"I'm as mad as hell, and I won't be taking this anymore," raged a brilliantly mad news anchor played by Peter Finch in the '70s movie "Network." And he leads his millions of evening-news viewers in shouting the same line outside their windows. Ratings soar.
Dulaang UP's recent production "Shock Value" follows the argument of the cinematic satire that television, despite Sesame Street, Nat Geo and the Discovery Channel, has led to the severe dumbing down of a nation's citizens, and all for the greedy corporate cause of TV ratings.
Playwright Floy Quintos, who works for TV, knows where he's coming from when he wrote such caricature-ish characters as producer-host Matt Desaparecidos (shrewd but unwitting patsy in a network war), "distinguished" news anchor Dina MaƱalac-Guevarra who has come down from covering plum straight news assignments to reporting on celebrity scandals, the fake love teams, the has-beens ("You’re so last year" goes a memorable line) desperate for a comeback, the no-talents just as hungry for a break, the screaming fags and PAs behind the scenes.
To add to the ambience of a TV soundstage, two wide LCDs are placed on opposite ends of the stage and a wider projector above the audience. The theater audience becomes part of the show, cued by a floor director to laugh, cry or applaud until they do it on their own. Laugh and scream at the right places.
It all begins with Matt being caught by a rival TV show about to sodomize a minor. From there the damage control takes off and lies are fed on more lies with the culprit making tearful onscreen confessions the way actors and similar celebrities caught in a no-no act do in daily/weekly TV, whether it's "Oprah" or "The Buzz."
Then it all becomes too much for Matt, and as his name suggests, he disappears…to the remote island of Polilio, Quezon, where TV, even radio, signals are weak. This builds up to a hilarious bidding of rival networks for images of him and his ex-lover embracing in reconciliation.
Director Alexander Cortez and the cast have put on quite a show that hits where it hurts. The merry mix of veteran actors and young theater arts graduates make for an interesting onstage chemistry although we found film actress Mylene Dizon weak of voice, even unable to suppress an attack of giggles when she misses her lines in the beach scene. When facing down the scene-stealing Frances Makil Ignacio as Dina, Dizon is simply out-glittered.
In another three years ("Shock Value" was originally staged in 2006), what new monsters will the TV medium breed? A character's portentous words at the closing of Act One: "We just dredge up old stuff and give it a new spin."
Photo from CINDERELLA MAYO's Facebook album
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