Red Turnip’s edgy plays

MANILA, Philippines - The new drama group called Red Turnip is a brave little organization, as it seeks to do battle — so to speak — against the Pinoy’s love for music, specifically musical theater. It presents edgy, experimental, intimate Anglo-American straight plays.

Five well-known actors are behind Red Turnip: Ana Abad Santos, Topper Fabregas, Jenny Jamora, Cris Villonco and Rem Zamora. Their maiden offering was Closer, a play about human relationships later made into a film shown here not too long ago.

And now comes the teasingly titled Cock by an English playwright, a straight play about gays, directed by Rem, which opened yesterday at Whitespace (2314 Chino Roces, Pasong Tamo  Extension, Makati City). It will run for five weekends until April 6. Check out [email protected].

Cock is an actor-driven comedy-drama, sophisticated and smart-ass, with a lot of profanity (but of course the “F” word), bitchy humor and some laugh-out-loud one liners.

There are only four cast members, no set design, no props, no costumes, no chairs, so the three actors and one actress enter, confront each other, argue and fight, then retire to the sidelines waiting for their cue.

Dialogue is intense, so there are mineral water bottles thoughtfully placed outside the circle.

It is theater in the round, shaped like a cockpit (thus the title), an arena, with the characters pecking at each other until blood flows (not literally of course, silly) or a nerve is hit.

As the director put it: “It feels like you’re watching a fight in an arena — no frills,  just words and pure conflict in the ring, and intense involvement in the audience.”

The stars are Topper as John, Niccolo Manahan as his lover M, Jenny as W and Audie Gemora as F, the consentidor father of M.

As expected, the acting is superb, deeply felt.

John (Fabregas) and M (Manahan) are gay lovers whose warm relationship is rudely interrupted when John falls in love with W (Jenny), “the other woman.” A dinner is arranged so that the three can settle the matter. And M even invites his father (Audie) to back him up.

Soon the fireworks start, and poor John, “torn between two lovers” (as the song goes), has to make an agonizing decision.     

The press preview of the play was held recently at Whitespace, followed by an open forum.

“I saw the play in New York and I was in stitches,” laughed Rem.”It was terrific. How did I motivate my actors? Well, I work with really great actors. I had my vision but it’s all them. It was a collaboration, of course, when somebody was confused.”

“He (the director) defined the play very clearly in terms of the movement,” said Jenny.

“It’s just words (the script),” observed Topper.  “No stage direction, punctuation minimal. In a stage like this, you do everything.”

Audie shared that “we followed our instincts, from the very beginning we defined where we were going.”

Asked if the play will be as effective if adapted to a Filipino setting and translated into Tagalog, Rem opined that “I think it will work. The language is universal.”