The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
by Alvin I. Dacanay
Valentine’s Day may be three months away, but audiences can experience this month love as the many-splendored—and many-splintered—thing that it is with emerging theater company Dalanghita Productions’ latest offering, Tatlong Linggong Pag-ibig (Three Weeks of Love), which opened at the Power Mac Center Spotlight in Circuit Makati on November 11 and will run every weekend until November 27.
Tatlong Linggong Pag-ibig features six one-act plays written and directed by some of the most lauded theater practitioners in the country today. Three of these are straight plays: Rom.Com, penned and helmed by Palanca award-winner George de Jesus III, about the fantasies, ideologies and realities of love that involve a hopeless romantic wedding planner and a cynical graphic artist; Carlo Vergara’s Mula sa Kulimliman, a comedy directed by Hazel Gutierrez that was originally staged at this year’s Virgin Labfest, about a housewife whose life and love for her husband are shaken by the revelation of her husband’s true occupation; and prize-winning filmmaker Chris Martinez’s Malapit Man, Malayo Rin, helmed by Melvin Lee and first staged at the Philippine Educational Theater Association in 2014, about a couple living at opposite ends of Metro Manila (he resides in Valenzuela City; she, in Las Piñas City) whose relationship risks facing its end because of, of all things, the metropolis’ infernal traffic.
The rest of the plays in the production are musicals: Dalanghita Productions co-founder Pertee Briñas’ Isanlinbong Taon, directed by Palanca prize-winner Guelan Luarca and music by Ejay Yatco, about a man named Philip who returns to Palawan, two years after pursuing a better life in Manila, to reunite with his beloved; Palanca award-winner Layeta Bucoy’s Corazon Negro, helmed by longtime collaborator Tuxqs Rutaquio and music by Joed Balsamo, about a Filipino teacher during the Spanish colonial era who falls in love with a gravedigger, who is in love with another woman; and popular spoken-word artist Juan Miguel Severo’s Ang Una at Comeback Album in Pete, directed by Mara Paulina Marasigan and the songs composed by Severo himself, about a former child star who attempts to stage a comeback with a concept album that he wrote.
The actors bringing these six plays to life are Jett Pangan, Sarah Facuri, Mayen Estañero, Jonathan Tadioan, Timothy Castillo, Roi Calilong, Pat Liwanag, RJ Santillan, Al Gatmaitan, Natasha Cabrera, Bym Buhain, Sari Estrada, and Andrea Tatad.
The plays are divided into two sets, and tickets for each set cost P1,200 (VIP) and P1,000 (regular) each. Shows start at 8 p.m. on Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and 3 p.m. on Sundays.
For tickets, call Ticketworld at (632) 891-9999 or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph. For more information about Tatlong Linggong Pag-ibig, visit www.facebook.com/DalanghitaProductions.