Miranda & Yolanda runs at the PMCS Blackbox Theater, Ayala Malls Circuit, Makati City, from April 11 to May 3, 2026.
We all miss the late great theater director-playwright Floy Quintos, the man and his works, after his passing two years ago at 63. We’re lucky he left behind more than a dozen plays. Each is a gem that continues to remind us that artists are the reliable critics of the hypocrites, the delusional, and psychopaths, be they in government, the art world, high society, the ruling class, and Philippine history.
Floy Quintos in a photo taken for Dulaang UP (Photo by Vladimier Gonzales)
Most important, in exposing how rotten most politicians are to the core, Quintos bravely and unapologetically did it with biting humor and class—to the point of risking censorship.
In his one-act play, Ang Kalungkutan ng Mga Reyna, the main character is Yolanda Cadiz, the President of the Philippines. She has a seeming resemblance to a top government official, who was the most unpopular politician at the time it was staged.
The play begins with Marcel de Alba, a top-notch celebrity hairdresser-stylist, being invited to the Palace. Martial Law has been declared earlier that day, and Yolanda Cadiz is grooming herself to be Queen, ruler of the country. She needs Marcel’s expertise in “matters of taste” as she deals with “matters of state.”
Passing the military checkpoints, he notices something strange: a pipe-in music in every station playing only one song on a loop, Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
Once inside the Palace, he complains to the President’s top aide, identified only as the Cabinet Minister: Why only one song?
Marcel tells the Minister: “Pati ‘yung mga sundalong nagbabantay, Somewhere Over The Rainbow ang kinakanta! Sundalong may mga Armalite, singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Version ni Judy Garland ha? (Even the soldiers on guard, they’re singing Judy Garland’s version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, soldiers with Armalite Rifles, can you believe that?)”
He complains there are other versions, like the one recorded by Patti LaBelle or Mariah Carey, but why only Judy Garland’s version?
Exasperated, he tells the official: “Nakita nyo na ba ang mga lumang footage ni Judy Garland kapag kumakanta? Hysterical sya! Umaapaw ang angst…ang kalungkutan…parang nung nilikha ng Diyos ang angst, si Judy Garland lang ang tanging sumalo ng blessings. Hindi sya nakaka-relax…(Have you seen the old footage of Judy Garland singing that song? She was hysterical, her angst overflowing. It looked as if when God created angst, it was only Judy Garland who got it all. It’s not relaxing…)
In that scene in the 1939 musical film, Wizard of Oz, Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland at 15) sings it in their Kansas farm’s backyard, with only her dog Toto as audience, dreaming of a life full of adventure. It’s the scene before they are swept away by a tornado to the magical Land of Oz.
Another video shows her, probably in her mid-20s, singing it live onstage with a symphony orchestra. She evokes the emotion of one trapped in an invisible prison cell, where she’s longing to escape.
Marcel suggests that Pati LaBelle’s live version is better—upbeat and jazzy with glass-shattering vocal pyrotechnics sending us all to the magical Land of Oz.
How Quintos thought of choosing Somewhere Over The Rainbow to set the mood is simply brilliant. The situation is sad, but he makes it insightful and funny.
Quintos wanted to picture the irony of having military soldiers, the enforcers of an authoritarian rule that put many behind bars and executed dissidents, sing, Somewhere over the rainbow/ Skies are blue/ And the dreams that you dare to dream/ Really do come true.
Quintos wanted to picture the irony of having military soldiers being required to sing, ‘Somewhere over the rainbow/ Skies are blue’
It shows how delusional President Yolanda is, as all dictators are, which is expounded on in the following scenes.
The iconic scene in ‘Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna’ on the cover of Floy Quintos’ book ‘Collected Plays, Volume 2’ (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
In Quintos’ own words, Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna “is about the maddening transformation that absolute power brings. It is also about the transformative power of absolute madness.”
When the play won first prize in One-Act Play, Filipino category, in the 2008 Palanca Memorial Literary Awards, Quintos said he was invited by organizers to stage it in the awarding ceremonies. It had premiered at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Virgin Labfest, the festival of “untried, untested, and unstaged” one-act plays, with four performances.
But two weeks before the Palanca awards, the organizers called him up to say the staging wouldn’t push through. The reason given was that the play would be “disrespectful of the Office of the President.”
In his playwright’s note, Quintos said his only regret “is that (Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna) would forever be linked to the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. As the play became popular in the last years of the Arroyo administration, audiences have thought it was a parody of her.”
When the staging in the Palanca event was cancelled, the Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a Page 1 story.
Quintos continued: “I was besieged with calls for comments on ‘censorship.’ Since the play had already run at the CCP no less, I frankly did not see what the fuss was about. I am afraid I may have sounded like some sheepish fool saying that I did not feel I had been censored at all. For me, the producers had merely changed their minds. I lost my chance to be a poster boy for the seemingly censored.”
Bad publicity is still publicity, and audiences who didn’t see it in 2008 at the Virgin Labfest 4 (VLF) became curious, so when it was re-staged in 2009 at the VLF 5 as part of the Revisited Set, almost all shows were sold out.
Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino reprises her role as Yolanda Cadiz in ‘Ang Kalungkutan ng Mga Reyna.’ (Photo from Encore Theater)
I’ve seen the original staging of Ang Kalungkutan when it premiered in the VLF 4 and again in VLF 5, both also directed by Quintos. Yolanda was played by Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, and Marcel by Tuxqs Rutaquio. There were four generals/ministers played by a powerhouse cast: Jonathan Tadioan, Rommel “Riki” Benedicto, Jerald Napoles, and Nar Cabico.
Ang Kalungkutan was one of those plays that we hoped to see again and again. I wrote this before the opening weekend, and after seeing it Sunday night, April 12, I believe that this production, updated to today’s milieu, is the definitive version.
While the stage this time allows you to see the audience on the other side, John Batalla’s lighting design allows us to focus on what’s happening onstage, no distractions.
“Sir Floy Quintos wrote that it was his dream to mount a triple bill of all his Virgin LabFest works—Evening at the Opera, Suor Clara, and Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna—under the title Miranda, Yolanda, and Clara: Three Quintosian Women,” director Dexter Martinez Santos told TheDiarist.ph.
Santos directed Quintos’ swan song, Grace, which was staged shortly after Quintos’ passing on April 27, 2024, and restaged in June 2025. All in all, he has directed seven plays of Quintos.
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In his two-volume collection of straight plays titled Collected Plays, published by Ateneo de Manila University Press, Quintos included Ang Kalungkutan Ng Mga Reyna, Suor Clara, and Evening At The Opera.
There, he also wrote about his wish to mount the three plays together.
However, the people behind Encore Theater decided to pair Evening At The Opera with Ang Kalungkutan ng Mga Reyna.
“During our script reading, Encore Theater executive producer Stella Cañete-Mendoza mentioned to the company that she chose to mount Miranda & Yolanda because they both speak of the psyche of people in power set in contemporary times,” Santos told The Diarist.ph.
I saw Evening At The Opera when it premiered in the Virgin Labfest 7 in 2011, and when it was restaged in VLF 8 in 2012 as part of the Revisited Set. The play also explores how power corrupts, this time as seen in local government. It exposes how feudalism is the system that people prefer, rather than the progressive servant leadership.
‘Evening At The Opera’ explores how power corrupts, this time in local government
Quintos chose a couple, Miranda Beloto and her husband, Governor Bingo Beloto, to expound on how rotten traditional politicians have become. Miranda and Bingo became a couple through an arranged marriage, basically a political move of their elders.
Miranda is old rich, who studied in a Manila exclusive school, mingled and partied with high society, traveled a lot, and is cultured, in the sense that she can truly appreciate opera and not just to show off her Balenciaga dress. She has class. Her dead mother, Mamang, whose ghost Miranda talks to in the play, sounds like she’s from an old hacendero class.
Since Miranda is the daughter of a politician, she knows how the system works. She knows corruption and excess. She knows very well how to handle her husband, portrayed as a greedy pig of a man.
Ana Abad Santos reprises her role as Miranda in ‘Evening At The Opera.’ (Photo from Encore Theater)
In the 2011 and 2012 stagings, Miranda was played by Ana Abad Santos, and Bingo by Jonathan Tadioan, while Mamang was played by Frances Makil Ignacio. It was directed by Jomari Jose.
Now that Encore Theater is fulfilling Quintos’ dream, we asked Santos if he has done innovations in the plays.
“Because the plays were first staged nearly two decades ago, it was necessary to update some references to keep them contemporary. In Evening at the Opera, some lines were modernized to show how politicians have adapted to the changing landscape of connecting to their constituents. I also made some directing choices to reveal the corruption behind the image of public service. In Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna, recent political and pop culture references were added to help audiences better understand the story, while timelines and small details were updated for accuracy,” he told The Diarist.ph.
The main cast is retained with new additions.
“Bringing vibrant new life to these productions is a powerhouse cast: Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, Ana Abad Santos, and Frances Makil-Ignacio return to reprise their original roles with depth and authority, joined by Topper Fabregas (as Marcel), Joshua Cabiladas (Bingo), and Jules Dela Paz (Ministro), who infuse the stage with bold and dynamic interpretations,” Santos added.
It’s not surprising Centenera-Buencamino, Abad Santos, and Makil-Ignacio would give their best performances, making sure audiences on both sides of the stage engage as they deliver their lines.
Fabregas reinvents Marcel with his signature comedic flair that we’ve always enjoyed, dating back to the fumbling Robert in Repertory Philippines’ Boeing Boeing in 2013, up to his most recent role as Donkey in Shrek.
Dela Paz as Minister also perfectly matches Fabregas and Centenera-Buenamino’s comedic timing.
Cabiladas as Big Boss Bingo has big shoes to fill—in a literal and figurative sense—after Tadioan’s iconic role, but he owns the character. His interpretation is both funny and scary. Tadioan’s is, well, pure evil incarnate.
The production design by Mitoy Sta. Ana evokes class. While his costume design in Miranda is top-notch elegant, his take on Yolanda borders on exaggeration that is outright funny, the characters at some point look like talking caricatures straight out of a Tim Burton film. Think Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland. Centenera-Buencamino’s hair pieces are fine works of shock art.
Arvy Dimaculangan’s music and sound design, Io Balanon’s stage management, and Meliton Roxas Jr.’s technical direction appropriately enhance the mood that highlights Miranda’s pent-up rage and Yolanda’s eccentricity.
So those who missed the wit and brilliance of a Quintoshian play, here’s the chance. For young audiences who have yet to see a play by Quintos, this is the best opportunity to experience and know why there’s such a term as “Quintoshian.”
And while we’re on it, maybe in another season, Encore Theater will stage another twinbill featuring Suor Clara and another play. Let me suggest a restaging of Angry Christ or Fluid or Collection. Every year, I think there should be a Floy Quintos play being staged by Encore Theater.
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The good thing with Encore Theater is that it understands the audiences, such as with regards to Metro Manila’s horrendous Friday traffic, so they only have Saturday and Sunday shows.
Miranda & Yolanda runs at the PMCS Blackbox Theater, Ayala Malls Circuit, Makati City, from April 11 to May 3, 2026.
For seat plan, go to https://tinyurl.com/MIRANDA-YOLANDA-SEAT-PLAN.For tickets, go to https://ticket2me.net/EncoreTheaterMNLPH. Or direct to show buyers: https://tinyurl.com/MIRANDA-YOLANDA-SHOWBUYERS. All audience members are entitled to discounted Grab & Move It rides.
