Reality drama in afternoon serye

Once in a great while, a concept comes around that tastes familiar yet is different, that excites those involved, that is alien even as it is comfortable. The new GMA 7 afternoon drama Hiram na Puso airs this afternoon after Eat, Bulaga!, and in discussing it with director Andoy Ranay, we share his excitement.

Working for the first time under a three-year contract with GMA 7, direk Andoy, who has gained multiple proficiency through years of directing teleseryes, and of being an actor and theater person, is on to a new experience. Working for the afternoon series with an entirely new audience profile is another first for him. Still another first is the fact that he had always worked with a huge cast and huge budget, and Hiram is the exact opposite. It is precisely that marked difference, however, that Andoy welcomes the show as a challenge.

Based on medical records of heart transplants, Hiram tells the story of how Kris Bernal, Gina Alajar’s daughter with a recurring heart condition, made a turn for the worse and needed a heart transplant to save her life. By chance, couple Gardo Versoza and Ayen Munji-Laurel, parents of Angeline, a hit-and-run victim, decide to donate their daughter’s heart to Kris. After some time, Kris strangely appears much closer to Angeline’s parents than to her own mother Gina. It is a fact that at times, part of the benefactor’s characteristics and behavior are transferred to the recipient of the donation.

Andoy tells us, the project is the most “human” of all his TV series projects. “There are no contravidas, no sampalan scenes. There are only people who make wrong decisions and must pay for those in the long run.”

Director Andoy Ranay in his most ‘human’ project

A novel take on Shakespeare

Translating and adapting from book to film to television is common. Shakespeare translations have appeared on all genres, but seldom have his sonnets been transformed into Filipino love songs which PETA has done to cap its season of Shakespeare. We watched Thee na Natuto, a most engaging hour of translations, recited, rapped, sang and danced by the most junior of translators to the likes of National Artist for Literature Bien Lumbera and Pete Lacaba; composers led by Vince de Jesus; performers from Noel Cabangon and Ricci Chan. More performances are set on March 7 and 9. For details, call Gay Balignasay of PETA at 410-0822 and 725-6244. Below is a sample of a translation.  

SONG 1 — SONNET 18 — Walang Papantay

Translated by Froilan Medina

Composed by Ronnie Quesada

Performer: Lady I

Sonnet 18 — Original Text

Noel Cabangon performing Bien Lumbera translation

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Translated Text

Pwede bang ikumpara Sa tagaraw ang iyong ganda. Mahihiya ang umaga, magseselos ang gabi. Dahil mas banayad ka. Mas malambing Mas masarap kagatin. Minsan balasubas ang hangin o nakakaitim ang init ng araw o biglang magdidilim. Hindi na maganda ang tagaraw. Pero hindi ikaw, hindi ka kukupas, Hindi mawawala ang ganda mo. Hindi ka mamatay, Hindi ka ililibing or iki-cremate.

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