Review of Tanghalang Ateneo's ARDOR: An Affair in Anarchy

September 3, 2023

A bomb exploded at one political rally being conducted by student activists. When their leader Astrid was hit and injured by shrapnel, she was rescued and brought to a safer place by one of her members named Z.  Outside, there was the smoky confusion and anguish over the casualties was going on. Meanwhile, Astrid and Z got carried away with the intimacy they shared and made love in spite of the pain and peril. 

This was the central love affair that was born in the middle of the violent revolutionary movement threatening to oust a corrupt dictator out of his position. Astrid still worked closely with her ex-boyfriend Luther, who still co-led their movement with her. Z was taking care of his precocious 7-year old cousin named Kali, whom people knew as an indigo child. Based on secret information she learned, Kali roused the other activists into more fiery action.  

This complicated play was written and directed by Guelan Varela-Luarca. It unfolded in one tense continuous act, one hour and 40 minutes long, with several scenes in which the young cast would be running all around the stage. Opening with a scene of a young girl Kali (Teia Contreras) talking to her petticoat-wearing cat (Nicole Chua) about the cosmos, you somehow get an inkling that this would not be as straightforward as you thought. 

When Kali let loose her long incendiary monologue in Act 2, it was at that moment that you be able to make sense of all the confusing dots together to that point. Still, Kali was such an over-the-top and and out-of-the-box character, as only Luarca could have created. Delicate-looking Teia Contreras really gave this character her all, even at the risk of losing her voice with her passionate orations, which required her to shout her lungs out. 

Jam Binay, Zoe De Ocampo, Teia Contreras, Kagi Umpad

The love triangle angle of the story gave a more personal dimension, but for me it did not work, mainly because a casting choice. I do not usually comment about an actor's physical features, but in this case, Zoe de Ocampo, his acting skills notwithstanding, felt miscast as Z, mainly because of his diminutive height and build beside Jam Binay as Astrid. Astrid saying "I love you" to him never once rang true, as there was no chemistry or "kilig" at all. 

That thought-provoking scene of Z and Luther talking about their art was very well-written. Ideally, it should have come across as something like a similar scene of the two men in Celine Song's current film "Past Lives." However again, de Ocampo as Z did not look like much of a credible romantic rival, because he looked and acted too immature to match the stronger stage presence of Kagi Umpad as the jaded Luther. 

Overall, all the bourgeois hypocrisies, double-dealings and double-crossings going on in student groups, rebel groups and corrupt dictatorships, and their violent consequences -- were solidly plotted. Luarca's stage tricks using actual flames, definitely raises the sense of danger in the play. By the time that scene with the "Three Little Kittens" video comes along, you are in total sympathy with Kali, even if we do not fully understand why she acted the way she did. 

*****

Guelan Varela-Luarca's "Ardor," maiden production of Tanghalang Ateneo's 45th season with the theme "Pag-ibig at Himagsikan," runs at the Rizal Mini-Theater, Faber Hall, Ateneo de Manila University, from August 26 to September 9, 2023, 2 pm at 7 pm. 

Ticket prices at P500 (General Audiences), P350 (ADMU Loyola School students) and P300 (for ADMU Loyola School scholars). Buy tickets via this LINK.

Reminders: "Ardor" is rated R-13 for its mature theme and scenes of violence. It has strobe lights, smoke and flames, gunshots and explosions.