unSAULicited

Promotional material for Double Take: Reverse Card & AL.TER . Image courtesy of Kho-Lab Productions and Artist Playground. Review by Saul de Jesus What to know: Double Take: Reverse Card & AL.TER is a twin bill presented by Kho-Lab Productions, in collaboration with Artist Playground, directed by Paul Jake Paule. I watched the June 20, 2026, 3:00 PM performance at Illumination Studio, Makati, with CJ Tiongson and Drei Arias in AL.TER , and Inah Evans and Gerald Magallanes in Reverse Card . Content note: This review discusses a production with themes that may be uncomfortable or triggering, including grief, bullying, manipulation, trauma, and self-harm. The review avoids spelling out every major reveal, but it discusses the emotional shape of both plays. Before Double Take even began, the production made its first responsible choice. A projected message with voiceover warned the audience that the show would contain themes that may trigger or make us u...

Official poster for Ang Kawatan , presented by 2TinCans Philippines and The Kabilin Center. Photo courtesy of 2TinCans Philippines and The Kabilin Center. What happens when a story is not just told, but taken? That is the uneasy question at the center of Ang Kawatan (The Thief) , the second production of Kulukabildo II: Stories in Direct Light , presented by 2TinCans Philippines and The Kabilin Center this June in Cebu City. Written by journalist and playwright Maverick Avila and directed by Vanessa Fe , Ang Kawatan runs on June 27 and 28, 2026 at The Kabilin Center on Eduardo Aboitiz Street, Tinago, Cebu City. Quick Facts: Ang Kawatan in Cebu Production: Ang Kawatan (The Thief) Presented by: 2TinCans Philippines and The Kabilin Center Series: Kulukabildo II: Stories in Direct Light Playwright: Maverick Avila Director: Vanessa Fe Venue: The Kabilin Center, Eduardo Aboitiz Street, Tinago, Cebu City Show dates: Ju...

Manila gets a free ticket to contemporary Italian cinema this June as the Italian Film Festival 2026 returns with six screenings at Red Carpet Cinemas, Shangri-La Plaza. The festival runs from June 26 to July 1, 2026 at Shangri-La Red Carpet Cinema, Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City. Screenings are scheduled at 6:00 PM , and admission is free . That is already enough reason to pay attention. Free screenings in a proper cinema, right after work, inside Shangri-La Plaza, with six contemporary Italian films? This is one of those cultural calendar entries that should not be buried under “maybe next time.” Presented by the Embassy of Italy in Manila in collaboration with Elephant Pictures, Cineforum Robert Bresson, the Philippine-Italian Association, and Shangri-La Plaza's Red Carpet Cinemas, this year’s festival brings a compact but interesting lineup of recent Italian films. The selection includes 2025 works by Paolo Sorrentino and Paolo Genovese, alongside t...

The Sandbox Collective will present a staged reading of Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places, and Things in August 2026. Photo courtesy of The Sandbox Collective. The Sandbox Collective is going back to a playwright it clearly understands. After opening its 2026 slate with Spring Awakening , the company has announced a strictly limited staged reading of Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places, and Things , set for August 2026. The reading will be directed by Sandbox Artistic Director Sab Jose. On paper, that is already a strong announcement. People, Places, and Things is one of Macmillan’s most intense works, known for its raw look at addiction, recovery, and the ways people escape from truths they can no longer outrun. But for Sandbox, this does not feel like a random heavy title pulled from a list. It feels like a continuation. What to know about Sandbox’s People, Places, and Things staged reading People, Places, and Things is a critically acclaimed play by ...

The stage before the June 12 press preview of YEMAYA at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater. Photo by Saul de Jesus / Unsaulicited. The best way to enter YEMAYA is not to demand a map. It is to allow yourself to believe, even for a while, that its world exists. At its June 12 press preview, 9 Works Theatrical’s YEMAYA did not build every corner of that world for the audience. Instead, it invited us to become active participants in imagining it: the fictional province of Magdalena, the city beyond it, the waters leading toward an idealized America, and the uncertain possibilities waiting past the shore. That trust is one of the production’s strengths. YEMAYA taps into a part of the psyche that adulthood often teaches us to suppress. It puts us through the paces of childlike wonder, shock, hope, fantasy, and the unexpected. It allows the story to unravel without immediately explaining every bend in the journey. At times, it...

Manila Concerts Some concerts are programmed around an occasion. Others return to the historical thread that makes the occasion matter. For the third concert of its Centennial Season, the Manila Symphony Orchestra is doing the latter. On Saturday, July 4, 2026, the MSO brings In Pursuit of Excellence CELEBRATION: The MSO Centennial Season Concert III - LIBERATION: 80 Years of the Philippines Republic to the Manila Metropolitan Theater . The concert looks back to the first days of the Republic of the Philippines while bringing together Filipino and American music that reflects eight decades of artistic exchange, cultural connection, and friendship. In Pursuit of Excellence CELEBRATION: The MSO Centennial Season Concert III - LIBERATION: 80 Years of the Philippines Republic takes place at the Manila Metropolitan Theater on July 4, 2026. Official image courtesy of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. What to Know About In Pursuit of Excellence CELEBR...