Three drag queens in all-white outfits, complete with corsets and veils, strut out on stage on their white high-heeled boots, while pushing their clothes racks around. The one in the center identified herself Mary Girard (Andoy Ranay), an abused woman who was in deep mental distress for her failure to conceive a child. The other two women taunting Mary were Polly and Sally (Drew Espenocilla and Lao Rodriguez), mistresses of Mary's husband Stephen.
Mary was eventually confined in a mental hospital in 1790. Her days were a constant barrage of mental torment from her past (her uncaring parents), her present (the inhospitable asylum staff), and even her future (her naughty unborn children), all of them still played by the two Furies around her. The harshest nightmare of them all was Stephen himself (also Rodriguez), who broke what's left of Mary's spirit with his every cruel and hurtful word.
"The Insanity of Mary Girard " by Lanie Robertson, is a one-act play based on the real-life story of Mary Lum Girard, who was wed at a tender age to a rich husband who would later have her committed for lunacy. Mary eventually did give birth to a baby of uncertain paternity and who did not live long. Eljay Castro Deldoc translated the text into Filipino and, along with director Riki Benedicto, reimagined the play using only two actors to play all the Furies.
The first time I had seen this show was back in 2022 at the Metropolitan Theater, starring Lao Rodriguez as Mary, with Marco Calilao and Norman Penaflorida as his Furies. That time, the play was en route to a theater festival in Esslingen, Germany. Before that, this play was first staged locally in 2019 featuring Adore Dominguez, Calilao and Rodriguez, before it went to a theater festival in Quebec, Canada that year. Espenocilla was the dramaturg that time.
This play is once again bound for another theater festival, this time in Monaco. Compared to the 2022 version I saw, this new one had evolved with a much stronger impact due to the improved movement choreography and enhanced graphic projections. Andoy Ranay's powerful portrayal of Mary's unstable mind was the solid centerpiece that kept everything else fully grounded. His climactic dance twirling cloth while bathed in orange lighting was a mesmerizing highlight.
The bombastic curtain call!
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The rest of the crew includes BOGT producer Katreen Dela Cruz (production and stage manager), JayLo Conanan (production designer), Roldan Lozano (lighting designer), and Ces Valera (projection designer).
The special fundraising send-off show of "13th of September" was held on 10 August 2025, Sunday, at 3pm and 7pm, at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez, CCP Complex. Ticket prices at P1000 and P800.
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