For only one weekend, Arete will be staging Suzue Toshiro's IF He Doesn't See Your Face at the Doreen Black Box, Arete, Ateneo de Manila. Veteran actors Delphine Buencamino and Brian Sy play the husband and wife Yasuyo and Tatsuya. They are a curious couple whose flaws are endearing yet somewhat bizaare. The play is mostly set in the visiting area of a Japanese prison where Yasuyo visits her husband once a month. Toshiro's great writing effectively transports you into a their universe where reality seamlessly mixes with the surreal. It is definitely a play where you'd want to bring at least another person so you can debrief yourselves from the light madness you got yourself into. And we all need a bit of madness form time to time. The tone of the play is light yet it delves deep on the background of the lovers. It discusses deep rooted traumas, the complications of relationships, one's need to be acknowledged and loved, and even a discussion about a uniq...

Currently staged at Ateneo de Manila's Black Box Theater, "Si Janus Silang at ang Labanang Manananggal-Mambabarang" is more intimate yet more engaging compared to the first installment in the series. For the second part, Janus Silang continues to discover new enemies and build relationships with new allies as they try to unleash the Paraluman, a powerful force that is believed to be inside Janus. The viewer is transported into a new world as adapted and directed by Guelan Varela-Luarca. The set by Gwyn Guanzon and lights by D Cortezano shows this world, Arvy Dimaculangan's Sound and Music Design provokes the audience's imaginaton, and Delphine Beuncamino's choreography grabs you and pulls you into middle of the fantasy that is Janus Silang. The play makes it friendly for those who haven't read the books, and even those who haven't seen the first play. It opens with a look-back to what happened and then plunges directly into the action. Despite ...

Reading through the programme reminded me of my short days in a literary folio. Verses were natural then while my head went and stayed up in the air. I'm more in the ground these days but the appeal of poetry never faded. Losing a loved one is probably the universe's way for everyone to feel pain. It's the inescapable interplay of fates that leave the living with the important task of how to cherish the past. Ginugunita Kita is very personal yet universal. Pain begets pain but pain forces love to grow. Reading the words of Maningning Miclat's verses is an experience of discovery. Seeing its performance is awe-inspiring and knowing the context of her work pierces the soul. In the end, your soul is imprinted with the divine. Under the direction of Roeder Camanag, the genius of Jesse Lucas' music and the pure talents of Renato Lucas and Banaue Miclat-Janssen, poetry and music meets, merges, and evolves. With guests Al Gatmaitan and Delphine Buencamino, indi...