Signaled by tensions in national politics, Tanghalang Ateneo embarks a new repertoire of plays that pit two kinds of truths – the official, upheld by power, and the unofficial, resisted by power. Out of this clash of truths emerges a discovery of new truths and the beginning of change. A Season of Awakening best describes these outcomes –and the company’s tag name for its 28th year.
This awakening takes on comic proportions in July with the season opener, Dario Fo’s Ang Aksidenteng Kamatayan ng Isang Anarkista. A railway worker suspiciously dies when he allegedly flew out of a fourth-floor window of a police station. Was it suicide, accident, or murder? Seeking to unearth the truth, a Maniac illegally infiltrates the police bureau and reopens the inquiry. In debunking the official version of the worker’s death, the Maniac awakens -- through the use of grotesque comedy – the idiocy of lies spun by officialdom. Joseph dela Cruz translates, Ricardo Abad directs, and National Artist Salvador Bernal designs the production.
The awakening takes a disturbing turn in Han Ong’s Middle Finger, or Hinlalató in Filipino. Opening in November, the play centers on four high school buddies as they search for sense in a world dominated by parents, teachers, counselors, and other adults. The friendship gets strained when one of the boys kills himself after being unjustly expelled from school. Two other friends drift away soon after, while a fourth awakens to hate as he nurses a violent plan to avenge his friend’s death. Ron Capinding translates and directs, while Gino Gonzales does production design honors.
In the third play, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, opening in January 2007, the clash between what people want and people have yields a bittersweet awakening of family ties long gone. Amanda Wingfield’s dreams for a better life for her daughter, the crippingly shy Laura, prompts her to ask son Tom to invite a gentleman caller for dinner. The coming of Jim, Laura’s high school crush, enlivens the Wingfield household until Jim discloses the unexpected news that changes everyone’s lives forever. Abad and Bernal re-team to reset the play in Manila circa 1950s. Laurice Guillen plays Amanda, while real life daughter Ina Feleo does Laura.
It’s a season to rise and shine. Join Tanghalang Ateneo in a theatrical quest to rouse the spirit of change.
For more information on these plays, contact JJ Ignacio at cp. no. 0919-5911426. For campus tours, reach Nora Adriano at tel. no. 4165386 or cp. no. 0919-4716914.
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