Hamlet in Philippines
By Anne Kristin Coleman
Theater in its simplest form is the combination of actors presenting another person on stage. It has evolved into a performance that includes speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle; a form of art which tells a story or interprets an idea or a phenomenon. Theatric arts is in an immediate immersion in a notion that it promotes realism, but is wrong in some aspects for theater can most likely create fantasy in many forms. It is not only used to entertain. Theatric arts can also be a device of expression of political beliefs; thus, political theater which encourages social awareness and social change.
In Hamlet’s case, it can be categorized as a drama being that it carries a drama’s characteristics. It should persuade the audience and touch emotions with the use of dialogues. Hamlet is one of the most famous tragedies of William Shakespeare. Last February, Repertory Philippines added Hamlet as one of its amazing plays as it raved positive reviews.
Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Gibbs Cadiz commented Niccolo Manahan’s rendition as lacking the “sort of manic, tragic streak that would render his Hamlet a truly melancholy Dane.” Although all in all, he said the play was worth watching.
A very significant part of the play was providing the set and Hamlet’s set designer Denis Lagdameo narrated a story just in the set itself and the effects added nostalgia invited nostalgia into the place. Reviews contained praise on the whole cast’s acting lead by Cris Villonco whom critics described as someone who will not let you fall asleep although the language used was still old English and a Shakesperean play will most likely spell “dragging”, they made the whole experience exciting and fun.
Speech was most likely the greatest challenge in the play as Director Manahan decided to use Old English as dialogue. The music and score chosen resembles the ‘feel’ of a Shakesperean play although some of the music in the play was enhanced. The actors portrayed the characters classically but gave them a little twist, which perked up their performances. The battle scene was original and entertaining and engages the audience’s emotions.
Filipinos have done a lot of English play renditions and it is indeed a challenge that they live up to the original, but with our natural talent and love for the arts, expectations will be half as easy to meet.
Hell in Sartre's Point of View
By Melanie Datu
I think this particular theatre show of No Exit seems to be comedic in contrast to the very serious text of Sartre. The actors in this play made use of a lot of props to symbolize each of the character. They could have just portrayed the three main characters as they are but they chose to make use of those things to probably break the seriousness of Sartre.
The major theme of this play is man’s cruelty to his fellow man: Garcin was cruel to his wife, cheating on her even though she loved him dearly. Estelle married an older man for his wealth and then had an affair with a young lover. When Estelle had his baby, she merciless killed the poor baby, throwing it in the lake. Inez, as a lesbian, was cruel because she used her female lovers for her own selfish desires and purposes that she controlled and sucked the life out of them. All three continued to be cruel with one another in hell. Inez wanted a relationship with Estelle but Estelle rejected her and spat on her face. Estelle wanted Garcin that she seduced him. Inez stood in the way of Estelle and Garcin because she knew that Garcin couldn’t be intimate when her eyes are upon him. Garcin toyed with Estelle’s emotions, telling her to instead find solace with Inez. Inez then taunted Estelle telling her that her hair and lipstick are a mess and that she has a pimple on her face. Inez also refused to comfort Garcin, constantly reminding him of being a coward.
Aside from cruelty, hypocrisy and falsehood can also be seen in the story. Garcin on a pretense said that he was kind, brave and noble, but truth be told, he cheated on his wife and deserted the battle when it became very dangerous. Similarly, Estelle tried to pretend that she was refined, thoughtful, and respectable but in truth, she married a man three times her age just for money, took a young lover, and killed her child. It is only through Inez’s pushing that they learned to face the truth. Inez hypocrisy showed when she stated that she would not miss Florence, her last lover, when it’s obvious that she would. She also said that her life was in order, which is quite questionable, considering how she lived. If there’s one of them who suffered greatly from hypocrisy, it would be Garci. He wanted to be a brave man, a man who would stick to his principles, but couldn’t do it when faced with danger. He’s ashamed of his cowardice and hated that the people on earth are talking about his weakness. He tried to deceive himself in hell when he said that he would only be saved if Inez would believe that he’s not a coward. When Inez told him that he is a coward, he didn’t listen and instead continued to believe that his desertion was just an irregularity in his personality. He lived in falsehood as he tried to convince himself he’s brave.
“What else should I tell? I've nothing to hide. I lost my parents when I was a kid, and I had my young brother to bring up. We were terribly poor and when an old friend of my people asked me to marry him I said yes. He was very well off, and quite nice. My brother was a very delicate child and needed all sorts of attention, so really that was the right thing for me to do, don't you agree? My husband was old enough to be my father, but for six years we had a happy married life. Then two years ago I met the man I was fated to love. We knew it the moment we set eyes on each other. He asked me to run away with him, and I refused. Then I got pneumonia and it finished me. That's the whole story. No doubt, by certain standards, I did wrong to sacrifice my youth to a man nearly three times my age. Do you think that could be called a sin?”- Estelle
“Certainly not. And now, tell me, do you think it's a crime to stand by one's principles?”- Garcin
The beauty of this play is that its message can be interpreted in many ways. It’s not entirely clear what Jean Paul Sartre is trying to say about human nature here but one point of view to simplify things a bit would be that the company of other people can be a form of hell. If anything, Sartre might be trying to say that hell is a self-fulfilling prophecy - that these people, realizing that they were in hell, created among themselves a set of circumstances that was hellish. The logical converse of that idea would therefore be that by exercising their free will, they could have chosen otherwise. Then there is also the interesting question of why these people are in hell in the first place. Here Sartre makes a strong argument that people have a moral responsibility to act in the best interest of humanity as a whole - something that none of these characters can claim to have done (Krichman, 2004).
Sartre's philosophical tenets in Being and Nothingness (L'Etre et le Néant), are beautifully interwoven into the fabric of No Exit. Through dialogue and action, Sartre transforms his philosophical assertions into dialectic form, pitting Inez against both Garcin and Estelle in an eternal battle of ideologies. The characters come to embody Sartre's tenets, and as they interact, the author's ideas come to life. The tenuous balance the characters face between needing the others to define themselves, and the desire to preserve their own freedom is developed throughout the play, but is never resolved (Contemporary Authors Online, 1999).
Personally, contrary to some opinions, it's not that it would be unpleasant to be stuck in a room with a couple of obnoxious people; it's that we make our own hell by seeing other people only in terms of our own desires. From my perspective the existentialist hell of Sartre is more acute than Dante’s. Sartre’s hell provokes countless intellectual inquiry, forcing me to think deeper and deeper. Dante’s hell triggered my playful imagination and not really the seeker in me.
Legally Blonde (Original Broadway Production, 2007)
Article By Jenise Torres
Legally Blonde is based on the Amanda Brown novel and the 2001 film of the same name. Music and lyrics in the play was completed by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. It had its pre-Broadway tryout at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco after some changes to the score and minor adjustments to the book.
The Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, opened on April 29, 2007 at the Palace Theatre. It had pretty good reviews then and consequently achieved a milestone, joining the millionaires’ club for the weekly Broadway grosses. The production was even nominated for seven Tony Awards but did not win any of them.
The story is a proto-feminist tale of blond ambition who responds to a breakup rebuff by reinventing herself and entering Harvard to study Law.
The musical was fun and had an upbeat production. So full of energy that one cannot help but feel good about it. Laura Bell Bundy, who played the role of Elle woods, the lead character, sang and danced flawlessly. All throughout the play, she portrayed her character effortlessly and the other cast as well. The production had all the right moves and has a good feel for both fun and wit.
The stage usually had a pink-dominated color scheme. Although a bit too flashy, it did help make the play nothing near deadweight. It was dance-driven which made everything else look lively apart from all the actors’ energy. It also made use of an entertaining chorus, who sang songs about Elle’s plight.
