It seems like dog years since we last saw the actress Gina Alajar in a movie, and the scuttlebutt is that the last time her name appeared across the big screen was as a director of one segment of the movie “Angels,” which reportedly didn’t do too well at the box office.
So it could be a coup of sorts when we see her suddenly on the theater stage in her first English play, the adaptation of the Jessica Hagedorn novel “Dogeaters” also transcribed by the novelist, as a key supporting actress in the surreal martial law era chronicle that may be instantly recognizable for those of us who lived through and survived those dog years.
“Tommy Abuel told me to speak in English at home and elsewhere, to help me prepare for the play. Tony Mabesa also coached me in my enunciation, those t’s and p’s and b’s,” she says during a luncheon press conference with the rest of the Dogeaters cast, in a Quezon City restaurant known as Dencio’s during one unseasonal dogday afternoon in November.
Alajar plays the dual roles of Lola Narcisa, grandmother of one of the lead characters balikbayan Rio Gonzaga, and the ultra-religious Leonor Ledesma, devout wife of a general of the regime.
It’s par for the course for the actors to take on two, even three roles for the play directed by Bobby Garcia for Atlantis Productions. Others in the cast include Joel Torre as the Ninoy Aquino-styled Senator Avila, Michael de Mesa as the crony Severo “Chuchi” Alacran, coconut magnate, among other roles, Rez Cortez as the Marcos general Ledesma among other roles, and Jon Santos as Imelda’s hairdresser Chiquiting Moreno, among others. Add the veteran stage actor Leo Rialp who we assume would play the German director Rainier Fassbinder.
All in all, 16 actors divide among themselves 42 roles.
According to Gina, perhaps best known for her role as Salome in the Laurice Guillen-directed movie of the same name in the early 1980s, rehearsals were done in segments of two hours each through the regular days of the week, except for Sundays when the whole cast does a run-through of all scenes rehearsed thus far.
“He’s cool, parang bata,” Gina says of direk Garcia, describing the Dogeaters director’s relaxed style, saying he allows her to try to find a more comfortable method of doing a scene.
She says the more free-form quality of directing is typical of the young ones like Garcia and Rito Asilo, both of whom she has worked with, as compared with the veteran directors like Mabesa, Anton Juan and Leo Martinez, under whom she also did plays.
Gina, who admits not having read the Hagedorn novel, expects two possible reactions to the play that is on stage at the Romulo Auditorium in RCBC Plaza Makati until Dec. 2. “Those who were around at the time of martial law may find it passe or dated, while the younger ones, the kids, could be amused and enlightened that such things happened at the time,” she says.
Cortez, the villain par excellence, clarifies that politics is merely a “backdrop” to the rather light drama, but many things remain unchanged since the days of the Marcos regime, because “those in power still have their way.”
“Ganoon pa rin ang sitwasyon,” he says.
Gina seconds this, although with a bit of a double take: “Pareho pa rin ang script ng gobyerno.”
If Gina has been something of a rarity in the celluloid screen, yes even in the blooming independent industry, she has kept herself busy with stage, doing a number of tours abroad for the Tagalog version of “Vagina Monologues.”
In Hong Kong, she says, they played to packed houses of mostly OFW domestic helpers on their day off who were rollicking with laughter, as compared to the reserved tee-hees in the alternate Mandarin version in the same venue.
“The Chinese are generally conservative,” she says, and that’s why they had to tone down the more raunchy bits of dialogue, or at least seek prior approval from concerned authorities.
Gina says it is not easy moving from being actor to director and back again, or both at the same time, which she experienced while doing work for television.’“Mahirap, mahirap,” she says, wry smile on her face.
As director, she says that she would prefer stories that are character-driven, rather than plot-based. As actress, she has always dreamt of essaying the role of the multiple personality Sybil ever since she read the book, because it presents quite a challenge.
For now she is concentrated on Dogeaters, as rehearsals begin to get hectic with the technical checks and run-throughs starting from three days before opening night at RCBC Plaza.
The cast appears bemused by a comment that a film version could be a natural offshoot, as the actors present resembled a star-studded “indie” cast.
De Mesa, Gina’s ex-hubby, himself has starred in a number of indie hits, including “Bigtime” from fixture Arkeo Films and Jon Red’s latest, “Pain Things.”
Torre, who also played the role of Senator Avila in the New York production in 2001, says that workshops and studies have been held at the Sundance Festival in Utah two years ago for possible transcription of Dogeaters into film.
Torre remembers how doing the NY Public Theater production was a hectic time, since he was then also doing Lav Diaz’s “Batang West Side” late in the evenings into early morning.
Gina says that if transposed into film, Dogeaters might have a different director since the medium is different.
She and Rez have segments to polish up on, since the Ledesma couple has some extended scenes in the play.
It can be recalled that Cortez and Alajar were together in the Lino Brocka classic “Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim” of vintage 1985, the year before the dictator fled. Gina played the wife of the Phillip Salvador character while Rez was the hoodlum Boy Echas in the script written by Pete Lacaba.
Gina, who also starred in the seminal Marilou Diaz Abaya films “Moral” and “Brutal,” is excited not so much with Dogeaters as with the possibilities of digital cinema, in which her eldest son Ryan Eigenmann has been a regular actor.
She has two other kids with de Mesa, Geoff who is also an actor, and the youngest, also a boy, currently in the US.
She looks happy with her work, and when she blows smoke from her Marlboro ultralights it seems that there’s a screen between her and the rest of the world, like the ever penitent Leonor Ledesma praying for our sins and transgressions.
She is Salome all over again and Luz wife of Turing in Kapit, and the mom too in the indie film “Batad, sa daang palay,” these and more the girl woman Alatiit is transforming like a chameleon before us through the smoke rings of our mind.
Dogeaters is onstage at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati until Dec. 2, with shows at 8 pm on Fri and Sat, 3 pm on Sun. For tickets, call Atlantis Productions at tel 892-7078.