The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
One week after Ladies Who Launch’s Never Again: Voices of Martial Law and Artist Playground’s Lagablab (Conflagration) opened, two more Filipino productions are set to debut this weekend, proving once more the vibrancy of the Manila theater scene, as well as the rich and varied options now available to faithful theatergoers.
One of them is Changing Partners: A Torch Musical, playwright/composer/ lyricist/musical director Vincent A. de Jesus’ expansion of his lauded one-act musical of the same title that was mounted as a staged reading at the 12th Virgin Labfest in July.
Directed by Rem Zamora, this Peta Theater Center and Munkeymusic production finds its four actors (Agot Isidro, Anna Luna, Jojit Lorenzo and original cast member Sandino Martin) sharing the roles of Alex and Cris, showing that gay and straight romantic relationships have a lot more in common than many realize.
In describing the musical, dramaturg Giselle Garcia said it best: “A musical exploration of the alchemy of relationships, Changing Partners questions the nature of fidelity and the complex issues partners face, regardless of gender. When feelings are neither right nor wrong, all you can do is sing.”
In his assessment of the staged reading, theater reviewer Fred Hawson called Changing Partners “ingenious” and “scintillating,” and praised Martin for delivering a “deeply emotional performance.” For his part, the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Vincen Gregory Yu deemed the original version “a fully realized show.”
The other is Moliere PMS, the first-season closing production of the Egg Theater Co. that fuses Palanca award-winning playwright George de Jesus III’s adaptations of three of French dramatist Moliére’s plays: Praning (Paranoid), from The Imaginary Invalid; Maniacal, from The Learned Ladies; and Schism, from The Misanthrope.
Described by the company in a statement as a “hilarious mix of hypocrisy and honesty,” Moliere PMS is “a searing look at the foibles and travails of theater artists divided and polarized by the ills of hypocrisy and pretentiousness.”
Moliere PMS centers on Alex (Tuxqs Rutaquio, alternating with Renante Bustamante), a playwright whose anger at the pretentiousness of the people around him compels him to consider quitting theater. Helen, an actress and Alex’s best friend, tries to dissuade him by making him remember why he fell in love with theater in the first place.
As they argue and discuss while waiting for a show—an adaptation of The Misanthrope, directed by an up-and-coming director named Don—they are watching a second time to begin, Alex’s thoughts manifest on stage as a reenactment of his own adaptations of Moliere’s The Learned Ladies (Maniacal) and The Imaginary Invalid (Praning).
Don entreats Alex to give notes about his adaptation. Refusing to be polite, Alex expresses his brutally honest opinion. In response, Don makes a vilifying post about Alex on Facebook. Hilarity ensues as the manifestation of Alex’s exasperation on stage gets tangled as the actors, characters, and plots mix and merge.
The jumble results in a hysterically intricate foray into the mind of someone peeling away the mask of hypocrisy and coming to terms with what one values and loves. TMM
Changing Partners: A Torch Musical runs on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 2, 21, 22 and 23 at 7 p.m. at the Peta Theater Center Studios. For tickets and additional information, call Ticketworld at (632) 891- 9999 or Peta Marketing at 0927-3917379.
Moliere PMS runs on Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. and Oct. 2 at 2 and 7 p.m. at the PARC Foundation (494 Lt. Artiaga St., San Juan City), and on Oct. 7, 8, 14 and 15 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 9 and 16 at 7 p.m. at Pineapple Lab (6071 Palma Street, Rockwell, Makati City). For ticket inquiries, contact 0917-8040762 or 0917-8440520, or send a message to www.facebook.com/theeggtheaterco.