Bold, inventive, fearless theater is Tanghalang Pilipino’s Nekropolis

The Duterte administration’s war on drugs was so infamous it spawned theatrical productions like the massive hit Ang Huling El Bimbo the musical, Mar Paner’s internationally-toured Tao Po, one-act plays at the annual Virgin Labfest at the Cultural Center of the Philippines like Sincerity Bikers Club, Mga Eksena sa Buhay ng Kontrabida, among others, and the recently-opened Nekropolis by Tanghalang Pilipino.

But what made Nekropolis different is that the shaping of the story involved the actors themselves. About 14 actors of Tanghalang Pilipino have become co-creators from Day One.

The title is from the Greek words “nekros,” loosely translated “corpse” while “polis,” means city-state or city. In a literal sense, Nekropolis is about a city of corpses.

Nekropolis is a devised play written by New York-based playwright-director-actor-translator Guelan Varela-Luarca.

TP’s 36th season ender was created through a process called “dulambayanihan,” a term coined from “dula” and “bayanihan,” (Filipino trait of volunteerism).

As starting point, they were all asked to read Vincent Rafael’s book of essays, The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte. Then they began “dulambayanihan”.

Besides the TP actors, Varela-Luarca had a series of “dulambayanihan” sessions with his long-time collaborators and friends, fellow Ateneo teacher-director Charles Yee and stage manager Soc Amon. Yee would become eventually the play’s director and Amon as one of the stage managers.

Guelan Varela-Luarca was able to write play with an insight of a liberal, enlightened pilgrim

“I am the only one who gave shape but the story came from all of us,” Varela-Luarca told us in an interview. As an expat, he was able to write play with an insight of a liberal, enlightened pilgrim.
It opened Thursday night and runs only for one weekend, until Sunday, April 23, at The CCP Black Box Theater (Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez), CCP Complex, Pasay City.

The result is a story of 10 characters trying to survive and make sense of their lives in a city where people slumber through the sound of gunshots and screens flicker with one breaking news after another. Amid the chaos, they seek to numb their senses with drugs, with sex, with God. There are no lead roles. The imagined dystopian city is the main character itself.

We caught up with the ensemble of actors during their break from performance and they gamely told TheDiarist.ph about their roles.

The ensemble is led by TP Actors Company senior members Marco Viaña, Jonathan Tadioan, Lhorvie Nuevo and Antonette Go-Yadao.

Jonathan Tadioan plays Sikologo, obviously a psychologist who has long been a resident of the city. Tadioan is known for playing edgy and challenging roles like the abominable cold-blooded killer Doc Resureccion and the scene-stealing bad ass Deputy Governor Danforth in the recently staged Ang Pag-uusig, a Filipino translation of The Crucible by Jerry Respeto.

“Sikologo is a lighter character compared to those I did in the past. Sikolog is more bubbly and cheerful,” he says.

Go-Yadao, senior member of TP, plays Inara. She tells TheDiarist.ph Inara is in her mid-20s, a psychologist intern taking her first case under Dr. Sikologo.

“She is goal-oriented and would go out of her way just to help the ones in need,” Go-Yadao says.

“Inara has a lot of moments where she is just taking in information and not speaking but it needs to pile up at a certain point where frustration or anger or sympathy or any emotion in between is,” Go-Yadao adds.

Lhorvie Nuevo plays Claire, a college student who enjoys trying new things and stepping out of her comfort zone.

‘It involves a lot of experimentation and risk-taking, which can be both exciting and nerve-wracking’

“The character is younger than me. But I guess more than the role itself, what’s really challenging is the process of doing this production. Devised theater requires a lot of creativity and collaboration among the team members to come up with a distinct and cohesive production. It also involves a lot of experimentation and risk-taking, which can be both exciting and nerve-wracking,” Nuevo says.

Incidentally, Nuevo has been nominated twice in this year’s Gawad Buhay Awards, the local counterpart of The Tonys. The joke her co-actors tell her is that she’s competing with herself in the category Female Featured Performance In A Play, or the equivalent of best supporting actress, for her roles in 2022’s Anak Datu and 2019’s Batang Mujahideen.

Marco Viaña also serves as TP’s associate artistic director. He plays Miggs, a pivotal character in Nekropolis. One of the finest actors of his generation, Viaña has been praised for almost all the memorable roles he played in TP since he joined about a decade ago. Most recent of which is the unnerving John Proctor in TP’s Ang Pag-uusig early this year.

He tells TheDiarist.ph it’s better for audience members to see Nekropolis to understand and appreciate Miggs more.

Most of the TP actor-scholars joined the resident theater company of the CPP in 2021 as interns. In 2022, after undergoing trainings both online and eventually on-site, they became TP scholars.

Those who made it to Nekropolis are Arjhay Babon, Edrick Alcontado, Aggy Mago, Judie Dimayuga, Mark Lorenz, Vince Macapobre, Mitzi Comia, Heart Puyong and Sarah Monay. They all too took part in dulambayanihan.

Who can’t forget Arjhay Babon when he essayed a pivotal character in TP’s groundbreaking play last year, Anak Datu. He gave us the chills as he brilliantly essayed Nur Misuari in different ages of his life, from Martial Law rebel in his youth who morphed into Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supporter in his old age. In Ang Pag-uusig, he excellently handled Giles Corey, the funny old man.

In Nekropolis he plays Ignatius.

“Ignatius is the brother of Lumen. Both him and the latter are refugees from the Incarnates of the Word Fellowship. His perspective of Nekropolis is deeply rooted in their religion and their cultic interpretation of the Bible,” Babon says.

‘As we went deeper into rehearsals, I asked myself: Is this still the theater that I fell in love for?’

“As we went deeper into our Nekropolis rehearsals, I asked myself: Is this still the theater that I fell in love for? Because here, we are undergoing a very different process. From my usual thought process to the gradual embodiment of the character, creating Ignatius feels so unfamiliar and very difficult to me mentally and physically.

“I need to work harder and be more generous to my co-actors and the play in order to power through the struggles. The confusion, exhaustion and frustration are present, but it’s part of the artistic journey. I’m very hopeful for the outcome of this adventure,” Babon adds.

Edrick Alcontado plays a character simply called Kaeskwela, or classmate in English.

“Kaeskwela is a determined, firm, unflinching and rebellious student of the City College. He is hungry for vengeance for all the atrocities that happened to him, his teachers, and his friends,” Alcontado tells TheDiarist.ph.

“The character is in gnawing pain and suffering both physical and emotional. To be able to quickly dive and tap into the complexity of his pain without dwelling too much on it is what I find challenging. Compared to my previous roles, Kaeskwela is foul-mouthed, blunt and outspoken,” Alcontado adds.

Heart Puyong plays Charlotte, a middle-aged woman around 40 years old “who seeks appreciation and longing from her husband.”

“Despite facing issues with self-esteem, her love life, and feeling like a ghost in her own town, she will still serve tasteless porridge, much like her life,” Puyong says.

Compared to her previous roles with TP, she said this one is extremely challenging.

“Because of the physicality and endurance required. The character of Charlotte has layers that are incredibly deep and difficult to unearth. It may seem easy because many people can relate to her problems, but that’s precisely what makes it challenging. With millions of people who might be like Charlotte, how can I create a character that truly embodies her?” Puyong adds.

Judie Rose Dimayuga is a lawyer in real life. She joined TP while there were intermittent lockdowns during the pandemic and has since acted in TP’s 36th season productions, including various roles in its online series of educational radio plays for children called Tara Peeps.

In Nekropolis she plays “Kapitana”.

“Kapitana is an emerging leader from one of the residential projects in Nekropolis. She is strong-willed to ensure democracy and order in Nekropolis, whatever it takes,” she tells TheDiarist.ph.

“The subtexts of Kapitana’s lines are rich and I was challenged to ensure that these subtexts will be reflected by recalibrating the colors and textures of her lines. As an emerging leader in Nekropolis, will Kapitana be a heroine or a foe?” Dimayuga adds.

Mitzi Comia has been a fixture in the two-year-old Tara Peeps, which still plays every Sunday afternoon on DZRH TV. Her role is a funny radio DJ called Kwagie, a talking owl.

In Nekropolis, she plays Karina, a 20-year-old woman from a section of the city called “Projects”.

“Karina has a condition which makes her write and/or draw everything she sees non-stop. She didn’t finish education because of financial insufficiency, and she is a drug pusher,” Comia tells TheDiarist.ph.

“I think this role I’m playing is much more crucial and important than my previous roles. Karina is a strong character for me, and the challenging part is where I have to level myself with her strength,” she adds.

Aggy Mago is also familiar like Comia among TP followers. She continues to play radio DJ Pipay in Tara Peeps every Sunday.

In Nekropolis she is simply called “Kaibigan”.

“She is a married woman in her 40s. She’s happy-go-lucky and likes things to go light and easy. Doesn’t take things seriously and escapes her reality by choosing the comfortable path,” Mago says. In TP’s Ang Pag-uusig, she played Mary Warren.

“The character is much more mature than my previous roles. She’s much more cheerful and carefree too which I think was the challenge for me because I came from a character (Mary Warren) that’s the complete opposite of Kaibigan,” Mago adds.

Sarah Monay plays Lumen.

“She is a naive, quiet, scared, and desperate 20-year old refugee from the Incarnates of the Word Fellowship and is the younger sister of Ignatius. According to the levels of wisdom that their camp follows, she is on the lowest,” Monay says.

‘I have never experienced what my character experienced’

“I have never experienced what my character experienced, and the approach—which requires me to shut down my conscious and critical mind as an actor while onstage and just follow Lumen’s truth, energy and emotions—is something I am personally and professionally not used to,” Monay adds.

Mark Lorenz plays a character named Alex One.

“Alex One is a reticent, unsociable, closeted person. He grew up in a family that assumes being an openly gay person is ostracized by society. He spent half of his life taking good care of his mother who has cancer and the instant his mom died, he set himself free,” Lorenz says.

“Portraying Alex is morally challenging. I’ve never been in the same situation of Alex where I will choose to satisfy myself over much important matters merely to numb my dread over the chaos happening around. The dose of intimacy needed to justify the portrayal of the role is something that I’ve never done before,” he adds.

Vince Macapobre plays Alex Two.

“He is a city government employee who is a fanatic of the Mayor and will do everything to protect him,” he says.

‘Space is the main character in this play’

“The character I built is very challenging. First is the arc how Alex become a soft-hearted person instead of holding to his first objective in the beginning of the play. Also, in this play you are reacting not just on your co-actors but the space also. Space is the main character in this play and you must react based on your stands in the society,” Macapobre adds.

As of posting, Nekropolis has two sold-out shows on Friday. This Saturday and Sunday have three remaining shows at 3pm and 8pm.

Chris Millado, former artistic director of the CCP, caught the opening show last Thursday and wrote in his Facebook account: “Thoroughly engaging yet difficult to witness the all-too-familiar unravelling of a city and its inhabitants, purportedly in a distant dystopian future, inured to poverty and extra-judicial killings.

“The largely collaborative work between New York-based Guelan Luarca, director Charles Yee and the Actors Company harrowingly plumbed the darkest depths of a society staggering in its ethical unmooring.”

“After a series of hard-hitting theater productions right after the lockdown, Tanghalang Pilipino delivers another ‘necessary’ creation that shouldn’t be missed,” added Millado, who incidentally is director of Anak Datu.

Taking off from what Millado has written, theater lover-poet-writer Camilo Villanueva Jr wrote: “Daring in how the play is able to ‘make the past and the future appear to be the present’…It’s a play to disturb you and make you think.”

A few comments described Varela-Luarca as a certified genius.

But perhaps it’s the New Yorker as “enlightened pilgrim”, despite not being able to see this run, who can say better about Nekropolis. What Varela-Luarca wrote in his playwright’s notes could be the most timely and important message of the play.

He recounted when his playwriting teacher at Hunter College told him to write an artist’s statement that he has to read aloud in class, he was instructed it has to contain his identity and aspirations as a playwright.

Varela-Luarca said he wrote it in haste but while reading it in front of the class, he realized it was the most painful he’s written in his entire life he can’t help but cry in front of the Americans.

‘….the Pinoy I used to love, to know, and to identify with was just a lie’

His statement goes: “The recent political developments in my country have taught me that…the Pinoy I used to love, to know, and to identify with was just a lie. And that the Pinoy is a people that I did not know all along.

“So maybe, in an impossible, purely symbolic way, (since I have no delusions that art can save a nation) I can salvage the Pinoy I know from here, in diaspora, and by relying purely on sense-memory, to hopefully reconstruct that Philippines that felt safe, familiar, kind, or purge this stranger Pinoy that I’ve just gotten to know, who’s blind, backward, spiritually and mentally impoverished, willing to vote a dictator’s son back to power, to put a mass murderer’s daughter into office, and erase all nobility from their national memory through historical denialism…It’s one thing to be a stranger in a foreign land. It’s another to have been a stranger in your land of birth, and finding that out belatedly.”