~ What A Wonderful World ~: 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.