For many people, this year's edition of the just-concluded Virgin Labfest will be memorable for many reasons. Some will remember the unprecedented increase in ticket sales, despite the harsh and honestly hole-riddled arguments of a stubbornly sharp-tongued university-based theater reviewer. Others will recall not so much of what happened onstage, but more of what took place offstage. A few may probably dwell on what went wrong this time around. But most will not forget, at the very least not now, the fact that this year's festival, like in the past, has been a solid success.
I had planned on not writing at all about this year's edition, which would have been a first. But the way I (later) saw it, to not write about it means that I'm indifferent to it: to the diversity of the plays mounted, to what each has accomplished despite its flaws. And it's very difficult to be indifferent to something like the Virgin Labfest, especially when the people behind it cared so much for it. To be indifferent is a great disservice, and apathy is one thing that we seem to have in appallingly enormous supply nowadays.
That said, below are what I think made this year's Virgin Labfest such a treat:
ACTOR: Jonathan Tadioan, in Layeta Bucoy's Doc Resurrecion: Gagamutin ang Bayan.
"Ferocious" is perhaps the perfect word to describe this actor, both for his commitment to every role he takes on and the performance that it results. His appearance, thick facial hair notwithstanding, may not strike me as particularly menacing, but the way he projects danger does. I used the aforementioned word to describe his performance in Tim Dacanay's Pamantasang Hirang last year, and I'm using it again for his portrayal of the rude, crude and corrupted cousin of the title character in Layeta Bucoy's gripping and ultimately unsettling drama.
ACTRESS: Marjorie Lorico, in Tim Dacanay's Ang Huling Lektyur ni Misis Reyes.
The Virgin Labfest has always featured works that have substantial lead roles for actresses, and this year's edition was no exception. Gigi Escalanate in Maliw, Mayen Estanero in So Sangibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman, Mailes Kanapi in Kitchen Medea, Skyzx Labastilla in Isang Araw sa Karnabal, Sherry Lara and Raquel Villavicencio in Asawa/Kabit--I would have chosen any one of them on any other day. But I chose Marjorie Lorico for the simple reason that I remember her performance the most, and remember it positively. I have admired this actress' considerable talent for a long time now, and her engaging portrayal of the easily distracted and stressed-out title character is, without a doubt, the highlight in Tim Dacanay's monologue.
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sugus Legaspi, in J. Dennis Teodosio's Salise.
For some reason, I never found this actor's past performances particularly noteworthy. But his role as the kubrador dad in J. Dennis Teodosio's latest comedy changed that. It helped a lot that his character has much of the play's most hilarious lines, and I thought he delivered them very well. I may be wrong, but I believe this is the second time he has taken on a comic role, the first being in Nicolas Pichay's Tingnan Natin ang Mukha Niya waaaaay back in 2001. Maybe it's just me, but I feel his talent is better suited for wisecrack-filled comedies.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Julia Enriquez, in Reuel Molina Aguila's Maliw.
In any other day I would have selected Roence Santos for her competent turns in Salise and So Sangibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman, but there's something about Julia Enriquez's role as the desaparecido eldest daughter of former activists-turned-academicians that's inherently compelling. The daughter's expected-yet-unexpected visit in the play (as wishfully imagined by the denial-gripped mother) powerfully lends flesh and blood to the protagonist's gnawing grief and eventually gives the latter the closure she needs. In that role, I felt Julia Enriquez turned in a fine performance.
(Note: Though I failed to watch it, I heard that Cats Racsag, a last-minute replacement for Julia when the latter was hospitalized for appendicitis and therefore couldn't perform in the last show, was--let me put it this way--miraculous as the daughter. I would've loved to watch her.)
ENSEMBLE: The cast of Sheilfa Alojamiento's Boy-Gel ang Gelpren ni Mommy.
Among the plays staged this year, Alojamiento's work charmed me the most. I truly admire how it tackled lesbianism simply, sensitively, and without needless fuss. And I find her decision to use the children's perspective to be rather refreshing. The cast responded accordingly and I, in turn, responded very well to their chemistry. They performed as a solid team; no one tried to upstage the others. Isn't that what a true ensemble is?
DIRECTOR: Riki Benedicto, for Rogelio Braga's So Sangibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman.
A few may dispute this, but I feel the debuting director's helming is the most striking thing about this play. Rogelio Braga's elegiac play on the 1971 Tacub Massacre as filtered through the memories of a consequently jaded Christian witness presents challenges that can give any director, experienced or not, a lingering, thoughtful pause. That said, I'm quite impressed at how deftly Riki Benedicto handled the play's three timelines, and his flashlight-illuminated staging of the roundup and subsequent massacre of the innocent Maranaos was nothing short of riveting.
PLAY: Isang Araw sa Karnabal by Nicolas Pichay.
The recent increase in forced disappearances in the country has made the topic of desaparecidos a very relevant one once more. The heartbreaking loss, the unbearable lack of closure, the need for relief, the gradually fading hope that the loved one will return--Nicolas Pichay wonderfully addressed all these and more in typical Pichayesque fashion. No one but him can think of setting a play on desaparecidos in a place so unusual and rich in irony and comic potential like an Enchanted Kingdom-like theme park. No one but him can use a comic tone and get away with it, especially with the subject his play deals with. And most of all, no one but him can think of the idea of faux, beehive-shaped shit as candy. I won't be surprised if this play will be restaged next year as part of Virgin Labfest 5 Revisted.
To the VLF playwrights, actors, directors and behind-the-scene staffers: Bravo!
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