Virgin Lab Fest XX: A fruition of creative collaborations
You always feel a sense of community when you watch Virgin Lab Fest, a celebration of brave new works presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines together with Tanghalang Pilipino and The Writer’s Bloc, now in its 20th year with 12 one-act plays selected from 219 qualifying entries.
It’s exciting to see what “virgin” writers come up with outside the mainstream. “These fresh, vital stories go through rigorous script development, pushed to their best possible form,” says VLF co-director Marco Viaña.
While the best in the industry act as mentors, VLF has evolved into a platform for emerging talents in all related fields, “transforming itself into a nursery for new collaborations that help shape the landscape of contemporary Philippine theater,” adds co-director Tess Jamias.
The festival’s theme is Hinog or ripe—a metaphor for the fruition of creative cycles. Set A is subtitled Bubot or unripe. In Lian Carlo Suelan’s Ang Bata kag ang Ilaga (The child and the rat), Isaac, who is ostracized because he’s the only orphan among children in a care center, faces the moral dilemma of saving a baby rat. The hesitation begs the question why humans are so selective and why they limit kindness while the child projects motherhood by virtue of lacking one. In bunraku style, Isaac is a puppet while the rest of the characters are actors—distinguishing this piece with its novel staging.
In Takbo, Batang Tondo, Yoj creates a microcosm of society where a group of children do role-play as a policeman, a salesgirl, a thief, and a baby. Just like in real life, disagreements arise on how the play should proceed, while characters aren’t always what they were thought to be.
Polar Coordinates by Ade Valenzona brilliantly ties high school student Igo’s coming of age with Mathematics which he is flunking and is the source of upheaval with his family. Jack Denzel makes a star turn playing the lead with naiveté and sensitivity, directed by an inspired Paolo O’Hara who wanted to show how “poetry can be found in Math, and structure in emotion.”
Set B, Manibalang or half ripe—the cusp of adulthood—starts off with Eljay Castro Deldoc’s Minating ni Mariah ang Manto ng Mommy ni Mama Mary, which opens with a beautiful tableau of the famed santos of director Dexter Santos. The lead is Mariah, a reformed scammer who is atoning for his sins by participating in the Lenten activities with his Santa Maria Magdalena image but he can’t seem to escape his past as he is accused of stealing the santo’s veil from a church.
Unang Araw by Ivan Gentolizo is a well-crafted play of four hitmen hired by the mayor during the last administration. The road trip reveals their characters and hidden agendas through humorous banter and soul-searching that director Cholo Ledesma orchestrates with a calibrated rhythm towards a denouement which he bemoans as a reflection of how “state-sanctioned violence continues to target our most vulnerable countrymen, multiplied by the corrupted ways of being that we inflict on ourselves and one another.”
Siege Malvar’s Presidential Suite #2 is just as politically charged albeit hilarious and ultimately absurd as the dysfunctional family of Senator Zaragoza attends to her while she lies in a coma in a hospital and they plan for the future, showcasing the reasons why political dynasties are the cause of all the ills in this country, summed up in director Johnny Moran’s words, “If it’s not the combination of showbiz and family business, what else is politics?”
Set C, Kinalburo or forced maturity deals with mental health issues. Chris Joseph Junio’s Mga Magindara sa Siyudad (Mermaids in the City) goes behind the scenes of perya performer Maureen who goes in drag in a mermaid gown while his crippled partner Mylene slips into a latex fish tail, doing the same act since they were children while living a miserable existence. Riki Benedicto directs the play as a poignant dissertation on hope with its inherent danger when divorced from agency.
In The Late Mister Real, Dumaguete-based Rolin Migyuel Obina brings a chance meeting of ex-husband and wife Boyet and Raquel in adjoining COVID quarantine facility rooms as they revisit the reasons for their breakup as well as their early romance and what to do with their only child through a dialogue that traverses a gamut of emotions that Roi Calilong and She Maala bring to the fore. Maynard Manasala’s deft direction lends a gripping realism to the story.
Imuthis’ Ang Problema Sa Trolley has three unlikely characters together on a normally uneventful railroad trolley trip until one of them (Joshua Tayco) attempts to jump into the Pasig River below, prompting the psychology student (James Lanante) and the trolly operator (Mario Magallona, a natural with perfect comedic timing) to dissuade and prevent him until they find out the real reason for his attempted suicide, bringing to light many complexities that they have to face.
Set D, May Asim Pa—for seniors who still have spunk. A fabulous tree with orange leaves establishes the mood of Anniversary, set in a cemetery where May (Bibeth Orteza), visiting her girlfriend’s grave, encounters Rob (Jamie Wilson) pointing a gun to his head in front of his wife’s burial place—sparking a conversation on life, love and grief that Nelsito Gomez has written with wit and acuity. Sarah Facuri skillfully directs this moving piece with excellent portrayals by the two leads.
Ryan Machado’s Don’t Meow for Me, Catriona, directed by Toni Go-Yadao, has a daughter (Angelica Panganiban in a glowing stage debut) waiting with her mother (the ever-shining Peewee O’Hara) at a bus station bound for Bicol where the latter will live with her son and free the former to live her life after years of caring for her mother alone. Between bouts of comic relief and recriminations, serious considerations emerge.
Jobert Grey Landeza’s Mommy G features the peerless Sherry Lara in the title role, a mother celebrating her birthday with her children while waiting for the right time to reveal an affair that she has been hiding from them. Equal parts hilarious and heavy drama, while posing questions on morality and family relationships, make this an engaging finale directed by Lhorvie Nuevo-Tadioan.
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Virgin Labfest XX is ongoing at Tanghalang Ignacio Jimenez, CCP complex until June 29.
