I rarely spend time watching plays, and most plays that I have seen were the 'required ones' performed by the Dulaang UP, churning out reaction papers for GE's back when I was an undergraduate. This time, I was invited to watch the first run of 'Collection', a play written by Floy Quintos and directed by Dex Santos. I was sort of engaged after watching it so I decided to blog about it.
I am familiar with Floy Quintos as a judge in
Pinoy Pop Superstar, introduced at that show as a director, but that was about it. I never knew that he is also playwright until I was required to watch
St. Louis loves dem Filipinos (the musical) back in 2005 - my first encounter with DUP. Incidentally, I was also required then to watch
Atang and
Shock Value. I enjoyed the drama and realism of
Louis and
Atang, the glamour and shock value of
Shock Value, but the relatable futuristic tone of
Collection sets it at another level. It looks into a future of greed, firmly rooted to the mistakes of the past.
The idea of having a 'National Commission on the Disposal of Philippine Patrimony' that hands out pieces of historical heirloom to those who have money and doles out the proceeds via a national lottery is interesting, and serves as the jump-off point for conflicts. Here, we meet Carlo the auctioneer, who pioneered the business, the bubbly Helena who runs the NCDPP as some sort of a postmodern and no corruption version of PCSO, the wealthy Manolo who treats patrimony as objects for his next attraction, Tatiana the jeweler who uses the auction as an occasion to flaunt her jewels, and Alphonse the artist that will stop at nothing to acquire his next source of income-generating inspiration. Soul-Searching Dr. Stephen Yan was later flew in, and with Gus, the idealistic(and possibly gay) grad student, hilarity ensues. The sale of the Banaue Rice Terraces for 100 Million and the teasing the next item to be bid brings them all together.
Gus serves as a real link of the audience to the rest of the characters: glamourized and exaggerated versions of wealthy people who differ in motivations in bidding for the ivory image of the Virgin of the Lost Souls. He questions the motives of Carlo and the whole system in extension, because his gut is telling him that there is something wrong. Carlo, fed up with Gus' accusations, and hyping up his next item, reveals the mysterious background of the image - its relationship with the mystical La Hermana Augusta Beata.
Here we are treated with a lavish retelling of the image's past, with main characters taking on roles that somehow connects with their counterparts in the future. There are some scenes in this part where its a bit too long to get the point across (or maybe it was just me getting the point early on). The retelling ends with an unfortunate event with the Hermana that hounds Carlo.
The biggest travesty that is the bidding caps the play, as we see an imagining of a situation where humans are so absorbed with greed. In the end, the audience is haunted with a feeling that the future presented here is indeed realizable.
It is by far the most compelling comedy I've seen from DUP. The ensemble cast connects with the audience well. I have to give them credit for memorizing all those lines! The play does not rely that much on the visuals (though the visuals/set display in the play was just stunning) but on the "text" of the play. For a lack of a better term, the play is "text" heavy, but worked well for the comedy.
There is still a big room to iron out the kinks (we watched the first performance so the characters' energy may stride as the run continues). The mics were inaudible at some point, overpowering music, blocking, or some talk to fast for the audience to digest the lines. I find the glue holding the 'soul-searching' theme together lacking. I can't connect Manolo's with the rest of the characters. If only this theme was made more prominent and consistent, then the intertwining realities between the past and the future could hold much more weight.
I think that it has lots of good stuff that it is very hard to wrap it up. So I end up feeling wanting. for more. I encourage you to watch 'Collections' because it is a piece of engaging entertainment you can only access at the Guerrero Theatre.
:D
