Theatrical Review - CAST PH'S UNCLE JANE: A Reflection on Life and Gender

   The Mirror Studio at the 5th Floor of the SJG Center in Kalayaan Avenue, Makati

It begins with Sarah Facuri's hauntingly beautiful rendition of MAD WORLD. This world, or some other? It makes no difference. It is a play about a family, simultaneously Life's greatest blessing and sometime curse. Mine? Yours? It could be anyone's. It ends with a sermon on the real battle we all face: the mundanity of life. The slow burning away of youth's flame to old age's night.

This audience member immediately bought a ticket upon seeing CAST PH’s announcement of their 2023 offering. If you needed more proof that the world is healing, it's a major sign: CAST PH is BAAAAAAAACK! It was a joyful tradition in pre-pandemic times to buy tickets to their staged readings, always featuring a Who’s Who of the BEST of Philippine theater actors (not necessarily the most famous/good-looking). CAST PH doesn’t just get ANYONE, and they are known for the superior quality of their productions: intelligent, powerful, and above all, BRAVE. These are works chosen not with profit as the primary motivator, but to broaden artistic horizons of artists and audience members alike.

I went inside the venue expecting a staged reading, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a fully staged production, sans script! It was also recommended that I read the original Chekhov play beforehand, so as to fully appreciate the differences Gomez wrought on his adaptation. 

It was impossible not to compare the gender-bent UNCLE VANYA (adapted to suit a modern audience by Nelsito Gomez, who also directed) with another Chekhov play, THE BOOR (also translated as THE BEAR). Land woes, heartaches, and sidearms are apparently favorite plot ingredients. 

(Coincidentally, THE BOOR was this audience member’s first taste of Chekhov, when she had to fill in the main male role at the last second in a student production.)

A woman playing the role of a man: fake moustache, masculine gestures, manspreading and all. I've been there. It's HARD.

This is NOT what happens in Uncle Jane, where we have Missy Maramara as the title character, saying lines originally spoken by a man, but supposedly as a woman.

And this is a double-edged sword for the Gomez adaptation, working beautifully with some lines (specifically those on marriage) that had more impact when heard from a female, as well as the anguished plea for the return of lost time. 

But also, when Missy Maramara's Jane starts to declare her love for the distractingly gorgeous Justine Peña's Elaine (whose low-cut dress made even the most heterosexual of us gals question our own sexual identities), it feels a bit off to this straight girl.

If there was one thing this viewer sought and thought lacking, it was that the dramatic promise of the climax seemed underwhelming. Whether it was due to the soft volume of the sound system, or the timing and intensity with which the actors said their lines in crucial moments, is a mystery. The energy levels of the actors on the night I watched also seemed uneven, perhaps because it was their third night in a row. But all of this does not detract from a solid comeback to live theater, with so much expert and dependable technique collectively under the production's belt. A good rule of thumb to judge whether a show is good or not is to listen to the live audience's feedback. We gasped (and I overheard some crispy whispered swearing) at the appropriate moments, and laughed altogether. Oh, how I've missed the joy of this collective experience!

In the past few years, it has become quite the worldwide trend to have women play traditional male roles in classic plays (Case in point: The RSC's The Tempest currently has a female Prospero, and their upcoming Julius Caesar has a female Brutus). An effect of the #MeToo movement? The resurgence of LGBTQIA+ rights? Someday, studies shall be made of this.

But perhaps that's the point of it all. Theater is meant to make us reexamine everything we take for granted: our lives, our attitudes towards sex. UNCLE JANE's gender fluidity is not the only thing that invites deeper reflection. The central issue is that of lives wasted away. 

The past few years have traumatized us all, upending lives, cutting short careers. A political movement's hopes were cruelly dashed. With all of this, who among us has not despaired at Life? Who hasn't wished for a second chance, and sometimes felt tired and even spiteful of the pettiness all around us?

I loved that UNCLE JANE had an answer to this. The best part of the Gomez adaptation was when he reassigned the last scene's lines from the youthful Sonia (enchantingly portrayed by Justine Narciso) to Maramara's Jane. 

Sometimes, to light up the darkness, a girl's gotta screw the loose lightbulb herself.

And if you want to know why she is called "Uncle" and not "Aunt," go and watch the show! They have one last sold out performance tonight, but if fans raise enough of a clamor, perhaps they'll think of a rerun!

A special treat for this audience member was seeing Jaime Del Mundo as Ian. No small roles for great actors, as Del Mundo elevates everything he is in. Audie Gemora's Alexander was more likeable than the Chekhov original, while still playing the part of absentminded landlord to the hilt. How easy it is to hate him who doesn't actively work your destruction, but flippantly stumbles on it out of sheer thoughtlessness. Jay Glorioso's Marie was equal to the powerhouse costars, and was the most likeable character in the play. Topper Fabregas' Michael (Chekhov's alter ego) was dependably good as the doctor who both longs to escape his confining provincial existence, but works for his people's future.

Nelsito Gomez wrote about how hesitant he was at the beginning to dare adapting Chekhov's work. But I actually think the Gomez adaptation is an improvement on the original. There is more hope, and more light. And we can all use more of that.

Tip: Read the director's notes BEFORE you watch the play, as it will greatly inform your viewing! I made the mistake of reading the notes AFTER I'd seen it, and I wish I did it beforehand. It would have answered a lot of questions I spent so much time worrying about while the play was going on.

I wanted to take a solo pic of Herr Direktor but he was uncomfortable posing alone, so here's an awkward groufie! 

Sarah Facuri's hauntingly beautiful singing added so much to the production, we need more of her in our lives!!!

                    What a treat to bask in the glow of the light of these theater stars!

Book Review: BIBLIOLEPSY by Gina Apostol

Bibliolepsy by Gina Apostol
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"You don’t need fairy tales—just come right up to EDSA."

What does a bookworm do when a workday frees up unexpectedly? (Ironically, courtesy of the son of the dictator whose reign was toppled on this day, 37 years ago)

Read a book that culminates in the People Power Revolution, naturally.

Of course, this is a Gina Apostol book, she who seems to have written exclusively for critics and PhD's, torturing the rest of us mortals by forcing us to check our dictionaries every other sentence. I did not have high hopes going into it, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more palatable than her later works (perhaps because this was a first novel, and the writer's hubris, though present, hadn't fully erupted yet).

One of the first things therapists tell their patients is to write about their experiences. Somehow, putting pen to paper helps us make sense of events that seem no have no meaning.

This is why we read books about our country's past. It's a way of placing one's self in the current of time, trying to understand what came before we were born, so we can catch a glimpse of where our country is going, and figure out what small role we can play in it.

And this was my hope when I picked up this book.

"Hearsay and desire are all I have. Apart from these, we have no other weapons, except to keep trying to remember as much as we can. With love."

Two sisters are born to nationalist parents who mysteriously disappear, leaving them orphaned yet privileged. So privileged that they need not worry about earning enough to put food on the table. So privileged that the younger sister spends her university years in UP Diliman reading, going to poetry readings and artist's parties, sleeping with as many men as she can seduce, and generally living in books far removed from the winds of history coursing through the country... until a tryst in UP's Sunken Garden is rudely interrupted by those marching from Ilang-Ilang Dorm to EDSA, and she decides to come along because it might be fodder for a future book someday.

I guess by now, you can tell how much I disliked the protagonist. LOL. There was no saving grace about her. Neither kind nor humble, cynically judging all she came across, I just wanted to shake her and shout that for all her reading, she missed the crucial point of it all: to understand our world better, so we might try to make our country better.

I worry that foreigners not knowing more of the Philippines would get the wrong impression of the hardships we endured under Martial Law, if they thought this was an accurate representation of student life in 1986 Manila.

The book had rage aplenty, but at the wrong things. Apostol does not even bother trying to hide her disdain for her country and countrymen, it's as if she merely uses us as fuel for a book obviously written aiming for prizes, peppered with words and scenes meant to shock and intimidate the reader. Behold the glorious authoress with the light of literary genius shining from her brow, name-dropping and quote referencing so many.

And all for what?

I'm always grateful when Filipino authors write about our history, but as far as Martial Law literature goes, one can do so much better with one's time and money than this one.

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Book Review: THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT by Walter Tevis

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are a lot of chess books in my Kindle lately... and it's all because I was assigned to be the Chess coach of my school.

Two weeks ago, I only knew the basics.

But now, having read a bit more, and having finished THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT, I think I'll be ready to compete in an actual contest soon! (And there are SO MANY of them in the Philippines!!!)

Just kidding.

I know I have YEARS of preparation should I ever want to enter a real match.

It gives me great joy to watch my students play. There's nothing like watching a child discover the thrill of intellectual activity!

This skill of imagining the chessboard is one that all competitive chess players seek to develop, and now there's algebraic notation to help players study the games of the masters, and record their own for self-review.

Any chess coach will tell you that part of the training lies in studying tactics. There are SO MANY! Beginning, mid and end game ones with cool names like The Queen's Gambit (an actual move!), or the similar sounding King's Gambit, or other beauties like the Caro-Kann Defense or Philidor's.

I think reading Beth Harmon's story, instead of watching it on Netflix, was more beneficial because it allowed me to take notes of the strategies employed in the games, which author Walter Tevis had doublechecked by National Grandmasters for accuracy.

When one thinks nineteen moves ahead, as Beth Harmon and her enemies do, then it's best to READ about the moves! Haha.

It must be said that the book (published in 1983) uses the old descriptive kind of notation (for example, "pawn to queen four"), as opposed to the simpler, algebraic notation used today (simply "d4"), and so it took quite a bit of time and effort to imagine the moves as Tevis wrote them. Thankfully, he writes about games in a delightful blend of cursory detail... just enough chess jargon to give one a sense of the personality of each player, but not as boring as reading competition annotations.

There is beauty in the game, and I marvel at the twists and turns of Fate that led me to discovering this late in life. But more importantly, I rejoice that I have years ahead with which to enjoy yet another gem of human experience.

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Book Review: WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS by Kelly Barnhill

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

"There is no room for sorrow in a heart full of fire."

I REALLY wanted to like this book. And my heart is sorrowful that I didn't.

Who wouldn't be drawn by the premise: that one day, thousands of women suddenly became dragons? It was SO FULL of promise, as were the opening chapters.

But then it dragged on and on, with the extended metaphor for women raging at the patriarchy losing its power the more it was repeated, that eventually I just got the impression that the book was merely about the virtues of being angry at the world.

And that's it.

The dialogue was flat and at times, didn't make sense. The ending was rushed. The writing was lackluster.

Also, the book tried to do so many things; referencing the COVID tragedy, the general lack of respect for scientific data, detailing the evils of racism, and prejudice against LGBTQ+ same-sex relationships, all in one book that was, originally, about feminism.

And I've long suspected this to be true not just in literature but also in film and other fields... that today, people are so afraid of being cancelled, of being called the opposites of allies, that they would put a book like this on a pedestal because of its topic, and not entirely because of the author's skill, nor the quality of the work itself.

Rage is all well and good, but no amount of anger can make up for lack of literary merit.

And I truly wish this book had it, that I may speak better about it.

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Book Review: THE HALF KNOWN LIFE (IN SEARCH OF PARADISE) by Pico Iyer

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've been looking forward to the latest Pico Iyer, and I fear great expectations led to greater disappointment.

It lacks focus. It read more like disparate chapters of exotic locations, with quotations of other, better known authors when they in turn visited the likes of Varanasi and Kashmir.

All in all, extremely missable and nowhere near the quality of his other works.

If "the half known life is where so many of our possibilities lie," then the reality of this book is merely half of what the imagined possibility was, to me.

And this is what drives us readers on to the next book, ever onwards. The possibility of transcendence is something we eternally strive for, glimpses of which were present in this book, half-formed.

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Book Review: THE MASK OF APOLLO by Mary Renault

The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"And yet had not the very hand of God gripped and crushed this city deep in the ground we should have disappeared in darkness, and not given a theme for music, and the songs of men to come." ~Euripedes

Once upon a time, a great city-state existed, so vast and powerful as to rival Athens herself. But what happens when it is ruled by a despot, its citizens' souls made small and mean through decades of dictatorship? What happens when the dictator dies, and his weak son takes over to rule in his stead?

The city-state is Syracuse in Sicily, the dictators Dionysius the Elder (I) and Dionysius the Younger (II). Enter our hero, Dion, educated at Plato's school in Athens, who seeks to undo the maleducation of Junior by inviting Plato himself to try to teach the boy to be a real man. But can a mere teacher of a prince, no matter how good, undo the damage wrought by the parent tyrant?

"Fighting the base with base weapons had shrunk their souls; before one can make the good life, one must remember what it is... So we dream. Of what? Some man sent by the gods, first to make us believe in something, if only in him, and then to lead us... We have dreamed a king."

But can one man be the solution?

Renault also writes, "A city is only a crowd of citizens. If each of them has renounced his private virtue, how can they build a public good?" She quotes Plato when she says: "A state can be redeemed only by good men spreading goodness round them till the lump is leavened, and there are enough just men to govern."

Mary Renault once more brings Ancient Greece to life in what, I think, is her best book ever (and when I reread my past raves about her trilogy on Alexander the Great, this is saying A LOT!). All the fiery polish of her passionate, scholarly pen is seen here in condensed form, giving off a more brilliant and focused light.

THE MASK OF APOLLO, on the surface, is a novel about a great actor, during the 4th century BCE when these artists were seen not as mere entertainers, but as servants of the gods, whose religious rites were so important they were exempt from military service. It is a time of great open air theaters with astounding acoustics, seating 14,000-18,000 people, with echo chambers and thunder drums that can reproduce even earthquakes, as the man bearing the face of a deity shows himself high above on the god-walk.

If the book was merely about the theater at that time, I would have been fascinated enough already.

But then Renault expands her lens and shows how the theater, education, and political philosophy react in the cauldron of experimentation as polis after polis sought to try one form of government after another, much like an actor changing masks (most of them wearing several over the course of one play!).

It is no accident that Socrates/Plato wrote about the theater, and what kind of plays ought to be seen by citizens in the quest to forge nobler men's souls. It is part of education, after all, for a play is never just a show. Done right, it can transform hearts and minds of thousands at a time.

"The theater, after all, can only teach one how; men as they live must show one why."

Some of the most enjoyable scenes in the book were set up like the dialogues of Plato, which made me realize how they are best appreciated when PERFORMED out loud like a staged reading! As when men debate about the ideal form of government, or censorship in the arts. "Men could be more than what they are. Why show them only how to be less?"

Like the best of Greek theatre, as befits a retelling of true history, Renault's novels tend to end in tragedy. But the postscript offers hope as she introduces a young Macedonian prince, who in turn will be educated by Aristotle, himself a student of Plato. Where one hero falls, perhaps another shall rise. And thus the wheel of education and human progress turns.

As one whose life has been changed by watching plays (literally impacting how I made major life decisions), and has seen firsthand its transformative effect on formerly shy young men and women, I read this book with reverence and awe. And now hold it to be among the best ever written. Rich in themes, written with godlike virtuosity, one can easily believe Renault to be possessed by a daimon! If you could only read one Renault, let it be this one!





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Book Review: THE LIFE CHANGING MANGA OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've been reading a lot of manga lately (and watching a lot of anime) so when I saw that the (in)famous Kondo book had this version, I suddenly developed an interest in reading it (sorry, picture-less version!).

This is one of those books one reads, and immediately feels more like a legitimate grown up upon finishing. With tips on how to store everything, the proper way to fold, and the correct attitude towards documents and every item at home, the manga sure packed a lot inside a cutesy romance frame narrative. Free up space in your home, tidy up and attract promotions and love life!

However, I found myself snorting in derision in many places, especially when it comes to Kondo's opinion on books. First of all, clapping one's hands over one's books won't "wake them up." And also, every book lover is an optimist that SOMEDAY, we shall get to read those books in our TBR pile.

Hmmm maybe I shall take this Adulting thing one step further and actually implement what she taught. When I have more free time, perhaps. Ahahaha.

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Book Review: CONCLAVE by Robert Harris

Conclave by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"We are an Ark... surrounded by a rising flood of discord."

I've enjoyed Robert Harris thrillers as a high school student, so when I found out that they're making a film of this book starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, I tracked down a copy like a good Catholic booklover!

This book came out in 2016, and it is so timely. Even for non Catholics, this book is very interesting. What kind of world religious leader do we need in this troubled era? One who seeks engagement with the marginalized, one who seeks to bring people together... or one who takes controversial stances on divisive issues and thus... divides?

"God has entered the room... We are sequestered under lock and key at the point where time and eternity meet."

The Conclave takes place upon the death of a Pope, and the princes of the church are brought inside the great Sistine Chapel and locked inside until they vote a worthy successor.

If you're wondering what's so thrilling about a bunch of priests voting inside one room... gosh, let me tell you, A WHOLE LOT!! And the thrill of it is, the situations are so plausible, because they're based on amalgamations of current events that have rocked the Catholic church in recent years. Every scandal, every theological issue, every debate about relativism versus absolutism is represented well in this concise thriller that's under 300 pages.

Another reason why I'm super excited about the upcoming film is that there is a main character who is Filipino! Woot woot!

Highly recommended! See you when it hits the movie theaters in a few years! That twist near the ending is just * French's kiss * spectacular!

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Book Review: THE ALTERATION by Kingsley Amis

The Alteration by Kingsley Amis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"What I shall miss by being altered is so important that it would be quite wrong to alter me."

We begin with song inside a glorious Catholic cathedral in England. A prepubescent boy soprano has a gift that others seek to artificially preserve by surgically altering him for the greater glory of God. But the boy wishes otherwise.

This is the central drama, but there are others. And the REAL drama is the setting: it is the 1970's, and England is Catholic. Martin Luther didn't start a Reformation, but became Pope. Henry VIII never became King as his older brother, Arthur, stayed true to the faith. Science is anathema, electricity and other technological advancements distrusted by decent men.

"I feel nothing but wonder and gratitude when I look on so many centuries of patience, hope, content, trust, constancy, restraint and certitude, so much art, letters, music, learning, all founded upon one great lie."

This is a very altered world from the one we live in. It seems pleasant enough on the surface, with books like "St. Lemuel’s Travels," "The Wind in the Cloisters," Father Bond stories, and "Lord of the Chalices." There's incredible state funding for Mozart masses as well, easy enough to do when the Church leader is the supreme head of State as well.

But woe to any who dare to speak against papal authority. The knife that threatens the boy soprano isn't the only one being wielded by those loyal to keeping peace and order by all means, Christian and un-Christian alike.

"They conduct a tyranny and call it the Kingdom of God on Earth."

This was my first Kingsley Amis, and although the book was very short, it felt a lot longer because Amis makes incredible demands on the reader. He presupposes intelligence, a good grasp of history that can withstand his counterfactuals, and a grasp of the English language and literature that can catch all the many references. It's not exactly a relaxing read, and more for those seeking the expansion of literary horizons.

Reading the book was a meditation on how disinformation and alternative facts work in 2023. I recently encountered someone whose upbringing and education made her vulnerable to state-sponsored propaganda, and it was like talking to someone from Mars. I suppose I am the Martian, from her point of view. And it's a chilling reminder on the desperate status of truth in modern society, how it is a social construct, seeing that we can't even agree on FACTS anymore.

And honestly, I don't know which is scarier: this fictional alternative universe of Amis where religion reigns supreme over reason, or the real world where citizens exist in private universes, each with their own version of virtual reality.

This is, I suppose, the challenge of my generation: how to bring people together, to work for the common good, despite all these enormous differences.

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