I had an exciting moment as I checked in with security at Ateneo's Gate 3, where guards verify our names and ID's against the expected visitor list for the day. (They're super strict, and at one point they couldn't find my name! I was terrified that I wouldn't be allowed to enter, thankfully they double checked and found it after a few scary minutes. Then again, in these difficult times, one can only be grateful for the added security measure.)
"Reason for visit?"
"To watch the play."
"Which one?"
Yes there were TWO plays open to the public this weekend! And since I, like most Filipinos, am pinching pesos and counting every centavo, I decided to watch the one that seemed to be more relevant and worth the 2 hour commute up North: Tanghalang Ateneo's staging of Rolando Tinio's translation of Moliere's TARTUFFE. The ticket price was very student-and-teacher-friendly, as opposed to the other musical whose prices are truly only for the top 1%.
I was dying of curiosity to find out if a 359 year old French play written in the time of the Ancien Régime could speak to contemporary Filipinos.
Well no wonder Louis XIV had it suppressed (under pressure by the Catholic Church) when it was first staged in 1664! Another interesting tidbit is that Tartuffe, the bad guy, was originally meant to be a Jesuit, but the part was rewritten, the role transformed so he could be playing any religious hypocrite, of whatever religious denomination.
We all know a Tartuffe in our lives. Whether he is that uncle who is a leader of that bible study group, and yet keeps a mistress on the side... or perhaps the saintly aunt who hears daily mass yet mistreats her staff at home... Tartuffe is Hypocrite Extraordinaire who enchants the heads of a wealthy family to the point that he is able to steal their land and house. This SHOULD be awfully familiar to Filipinos today.
This wealthy family is also lampooned as objects of ridicule, with their maid being the crowd favorite as she was the only one who made sense amongst all the caricatures.
While Moliere, himself under royal patronage, was careful not to explicitly write anything against the King in the script, Ron Capinding's direction of the Tinio translation does not share this kid glove approach. Tinio himself played the titular role in 1980 at the CCP Little Theater.
(Image courtesy of the website of the National Artist's son! https://rolandotinio.tumblr.com/post/17153013988/front-page-of-the-playbill-of-teatro-pilipinos )
This is the underlying difference between silently reading the text and seeing it performed onstage. What seems to be innocent praise of a just and noble ruler on the page turns out to be something else entirely, when delivered with a certain tone, eyes glaring with a certain look.
The props and set were simply made: mere cardboard boxes, a few dabs of paint on wood and makeshift "mirrors" that sometimes reveal the hidden reality of characters within. The costumes used plastic wrap, cravats and capes and all! Which I thought was GENIUS, as it could also reference how "plastic" and "fake" hypocrites are.
The true MVP of the production is the incredible live guitar playing of Christian John L. Mercader, whose skill was such that I was in danger of listening to his strumming instead of the beautiful Filipino rolling from the mouths of the "Arnean" cast, a few of whom were obviously raised with English as their mother tongue. But this made their valiant effort all the more heartwarming to witness. And I was reminded once again of the beauty of our language. In Tinio's translation, Filipino isn't the language of the streets. Nay, we hear the tongues of ancient poets to rival Shakespeare in their genius. Filipino in verse is practically music, and it was a rare treat indeed to be in the audience for a bravura performance by students!
This is really a throwback to what live theater is all about. No mikes. No fancy set, no extra money spent on clothes. This is a play that can be toured around the country, performed anywhere. This is, I think, the backbone of theater in our country. We need more of this brand of live performance. Bravo to Tanghalang Ateneo!
Is it a spoiler to say that there are two endings in the play? Watch it to find out both alternative endings! They run until April 1!
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