Ticket2Me: Review of TP's DOC RESURECCION, GAGAMUTIN NG BAYAN: Noxious Nuisance

April 18, 2022

Because of his intelligence and perseverance, Jess Resureccion (Marco Viana) has overcome extreme poverty to become a doctor. He now wants to run as mayor in their poor fishing village, in a sincere desire to bring real change and progress to the place where he grew up as a child. However, Dr. Jess's boorish, barely educated cousin, Boy Pogi Resureccion (Jonathan Tadioan), was running against him, obviously as a nuisance candidate in order to confuse voters because of their similar surnames.

The play followed the events of one fateful day when Dr. Jess went out of the way of his campaign trail to visit the seaside hovel where Boy Pogi lived with his parents the drunkard Papang (Nanding Josef) and patis-maker Mamang (Sherry Lara), and his wife Elsa (Llorvie Nuevo), a former prostitute Boy and Jess knew (in the biblical sense) since their teens. Dr. Jess wanted to convince Boy to willingly withdraw his candidacy, so he, Jess, would have a better chance to win against the current incompetent mayor. 

The one-act play "Doc Resureccion, Gagamutin ang Bayan" by Layeta Bucoy first hit the stage in Virgin Labfest 2009. The next year, it was one of those selected in the Revisited category of the same theater festival. In 2012, the play was re-staged once again by Tanghalang Pilipino as part of their “Eyeball” production, which featured four of the best short plays from previous Virgin Labfests. Unfortunately, I had never seen any of these previous productions of this famous play, until now. 

This year, 10 years later, during a most heated presidential election period, Tanghalang Pilipino has decided to revive this play yet another time, in its advocacy for voters education. It hopes to push its dark, hard-hitting story about underhanded political machinations during elections which will shock Gen Z first-time voters, as well as jaded veteran voters alike. This new iteration of the play was filmed as it was performed live on the stage of the CCP Main Theater directed by Dennis Marasigan, and is being presented online via Ticket2Me.

The opening conversations between Jess and Boy may seem like playful banter about the stark contrast between their two lives. However, you can already hear the underlying bitterness and contempt beneath all of Boy's brutally profane anecdotes about his father's shaking hand or his wife's fishy privates. While Viana played his idealistic clueless straight man wearing his sincerity out on his sleeve, Tadioan skillfully delivered his lines with a jolly face and demeanor, and yet still have them drip with an unmistakable sense of danger. 

The significance of this play in the current election season cannot be denied, and its precautionary message about the election process is sobering. Having it premiere yesterday morning because of the parallelism between the name Resureccion and Easter Sunday was already a nice touch. However, the sheer coincidence of having the premiere of a play about a toxic nuisance candidate to coincide with one illogical nuisance of a press conference, could not have been timed more perfectly. 

*****

Artistic Crew: Layeta Bucoy (Playwright), Dennis Marasigan (Stage Direction and Lighting Design), Pong Ignacio (Cinematography), TJ Ramos (Musical and Sound Design), Ohm David (Set Design), Daniel Gregorio (Costume Design), Antonette Go (Assistant Director).

The filmed play will be streamed on the Ticket2Me platform from April 17 hanggang April 30, 2022. Buy your tickets on this Ticket2Me link: https://ticket2me.net/e/34853

KTX: Review of Areté and TA's ²BAYANI: Bullet Becomes Bonifacio

 April 13, 2022

The controversial story of Andres Bonifacio versus Emilio Aguinaldo had been told and retold in various films. There had been movies that took Bonifacio's side, like "Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio’ (2010), ‘Supremo’ (2012) and “Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo“ (2014). There was also one, “El Presidente” (2012), that took Aguinaldo's side of the story. 

There had also been a number of theater productions which tackled Bonifacio's life story. Several had actually been musicals that I had personally seen within the past decade, including "Teatro Porvenir" by Dulaang UP, "San Andres B" by Tanghalang Pilipino, "Bonifacio: Isang Sarswela" and its reinterpretation "Supremo Redux" by the Philippine Stagers. 

Before all of these was "²Bayani" with music and lyrics of Zosimo Quibilan, Jr. and Khavn de la Cruz, which was first staged in 1996 by Tanghalang Ateneo. This year, Areté in partnership with Tanghalang Ateneo took on this historical musical again, mounted as an online theatrical production through ktx.ph. As it was 26 years ago, the director is Ricardo G. Abad.

After a month of he filmed live stage performance took place in November 2021 at the stage of Arete's Hyundai Hall, with the cast and crew gathered in a 10-day lock-in arrangement as per quarantine protocols. This was the first theatrical performance on that stage after 18 months of closure following the outbreak of the pandemic.

The subtitle of "²Bayani" is "Isang Rock Operang Alay Kay Andres Bonifacio," but it did not exactly show Bonifacio as a faultless hero. However, one cannot help but feel a strong vibe of Andrew Lloyd Webber's epic "Jesus Christ Superstar" in its rock operatic musical score, the wailing rock vocals it demanded from its singer-actors, and the lyrics of the songs extolling Bonifacio as Messiah (something which he himself dismissed). 

The whole musical, told in 2 acts, ran for about 2-1/2 hours. It was bookended by stormy scenes of an elderly Emilio Aguinaldo (Nanding Josef) writing a testimonial to reverse a previous ruling convicting Bonifacio of sedition for which he was imprisoned and put to death. The rest of the play told Bonifacio's whole story -- from the founding of the Katipunan, through the contentious Tejeros Convention to his treacherous execution in Mt. Buntis. 

The formidable lead role of Andres Bonifacio was played by 36-year old indie folk rock singer Bullet Dumas, in his theater debut. His signature "raw" vocals connected with the conflicting passions boiling within Bonifacio in those tumultuous times of his life. No neophyte nerves were showing at all as Dumas belted out his technically-difficult, emotionally-punishing songs with the confidence and verve of a stage veteran. 

Playing his wife Oryang was Alyana Cabral, whose crystal clear vocals and calm demeanor were comforting amidst the all the hot-headed masculine protestations. Angelo Galang (as the loyal Katipunero Santiago Alvarez) and Norvin delos Santos (as the informant Pedro Giron in full Judas mode) both got to show off soaring rock vocals. Ali Figueroa played Santiago's father Mariano as a duplicitous man, against how he was described in history.

Matt Gador (as the young Emilio Aguinaldo) and MC dela Cruz (as the contemptuous Daniel Tirona) were practically painted as one-dimensional villains. Quite controversially, it was even suggested here that it was a lecherous Aguinaldo himself who committed sexual assault on Oryang. The way they were portrayed was eerily suggestive of current day "villains" as they spread fake news, sowed discontent and undermined and usurped authority. 

There was a symbolic female figure called Inangbayan as was commonly done in historical dramas like this. Here she was powerful performed by Larissa Buendia, who sang her heart out to express the suffering of the country. The color of Tata Tuviera's costumes delineate who among the characters were Magdiwang (striped white) and Magdalo (dark blue). The lighting effects by D Cortezano lent dramatic depth to Adriane Mark E. Ungriano's sets. 

Having English subtitles makes it easier to follow the flow of the story and the depth of the lyrics. The cinematography with its close-ups certainly helped focus audience attention on smaller details in the intimate scenes. However, this filmic treatment makes us miss the immersive experience of actually watching a complex and epic stage production like this unfold with all the simultaneous things happening all over the big stage.   

*****

"²Bayani: Isang Rock Operang Alay Kay Andres Bonifacio" is streaming from April 9 to 23 via KTX.ph. For tickets visit go.ateneo.edu/2BayaniTickets. For student discounts fill out the form at go.ateneo.edu/2BayaniStudent.