One night, Eugene Domingo invited a select group of special theater friends to her house for dinner and a major project proposal to celebrate her 37th year as a theater actress. They were director Marlon N. Rivera, producer Melvin Lee, fellow actors Stella Canete-Mendoza, Andoy Ranay, JC Santos, and Meann Espinosa. She originally had writer Rody Vera in her guest list, but since he could not make it, Lee brought in up-and-coming talent Joshua Lim So.
Eugene wanted something big and impactful to celebrate her career milestone. For this new project, she did not want to follow popular "fads or fashion." She wanted it instead to be derived from "urgency and involvement." With this motivation in mind, she wanted to do a grand production of Aurelio Tolentino's 1903 nationalistic classic "Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas" as Inang Bayan, to be staged on a ship's deck in the middle of the West Philippine Sea.
The original Cinemalaya film "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank" (2011) was an inside look into the process of indie film making. The sequel "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 2: ForeverIsNotEnough" was an inside look into mainstream film making. The third iteration, "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 3: The Real Untold Story of Josephine Bracken," was a 7-episode mockumentary series that gave us an inside look into film directing and historical revisionism in mass media.
There were three constants in all these projects -- writer Chris Martinez, director Marlon N. Rivera and of course, the inimitable star, Ms. Eugene Domingo playing an exaggerated version of herself in all of these films within films. She was never afraid to make a fool of herself as a superstar actress whose out-of-control inflated ego put her into hilarious self-aware situations, as only Rivera and Martinez can conjure them.
This fourth and latest reincarnation -- with the lengthy title of "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 4: Oh Sh*t It's Live sa Cheter!" -- brings us inside the process of theater production, from the pitch, to casting, to rehearsals, all the way to opening night. Chris Martinez is still the genius writer, delivering razor-sharp Pinoy comedy as expected. This time, PETA veteran Maribel Legarda directs, with Marlon N. Rivera now onstage as an actor, playing the director of the play within the play.
And then there is is Eugene Domingo. It was one thing watching her as a larger-than-life personality on the big screen, but it was a totally surreal experience watching her megalomaniac version of herself in the flesh -- and I mean that in the literal sense. She was such a delightfully annoying diva the whole time, especially when she was going overboard with all her eccentric "notes" that drove writer Lim So and director MNR up the wall.
This must be the craziest that I have seen acclaimed actors Andoy Ranay, Stella Canete-Mendoza and JC Santos ever. Ranay was reveling in unbridled skin-revealing gay-ness. Canete-Mendoza was fully-committed in playing a male warrior character in various versions. Santos unleashed his performance versatility full blast -- effortlessly transitioning from classic Filipino to archaic English to hiphop Taglish, folk-dancing and tap-dancing along the way.
At first, PETA President Melvin Lee was grumbling about jukebox musical rehashes. But as Domingo's producer, Lee could not help but sacrifice integrity of the historical material to maximize its money-making potentials. Marlon Rivera tried to fight for his directorial vision but could not help but acquiesce to the absurd wishes of his star. As a last-minute replacement, Joshua Lim So was an awkward fish-out-of-water at first, but his casting soon proved to be astute.
Meann Espinosa was ever-reliable as Domingo's girl-Friday and intimacy coordinator. She was also the one who gathered a gang of street urchins to serve as the ensemble in Domingo's passion project -- calling them the "Ugeng-gengs." They are: Kiki Baento, Carlon Matobato, Roi Calilong, Nyla Festejo, James Lanante, Reggie Ondevilla, Ada Tayao, Pio Viola and Mico Esquivel, with alternates Ron Alfonso, Jay Cortez, Eli Namoc and Air Paz.
Theater practitioners and fans will surely enjoy the whole meta-ness of this self-critical romp very much, with countless in-jokes about fellow actors, writers and directors. The "schools of acting" joke in the first film was expanded to acting styles of various theater companies. Like previous PETA shows, there was current pop culture references galore, from Alex Eala to Goldwyn Reviews, which had the audience in stitches from start to finish.
Nothing will prepare you for how they executed that out-of-this-world ending. Simply calling it "wet and wild" would be selling it short. If you thought that Ms. Eugene Domingo had already given it her all in her past "Septic Tank" movies, she just managed to still outdo herself here, revealing more than she had ever revealed before. If you thought that that "Oh Sh*t" part of the title was purely an exclamatory expression, think again.
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"ANG BABAE SA SEPTIC TANK 4: OH SH*T, IT'S LIVE SA CHETER" runs from June 19 to August 16, 2026 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City. Ticket prices range from P3,500 (VIP), P2,800 (Orchestra Center, Balcony Center), P2,500 (Orchestra Sides) and P1,800 (Balcony Sides), from TicketWorld (LINK) or Showbuyers (LINK).
Artistic Staff is led by Director Maribel Legarda, and Assistant Director Johnnie Moran, with Gino Gonzales (Set and Costume Designer), Barbie Tan-Tiongco (Lighting Designer), Angel Dayao (Sound and Music), Michelle Ngu Nario (Lyricist), Raflesia Bravo (Choreographer) and
Bene Manaois (Video Design and Mapping).
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