A tribe called Turnip
At the Red Turnip Theater press- con for its fourth season, it was how I thought press conferences should be: no loud and annoying hosts, no nauseating background music on loop, no tacky decor, and best of all, no halfhearted previews. What we were treated to, instead, were conversations and free-flowing beer. And one of the lines the Turnips often asked each other was, “Are we allowed to give spoilers?” But if I may be so bold, I’d say they did nothing wrong, nor did they spoil anything. They might have even done a good job.
Red Turnip Theater is a commercial theater group composed of five friends: Ana Abad Santos, Topper Fabregas, Jenny Jamora, Cris Villonco, and Rem Zamora. Now in their fourth season, they are, according to their press release, mounting their “most captivating season yet,” opening with an offbeat love story, Tribes, and closing with a sci-fi thriller, The Nether. (Sometime between these two plays is a “0.5” which will be announced only a month before staging at a pop-up venue.) Last season, they traveled outwards and staged 33 Variations as well as Constellations. This year, they plan to do the opposite and journey inwards to discuss what makes us who we are — an exploration of individual identity. Hence, the kind of plot twists they’ve infused into their shows: Tribes is a play about a deaf adolescent whose family refuses to learn sign language, and The Nether is a play about criminal cyber personas. The question these plays raise couldn’t have been any clearer: Who am I?
“Basically, people have other identities on the Internet that are very different from who they are in real life,” said Ana Abad Santos, director of The Nether, to start their informal program. “That is a big concept in my play—who we really are and who we want to be. Which is the real universe for us? Is it the net where we can be who we want? Or is it here, in ‘real life,’ where we’re practically in a box?”
To which the doe-eyed Jenny Jamora added, “Those are just some of the questions we raise. We like raising a lot of questions. We may not answer them sometimes but,” she said, “sometimes, we just don’t.” She laughed then sipped from her beer.
Topper Fabregas, director of Tribes and admittedly un-good with words, went on to talk about his own play. “With ours… I guess so much of our identity is based on how we were raised in that family unit. About how much of our identity is shaped by our upbringing, by the values that are passed on from generation to generation.”
Later at the open forum, Topper expounded, “There’s a running joke that I’m never really good with words, so I actually end up signing. I have my own sign language. That was the joke in This is Our Youth. I wouldn’t use words. I used my own sign and they would understand what I meant. So when they found out I was directing Tribes, they thought I would be good for it.”
The cast of Tribes also seems to be learning a lot in the process of bringing the play to life. Apart from learning their spoken lines, some of them are taking classes on how to do sign language with John Xandre Baliza from the DLSU-College of St. Benilde and Myra Medrana, a deaf performer, as their instructors. The cast admitted being enlightened to a different world in the deaf community (i.e. an entirely new grammar and syntax in Filipino Sign Language), as well as realizing some of the social blunders they’ve committed against our deaf brothers and sisters (e.g. calling them “pipi” or “hearing-impaired”; it is more correct to call them “deaf”). It should be interesting to see how these actors convince us, through their talents, of their characters’ disabilities, physical or otherwise.
It was veteran actor, Teroy Guzman, winner of last year’s Gawad Buhay - Best Supporting Actor in a Play, who succinctly described the challenge of jibing — communicating — with his co-actors best.
He said, “It’s a family, ‘di ba? Iba-ibang characters, ‘no? At ako ang padre de pamilya. You have to deal with each member of the family in a different way, but at the same time you have to keep your position; me as head of the family. It’s an interaction between the characters and they all have their own interpretations of their characters. So, for it to work, my reaction to one child should be different to the other one, to my daughter, to my wife. So, I have to read her properly. She has to give me the right signals. And I have to give her the right signals, too, ‘cause she has to read me properly. In any play with more than one character, the most challenging part, I think, is interpreting the signals your characters are giving you.”
Being a fan of Guzman’s work, I had to follow it up with a question: How is this different from his Shakespearean roles? He quickly retorted, “This is different because I have shorter hair.” He burst into laughter. “All my Shakespeare roles have long hair, ‘di ba?”
He elaborated, “It’s different, uh, from Shakespeare.” As a matter of fact, Shakespeare is easier than you think because it’s beautiful as it is. The language flows. Forget about iambic pentameter. It just flows. If you understand what he’s saying, it will flow and flow and flow and flow and then it’s up to you na lang to embellish it. It’s easier.”
Much more was said that afternoon; much of it, best kept for the show. And if Tribes is a play wherein there is a reduced use of speech (it is 40 percent subtitled) and while The Nether is a play about the anonymity behind our avatars, then I guess I should retreat at this point. So, good luck to Tribes and see you again for The Nether. Here’s to hoping that beer continues to flow the next time around.
* * *
Tribes will be shown at the Power Mac Spotlight Center, Circuit Makati on Aug. 4, 5, 6, 7, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, and Sept. 2, 3, and 4. There will be shows which will cater to audiences who are deaf. Tickets are available at www.ticketworld.com.ph or via redturniptheater@gmail.com.
