A critical review of Silver Lining as a lucid dream
MANILA, Philippines — Usually when we dream, we are not even aware that we are dreaming. Strange, fantastical things happen, like flying, or meeting long-gone friends and loved ones. We never question the impossibility of these experiences because, in normal dreams we are not even aware that we are dreaming.
But have you ever had the experience called “lucid dreaming”? During these rare experiences, some people are aware that they are dreaming. They are conscious while they continue to dream. Most scientific studies on lucid dreaming report them to be powerful transformative experiences both psychologically and emotionally.
After attending two of the six performances of Silver Lining — the hit new and original musical produced by Rockitwell Studios and MusicArtes, Inc., I think that it can be described as a lucid dream experience about the Baby Boomer generation and their Millennial offspring from the period of the ‘60s to the present time. Before explaining this impression, let me give you a quick summary of the show.
The creative structure of Silver Lining is fascinatingly complex and sophisticated. Masterfully directed by the award-winning Maribel Legarda (Rak of Aegis, Care Divas), and expertly produced by Jay Glorioso, it is a play within a play wrapped around a central mystery executed in a series of flashbacks and flashforwards whose segues are charmingly and adroitly carried out with the original music compositions of Jack Teotico and the world-class choreography of PJ Rebullida.
If it is the world-class singing and dancing that constitute the very melody and kinetics of Silver Lining, its lyrics are in the superb storyline and plot penned by the nine-time Palanca Award winner Joshua Lim So, based on the history of the people who lived through the turbulent times of the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond to the present time.
The musical production features screen and stage actor Ricky Davao (Aliw Hall of Fame Awardee for Best Actor) as Leo; Joel Nuñez as Anton; Raul Montesa as Raul; and Nenel Arcayan as Josie, who are four lifelong friends. Meanwhile, Albert Silos, Noel Comia Jr., Jay Cortez, and Sara Sicam play their youthful counterparts when they were still in high school and college.
Also in the cast are Jep Go as Rico; Shaun Ocrisma as Mart; Maronne Cruz as Dalai; Krystal Brimner (Best Child Actress, Metro Manila Film Festival) as Julia; Khalil Tambio as Chito; and Hazel Maranan as Agnes, together with Sarah Facuri, Iya Villanueva, Dippy Arceo, Rodel Pingol, Ado Villanueva, and Joshua Tayco as the ensemble.
The premise of the show is that the three friends Leo, Anton and Raul, who are preparing to perform as a band for their 50th high school reunion, decide to make a musical about their lives instead when their band performance is suddenly cancelled.
The story runs through the halcyon days of their high school years (crushes, puppy loves, sweet dancing, rumbles, drugs), their college years of activism under martial law, and onto normalization as adults and parents in the present time.
The central conundrum or mystery around which the entire production revolves is this. In their youth, Leo falls madly in love with Julia (played superbly and charmingly by Krystal). Julia is a committed student activist with artistic talents as a painter and effigy maker. Leo and his barkada mates Anton and Raul are initially drawn into the movement because of the chance to meet girls in the heady adventure of the nationalist ferment of those days.
Leo comes to appreciate Julia’s commitment to the movement and her contribution of artistic talent to its cause. He falls in love for what becomes a lifetime. In the most dramatic development of the story, Julia mysteriously disappears whilst in the company of Raul and another activist named Agnes during the darkest times of the martial law period.
For Leo, her unexplained disappearance becomes the central pathos of his adult life. He becomes dedicated to painting and art as both practitioner (at which he fails) and as a gallerist and patron (at which he brilliantly succeeds). At a pivotal moment he reveals to the audience his dedication to the arts as a means of keeping the memory and love of Julia alive, which is indeed the Hamlet-like creative demiurge of his entire life. Art becomes one of the silver linings in the dark cloud that enshrouds him throughout the musical play.
In Act 2 of Silver Lining, the children and grandchildren of Leo, Anton and Josie, play the pivotal dramatic roles. Through investigative perspicacity and the use of social media technology and research, Dalai, Rico, Mart and friends solve the mystery of Julia’s disappearance. The main clue lies in the fact that on the night she disappears, Julia was last in the company of Raul and Agnes, a student leader, who, unlike Raul, also disappears. Although she escapes Julia’s fate at the hands of the military, Agnes merely goes into hiding.
Dalai, Rico and Leo’s grandson, Mart, locate her after much searching and discover the stunning truth from her. It seems that Agnes and Raul saved themselves by denying any involvement in the movement, while Julia suffered the fate of those we now call desaparecidos of those times.
By finally revealing to the younger generation what actually happened to Julia, Agnes redeems herself, whereas Raul, knowing all the while what actually happened to Julia, goes on to a prosperous life as a politician without telling Leo the truth. Indeed, throughout the production of the musical, he maneuvers script and performance to obscure this central dilemma and dark mystery at the center of Leo’s life. Raul emerges as the consummate villain and traitor to their friendship.
If there is any dramatic flaw in Silver Lining, which bills itself as a story about hope and redemption, it is in the fate of Raul. After his cowardly role in the disappearance of Julia, which completely discombobulates Leo, and his compounding sin of covering it up throughout their subsequent lives, the action abruptly ends with Leo holding Raul’s face in his hands, then turns away from him in utter disgust, murmuring, “It’s all too late.” Thus, there is no redemption for Raul, no catharsis of forgiveness for Leo. The children are heroes for having discovered the truth, but Raul suffers the fate of Judas as a traitor and complete scoundrel.
At the end of both performances that I attended, all the other actors and actresses enjoyed the wild adulation and admiration of the audience, swarming around them for group selfies, autographs and congratulations. But I always sought out Raul Montesa who plays Raul, who seemed to be ignored by most of the elated audience, to offer my congratulations for playing brilliantly the toughest role as the unforgiven, unrequited villain.
There should be hope for the character of Raul. There should be full retribution for his villainy and cowardice in any future reproduction of Silver Lining, but also redemption for him as the flawed human being that we all are. All of us are most like Raul. All of us deserve hope and redemption.
I started this critical review by likening my experience of it to that of a lucid dream, because I too lived through those days portrayed in Silver Lining, much as Leo, Anton, Josie and Raul. The one aspect of lucid dreaming I have not mentioned is this. In a lucid dream, just as in real life, the dreamer can control how the dream evolves. Often lucid dreams are recurrent dreams, but as one masters the experience itself, one can exert a kind of artistic control over its evolution.
Because Silver Lining itself is a dramatic and artistic portrayal of real life, like lucid dreams it can still evolve and perfect itself in future productions and renditions of its powerful themes of hope and redemption. This, is the silver lining of Silver Lining itself as an artistic creation.
Silver Lining is a dramatic, musical and artistic triumph destined to become a classic because it transcends the usual ideological and purely political slant of some previous retrospectives on those times. In the dramatic and emotional cauldron of interpersonal relationships during a time of social and political upheaval, Silver Lining lays bare the complex heart of our lives, loves and labors so that both young and old in the audience can experience the bittersweet catharsis of redemption illuminated by the promise of hope’s golden dawn. There is always a silver lining in any dark cloud.
Future generations of its audiences can surely look forward to the future productions and performances of Silver Lining, which it, and they, most amply deserve!
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