infinitepossibilities

january 28, saturday

the day started out bad. the woman woke up late. she took a hurried shower. skipped breakfast. waited for more than ten minutes for a cab. hopped on a cab. arrived to work 16 minutes past 8 o’clock. that is, she reported to work late. turned on her pc. opened an excel file. browsed through her men’s initial reports. checked on the work of one of her men. saw a lot of items needing revision. she developed a headache. couldn’t stand facing the computer monitor. the headache got worse. rested her eyes. nothing happened. got a paracetamol tablet. popped it in her mouth. waited for the tablet to work. resumed to her task. saw more inaccurate work…was miserable going over the same work over and over again, but she kept her temper in check. her shift ended…thankfully.

what seemed to be a bleak day for the woman ended otherwise. well, at least in her book. the reason? three men on stage.

audie gemora, bart guingona and jaime del mundo — three brilliant Filipino theater actors made my Saturday night. the three graced the stage of SM Cinema 2 to portray Serge, Mark and Yvan in Yasmina Reza’s one-act play called "Art".

below is an excerpt from the article with the same title as the play by Janos Gereben for the June 11-September 3, 2005 run in San Francisco. it’s a little brief about the play.
http://www.culturevulture.net/Theater9/Art.htm; July 15, 2005

One of three long-time friends (a curiously stiff Bill English at The Playhouse) [Audie Gemora] pays an outrageously high price for a "painting" of white lines on a white canvas. The entire play (in one, 85-minute act) consists of conversations between the three over the value - commercial and personal - of the white object in question. Mark, the hilariously alpha male/alpha personality of the trio (Louis Parnell, in the evening’s most dynamic performance) [Bart Guingona], and Yvan (Keith Burkland) [Jaime del Mundo], the sympathetic schlemiel, take on Serge, the buyer of the painting, and each other. The three men spout learned quotes at times, then sound like egomaniac teenage girls, settling down at the end to wisdom and acceptance - but without a false note.
    Fluently, effortlessly, in a surprising and most entertaining way, Reza brings into play issues of friendship, loyalty, the difficulty and value of telling the truth. In stark, glorious contrast with plays weighed down by the visibly manipulative, the insultingly obvious, Art never gets artsy, cute or predictable. On the contrary, it respects the audience to the degree that at a crucial moment it refers to a quote by Paul Valery, but the source is not given. ("There is no truth without passion, without mistake… truth can only be achieved passionately.")

audie gemora, bart guingona and jaime del mundo’s portrayals certainly embodied what my high school teacher, Miss Rabago expected of her students to do whenever they are on stage. "Internalize your role! Performance level, please!" she would often remind us. Miss Rabago would definitely be giving her very demure behind the fan smile if one of her students could emulate such professionalism from the three main actors.

audie, bart and jaime more than showed what performance level is. it was IT and more. All three showcased what most of us back in high school wished to accomplish in every play that Miss Rabago would have us do. the trio captivated the Cebuano audience as they delivered their lines with finesse. they conquered the stage with their awesome repartee. it was the witty wordplay that allowed the audience to forget the simplicity of the play’s set and the bad lighting [hated the shadows on stage]. all in all, the Php 300 ticket price was so small an amount to pay to watch such great actors. i left the theater thinking it was so unfortunate to have missed the plays they’ve had here in cebu. to say that I’m so looking forward to another production with them in it is an understatement.

"If I am who I am because I am who I am and you are who you are because you are who you are then I am who I am and you are who you are, but if I am who I am because you are who you are and you are who you are because I am who I am then I am not who I am and you are not who you are."— one of Yvan’s noteworthy lines