Shakespeare's Macbeth has never been so grippingly, rivetingly staged until Anton Juan's "Screen: Macbeth", a centennial production of the University of the Philippines department of English and comparative literature (UP-DECL) with the World Theater Project.
No one else but Anton Juan, once the enfant-terrible of Philippine theater, can agitate, provoke, move his fine assembly of actors the way he has done in this second production of the UP-DECL, which is marking its centennial this academic school year, and inspire them to heights of their abilities.
The soliloquies are all too familiar, like ancient siren songs, but the actors' ability to make the hair on our arms stand and let a chill creep on our back--these sensations are new.
And to be awed by the awful truths unveiled and struck by fright, how current the issues raised by the 17th-century Bard--these are the workings of Anton's genius in combustible combination with Judy Ick's dramaturgy, the dramatic lighting by Meliton Roxas Jr. that made available-light photography during the staging a joy, the costumes by Lhenvil Paneda that seemed straight out of an early Mel Gibson "Mad Max" movie, the set design by Ohm David that played on variations of black and red, and yes, the touch of 21st-century technology, Winter David's video design all conspired to make this new production the best we've seen, almost obliterating film versions/ adaptations like Akiro Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" and the opera "Macbeth" once bravely staged by Repertory Philippines.
While Repertory could be credited for well-meaning bravery in mounting that opera, this production that is having a limited run at the University's Media Center on the grounds of the College of Mass Communication reeks of audacity, flaming creativity and chutzpah, qualities Anton Juan has plenty of.
In an age of Senate investigations where flagrant lies are passed off as truths, when those in exalted positions assume they are not accountable to the people, when feudal politics in the South leads to the massacre of scores of journalists, "Macbeth" sounds a fatal tolling bell that says things have not changed since an ambitious, dominatrix type of a woman, as Ick played Lady Macbeth, unsexed herself and pushed her husband (played by Teroy Guzman) to the dark side to claim what is not theirs.
See it for yourselves and feel justified in thinking that the production must, under the new administration of UP President Alfredo Pascual, be brought to other campuses as a new, engaging form of conscientization. At the very least, the production has proven that the classics have a place in contemporary lives. We have the people behind "Screen: Macbeth" to thank for that.
Screen: Macbeth runs till March 6. Showtime is 7 p.m. with 3 p.m. matinees on March 5 and 6.
Uppermost photo shows fight scene between Macduff (Jamie Wilson) and Macbeth (Teroy Guzman); middle photos show Lady Macbeth played by Judy Ick; and the director Anton Juan receiving his applause.
Photos by ANNA LEAH SARABIA
No one else but Anton Juan, once the enfant-terrible of Philippine theater, can agitate, provoke, move his fine assembly of actors the way he has done in this second production of the UP-DECL, which is marking its centennial this academic school year, and inspire them to heights of their abilities.
The soliloquies are all too familiar, like ancient siren songs, but the actors' ability to make the hair on our arms stand and let a chill creep on our back--these sensations are new.
And to be awed by the awful truths unveiled and struck by fright, how current the issues raised by the 17th-century Bard--these are the workings of Anton's genius in combustible combination with Judy Ick's dramaturgy, the dramatic lighting by Meliton Roxas Jr. that made available-light photography during the staging a joy, the costumes by Lhenvil Paneda that seemed straight out of an early Mel Gibson "Mad Max" movie, the set design by Ohm David that played on variations of black and red, and yes, the touch of 21st-century technology, Winter David's video design all conspired to make this new production the best we've seen, almost obliterating film versions/ adaptations like Akiro Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" and the opera "Macbeth" once bravely staged by Repertory Philippines.
While Repertory could be credited for well-meaning bravery in mounting that opera, this production that is having a limited run at the University's Media Center on the grounds of the College of Mass Communication reeks of audacity, flaming creativity and chutzpah, qualities Anton Juan has plenty of.
In an age of Senate investigations where flagrant lies are passed off as truths, when those in exalted positions assume they are not accountable to the people, when feudal politics in the South leads to the massacre of scores of journalists, "Macbeth" sounds a fatal tolling bell that says things have not changed since an ambitious, dominatrix type of a woman, as Ick played Lady Macbeth, unsexed herself and pushed her husband (played by Teroy Guzman) to the dark side to claim what is not theirs.
See it for yourselves and feel justified in thinking that the production must, under the new administration of UP President Alfredo Pascual, be brought to other campuses as a new, engaging form of conscientization. At the very least, the production has proven that the classics have a place in contemporary lives. We have the people behind "Screen: Macbeth" to thank for that.
Screen: Macbeth runs till March 6. Showtime is 7 p.m. with 3 p.m. matinees on March 5 and 6.
Uppermost photo shows fight scene between Macduff (Jamie Wilson) and Macbeth (Teroy Guzman); middle photos show Lady Macbeth played by Judy Ick; and the director Anton Juan receiving his applause.
Photos by ANNA LEAH SARABIA
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