June 4, 2026
Playwright: Alab Usman
Director: Mark Daniel Dalacat
In 2015, Adam (Jude Hinumdum) was Muslim, but his parents did not know he was gay. He had a Christian boyfriend Jan (Rey Correjado), who did not know he was Muslim. In 2012, a gay Muslim Iraqi man named Taib (Eshei Mesina) was being driven by his Ommi (Joann Yap Co) to the border so he can cross over to Lebanon to escape persecution. In 2017, Muslim crossdresser Thania (Phil Noble) taught younger Muslim gays his makeup craft.
The Adam story was a good start, but it ended abruptly just when things got interesting. The Taib story had good tension and human drama, but this foreign-based story felt out of place in between the two Filipino stories. The Thania story was so low-key, it was not a strong anchor episode. The whole trilogy felt static, never lifting off at all. Honestly, it could have been more interesting if Usman had just concentrated on Adam's story, developing it further in terms of its inherent conflicts, and resolving it with proper conviction.
Playwright: Nik Azcuna
Director: Cholo Ledesma
Childhood friends Ishmael (Vincent Pajara) and Jeanie (Heart Puyong) were now physicians in a hospital in Marawi City. On May 17, 2017, a 16 year-old boy shot in the abdomen was brought in by his comrades, all members of a notorious terrorist group. Jeanie wanted to call the authorities, but Ishmael wanted to do the emergency surgery. Under pressure, hospital director Dr. Abdul (Bong Cabrera) had to come up with a compassionate compromise.
Writer Azcuna has come up with a medical drama complicated by issues of politics, and made more challenging by issues of religion. Aside from the dilemma between Jeanie and Ishmael and Dr. Abdul's Solomonic decision, there was also a dilemma within Ishmael himself, being a Muslim man who did not agree with the violence resorted to by radical Muslim rebels. Director Ledesma and the passionate performances of Pajara, Puyong and Cabrera made this a topnotch theater experience, riveting to the end.
Playwright: Gab Mactal
Director: Mara Paulina Marasigan
It was the final day of the wake of a senior nun. A surprise visitor was Jacinta (Angel Aquino), who left the convent 20 years ago and now taught Philosophy. Her old friend Lualhati (Banaue Miclat) was now the Mother Superior. The two long-estranged friends looked back on their youth together as postulants, as they "saw" young Lualhati (Sarah Monay) and young Jacinta (Iana Bernardez) sharing secrets in the same garden where they are now.
The emotional reconnection between the two women was sensitively written by young transgender playwright Mactal, filled with beautiful quotes from St. Thomas Aquinas and verses from the Bible, notably the Book of Ruth. Aquino's jaded and bitter Jacinta contrasted well with Miclat's peaceful and content Lualhati, as they revisited their callow youth, until they reached that cathartic moment that had them both in genuine tears.
Having real-life mother-daughter movie actresses Aquino and Bernardez playing the same character at different ages was insightful casting. Jackie Lou Blanco will be playing Lualhati in some shows, with Bea Garcia-Choy playing her younger self. It should be interesting to see if there will be adjustments in the script given the age difference between Blanco and Aquino, as well as between Garcia-Choy and Bernardez?
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