Top-class theater it is, too. National Artist Badong Bernal’s genius spells primetime, from sight-stun sets to deliciously verdant wardrobe. Medieval was never this mirthfully metallic. The joyous, orgiastic comedy is so aptly transposed, Shakespeare made over in a marriage of West End English and Tinio Tagalog. Never the twain has met so merrily.
Dr. Ricky Abad as director outdoes himself, as well a global lot of Ol’ Will deconstructionists. The ensemble is kept moving on a fast pace on the modest stage that gains extended levels with Bernal’s catwalk of a loft of a launch pad, above and beyond which flies such silky creatures as Mylene Dizon playing Puck.
Perhaps our family was lucky that Friday a couple of weekends ago. A handsome fellow in my poetry class played Theseus/Oberon. Manly, masterful was Paolo Fabregas. Playing Hippolyta/Titania was Miren Alvarez. Terrific. For some reason or other, they click together on stage. Can’t be just in the name of genetic predisposition, as offspring of veteran character actors.
I’d like to see the other cast, too, sometime. Curious about Mona Katigbak, who’s a sis of a former poet—stude now in NY – Mookie K. Also want to see how Richard Alonzo teams up with her.
We enjoyed most those scenes with Ronan Capinding as Bottom. He directed a musical extravaganza for Reedley’s last year, where our daughter sang and danced. It sort of sucked (not our offspring’s performance, no). But Ronan is superb as an actor. Maybe even Michael V. can play a foil to him. He was that good.
I also liked John Lapus as Quince. The way these two characters deployed Rolando Tinio’s transubstantiation of Shakespeare into Tagalog for the play within a play, adding their own lilting-Visayan and gayspeak touches, you’d think the Bard of Avon had us in mind when he wrote the dialogue for that bow to a plebian troupe. I understand however that Ricky Abad revised Tinio’s translation more than a bit.
Hey, these guys all seem to be from Ateneo. That says it. Even the Met Theater’s young founder and executive producer, Steven Ryan Uy, appears to have launched a dream that should only gain quick adherence from other men for others. Hope he succeeds.
This initial ambitious offering is mounted from Thursday to Sunday every weekend till mid-September, with an afternoon matinee on Sundays. That means five presentations weekly, which explains the double cast alternating on most of the major roles.
Heard of late that the ticket prices may go down. Or that hefty discounts are being offered students. Great, classy gimmick on a weekend. Bring a date, even if you have to lose another arm.
Another fine play being staged at UP Diliman is Tatarin, directed by Anton Juan. I have yet to catch it, but word-of-mouth claims it to be a tantalizing production. A couple of Saturdays ago, I ran into dancer-choreographer Myra Beltran at Penguin Café during the robust launch of Espiritu Santi: The Strange Life & Even Stranger Legacy of Santiago Bose. And she said she was accompanying Anton to Iowa City next month. (Ah, kayo na pala ngayon?) The trip would have some relation to Tatarin. Promised her Rowena Torrevillas’ coordinates. Maybe even Vince Gotera’s (though he’s up north). You know, our poets of Iowa.
The corn better watch it when Anton lands in town. If there’s anyone who can enthrall multi-racial audiences, even one with a majority of Scandinavian spawn as in Go-Hawks! country, it would be A.J., whose name always used to be preceded by enfant terrible.
Last time I gasped over a performance, he was singing French ballads to Jimmy Abad’s 65th birthday crowd in Antipolo. Why, he even did a Can-Can number with UP Diliman’s Silungan chanteuse Gugu de Jesus and Ortigas Center chanticleer Marne Kilates. Why, even outgoing UP Prez Dodong Nemenzo was mesmerized.
See Midsummer. See Tatarin. In William Shakespeare and Nick Joaquin, we have two great bards and goodfellas who ever inspire our best talents to do some proper shey-ring. Our own Maytime may be over, this year or, hey, maybe even for all time. But the play’s the thing, darn it. And we’re good at play-ing.
This guy Cirilo F. Bautista, he should be named National Artist na. He’s written na his first novel in Tagalog, so what else pa do we have to wait for, aba. Two previous books, Sugat ng Salita and Kirot ng Kataga, had showcased his Tagalog poetry, this after winning every conceivable poetry prize with his epics in English. By the by, those out-of-print collections from DLSU Press were recently combined as Tinik sa Dila, published as part of the UP Jubilee Student Edition series by UP Press.
Now comes Galaw ng Asoge, the first in an envisioned trilogy on the lives of a family, and then some, starting in post-election 1965, including a patriarch whose fortune is endangered, his poet-son who has to strive to keep them afloat, and, through episodes of bomb and volcano bursts…
But why should I tell you more? Here’s a sample of Bautista’s prose:
"Biglang umungol ang tuko sa hardin. Isang ligaw na hangin and kumaluskos sa pasamano. Isang malakas na putok ang pumigil sa aking kamay nang ako ay nasa akmang magsisindi ng sigarilyo. Napaigtad ako sa pagkakaupo at pinakiramdaman ko kung saan iyon nagmula. Tumayo akong bigla at tumakbo sa silid ni Papa, na katabi lamang ng aking silid. Kumatok ako ng ilang ulit ngunit walang sumagot. Sinubukan kong galaw-galawin ang hawakan ng pinto pero iyon ay nakasusi. Hindi nagtagal ay humahangos na dumating si Gerry. Naka-padyama siyang kulay asul at gulung-gulo ang kanyang buhok. Ibinubutones niya ang pang-itaas na parte ng kanyang padyama.…
"…Walang imik kaming pumaligid sa kama at pinagmasdan ang hindi kaiga-igayang larawan – …
"… Hindi ko batid kung gaano katagal kaming napako sa aming pagkakatayo. Tila tumigil ang pag-inog ng mundo at ang tanging nanaig ay ang isang mabigat na katahimikan…."
The novel is all of 443 pages, but the text is set in large font-size. The 44 chapters play a bookend loop of sorts, as the case of the "unreliable narrator" is utilized to make a point, as much as a felicitous narrative refrain.
Since …Asoge was launched at UST last month, there’s been a run at copies, kid you not. "Toti" as we call him has earned his readership. Buy his book. Not only is he one of my best buddies. Cirilo F. Bautista represents what’s supreme in Phil Lit. He’s undeniably canonical.
Also launched recently at UST, in fact only last Friday, was the eighth edition of Tomas, the literary journal published on a regular basis by the UST Center for Creative Writing and Studies under Dr. Ophelia A. Dimalanta, herself a premier poet.
Since its first issue a couple of years ago, Tomas has shown the way among literary journals published by educational institutions, offering distinctive collections of contemporary Philippine writing in English and Filipino, even as each issue’s editorship changes hands among several prominent literary writers affiliated with UST.
What makes Issue No. 8 / July 2004 even more noteworthy is that it exclusively features the literary lectures delivered since 2001 by stalwarts of the Philippine Literary Arts Council or PLAC, as its 20th anniversary offering.
"Homage: The Plac Lecture Series on the Masters" includes the first seven lectures as a tribute to an older generation of poets and writers who have passed away, and whose works now undergo "re-visioning and re-evaluation."
In the order Tomas 8 has them, the lectures are "Angela Manalang Gloria: A World of Her Own" by Ophelia A. Dimalanta, "Remembering Villa" by Alfred A. Yuson, "Cornelio F. Faigao: Imagining Cebu or the Phenomenology of the Romantic Imagination" by Marjorie Evasco, "The Art of Manuel Arguilla’s Fiction" by Jaime L. An Lim, "Sinai Hamada and the Power of Sympathy" by Francis C. Macansantos, "Surrealism and the Imagination of Oscar de Zuñiga" by Cirilo F. Bautista, and "Amador T. Daguio: A Turning Point in Filipino Poetry from English" by Gémino H. Abad."
Verily, a keepsake.