Review of VIRGIN LABFEST 2020 - SET B: GIN BILOG, MAYANG BUBOT, BOYBOY: Troubling Toxicity

June 13, 2020

GIN BILOG

Written by Luisito Nario
Directed by James Harvey Estrada

Brothers-in-law Entong (Rhon Kenneth Mercado) and Dune (Buboy Villar) were having one of their regular drinking session beside the railroad. Between bottles of gin, they would sing songs on a videoke machine ("My Way" was a particular favorite) while they exchanged senseless stories peppered with profanity. Entong was married to Dune's elder sister Lorna (Lovely Abella), whom he treated very badly. This particular day, it got to a point that Lorna just wanted out of it. 

In this play, writer Nario pushed boundaries on how to portray abject poverty in our country, the absurdist style of which may or may not sit well with certain audience members. I, for one, do not like hearing bad words, and here, there was a crisp "P-I mo!" in practically every line from all three characters. This was also a very noisy play, all of them were shouting their Batangueno lines or croaking their off-key songs at full-volume the whole time. It may have been funny for a while, but as the play kept this volume at maximum at length, it eventually became exhausting. Later, the play took a inevitable turn to violence that brought the unpleasantness factor up further. That said however, the action sequence that went down during that climax was presented very well by director Estrada, given that the characters were on separate screens on the Zoom format. Watching the talkback session after the show revealed how different Rhon Kenneth Mercado spoke and acted in real life in contrast with his toxic character Entong, quite a feat of acting.

MAYANG BUBOT SA TAG-ARAW

Written by Norman Boquiren
Directed by Mark Mirando

In a nipa hut built beside a mango tree on the top of a hill, a young Aeta lady named Maya (Opaline Santos) established an organization that aimed to defend their land and heritage as Aetas. One day, Maya was visited by her old childhood friend Bubot (Ji-Anne Lachica). They last saw each other six years ago when Bubot left with her mother to go to Manila. After the usual nostalgic pleasantries, Bubot (now calling herself with the urban name Ariana) suddenly dropped an invitation for Maya to leave her mountain home, and go with her to the US.

Like "Titser Kim" yesterday, playwright Boquiren wrote "Mayang Bubot" as a passionate statement against the systematic abuse of the indigenous Aeta people. It showed that despite having the short end of the stick in terms of life opportunities, the Aeta are proud people who value their land and culture. Unfortunately, these precious possessions of theirs are steadily being eroded by various selfish interests, foreign and local, in the guise of "progress." Director Mirando employed various types of images, like photographs, film footage and especially shadow projection with paper cutouts to enhance dramatic elements of the plot. Despite their remote locations, the tension between Opaline Santos and Ji-ann Lachica was very thick, as the conflict between them was slowly built up as they talked. In pre-recorded scenes, Janna Cortez and Irish Legaspi played the two girls during flashbacks of their wistful childhood. 

THE BOYBOY & FRIENDS CHANNEL

Written by Anthony Kim Vergara
Directed by Joshua Tayco

"The Boyboy & Friends Channel" was a viral YouTube channel featuring the cute and chubby Boyboy (Norbs Portales) and his three outspoken friends, namely: the alpha male Dennis (Anthony Falcon), the low-IQ Greg (Jerald Napoles) and their content creator Randy (Nicco Manalo). In the latest episode, the four friends allowed tattoo artist Juma (Gabo Tolentino) to tattoo an unknown design on their forearms, based on a secret suggestion by one of the friends, only to be revealed later as a big surprise.

This is another VLF play with all the ingredients of an audience favorite. It was a broad comedy about a YouTube channel whose content centered on nothing but raunchy jokes and stupid pranks, everything played for laughs. The cast members were all veterans and played their characters with wicked glee, sometimes in excess. With such a "fun" premise, writer Vergara actually criticized toxic masculinity and the culture of foolish online influencers. That before YouTube these four friends were all laid-off from a TV station which closed down, there was also an indirect dig at the current issues about this. Director Tayco rose to the challenge of online staging by creating the illusion where all five cast members seemed to be interacting in one room using green screen technology (the images needed cleaner cropping though, especially Nicco's which was always deformed), while the scenes were being shown on a faux YouTube page complete with running comments (which were actually from the CCP FB during the live broadcast).