, and eventually as a woman who owns them, and asks why she should be thought less of for her previous transgressions.

The monologue towards the end of the play might feel a little out of place if handled by a less capable director, but Audie Gemora succeeds in making it flow. All in all, “Anonymous” raises valid questions on why a woman should be shamed and haunted for having casual sex, while the man who engaged in the same act with her can traipse around and threaten her with exposure—even if his naughty bits are on display as well.

Sa Isang Hindi Natatanging Umaga, At Ang Mga Ulap Ay Dahan-Dahan Pumaibabaw Sa Nabubulok Na Lungsod
Allan Lopez
Director: Denisa Reyes
Actors: Liesl Batucan, Jonathan Tadioan, Yong Tapang

Undoubtedly the play with the longest title in this year’s festival, “Sa Isang Hindi Natatanging Umaga”, written by Allan Lopez and directed by leading choreographer Denisa Reyes, isn’t just memorable for its kilometric name. The play, which explores a miserable marriage and an office love affair, uses creative lighting and set design to indicate time and setting changes.

Liesl Batucan plays Meg, the wife who is forced to kowtow to her husband (Yong Tapang). Meg, who laments that she “has no work friends” save for a woman called Cherrylou, meets AJ (Jonathan Tadioan) when she invites him for lunch outside the office. The two soon fall into an affair, told in fits and starts through hilarious dialogue that belies the seriousness of their topics. Batucan shines in her masterful portrayal of a dutiful wife with a secret.

The set is sparse, with a table, two chairs and an occasional mug or cupcake being the only props. These, and two frames to signify a door and a window, are constantly moved about the stage by the actors themselves. The window in particular moves in a circular motion, as if mimicking a clock—apropos to Meg running out of time to make a choice between her happiness and her family, AJ or her husband. While we only see glimpses of Meg’s interaction with the two men in her life through the windows, it is clear who makes her happier.

In the penultimate scene—which made the entire show for me—AJ wheels the door and windows off stage, effectively trapping Meg in her loveless marriage.

Sa Pagitan Ng Dalawang Kahong Liham
Layeta Bucoy
Director: Chris Millado
Actors: Roeder Camañag, Marco Viaña

This epistolary play needs more concentration than the first two, to be able to be fully appreciated. “Sa Pagitan ng Dalawang Kahong Liham” tells the tale of Cards (Roeder Camañag) and Tart (Marco Viaña), lovers on the brink of collapse.

Perhaps it’s because most of the play’s dialogue is in the form of past letters that the two men read to each other without a clear timeline of when the letters were exchanged that it took me a while to figure out who was writing whom. (It must be stressed here that it’s most likely just me who had this little hiccup in figuring out the characters.) Once that became clear, however, the entire play opened up.

At the core of it, all we see is white, from the tangled fluorescent lamps overhead that light the stage, to the two leads’ clothes, and the chairs and suitcase that served as the main props. The starkness is obvious and deliberate, and it goes well with the intense dialogue that builds up and shatters a relationship before the audience’s eyes. The only splashes of color, provided by the titular boxes of letters, is a nice touch.

Despite my early confusion, “Sa Pagitan ng Dalawang Kahong Liham” might be my favorite of the set, thanks to very strong performances from both Camañag and Viaña. A play like this truly relies on the skills of the actors playing demanding roles, and Camañag and Viaña do not disappoint. — BM, GMA News

The second week of Virgin Labfest 10 runs from July 2-6. The full schedule is on the CCP website.