Kissing the fish, a scene from ‘Come From Away’ where everyone needs to kiss the codfish as part of Gander’s traditional welcome (Photo from GMG)
(The following is reprinted with permission from the author’s Facebook post)
Over the weekend, I took in two new major theater productions, Repertory Philippines’ Art and GMG Productions/Stages’ Come From Away. Coincidentally, I had watched both plays on their original runs on Broadway (in 1999 and 2017 respectively), and inevitably (if maybe unfairly), my reactions to those colored my impressions these past couple of evenings.
Rycharde Everley and Cathy Azanza-Dy, whose characters in ‘Come From Away,’ Nick and Diane, found love in the most unexpected situation (Photo from GMG)
Veteran actress Sheila Francisco as Beulah Davis, a fictional character based on two Gander residents, Beulah Cooper and Diane Davis
‘Come From Away’ cast: from left, Rebecca Coates, Stephen Cadd, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Caisa Borromeo and Garrett Bolden
I have to confess that, going against the general acclaim at that time, I was not particularly a fan of Come From Away. Though I enjoyed the Broadway production well enough, I found the material too determinedly feel-good (I admit to being temperamentally leery of heartwarming narratives), its points of potential dramatic conflict (culture, class, faith, gender) too easily overridden by folksy goodwill on all sides. I almost dreaded ending Saturday evening feeling kontrabida for cocking a skeptical eye at an affirmation of faith in humanity (for which I can only plead a look around, here and abroad).
I am quite amazed at how differently I felt this time around after the show. Was I just in a contrary mood back in 2017? Was there something in the direction or the performances of the local production that allowed me to see the material from a more nuanced perspective?
I do not abjure my hmmm at such crowd pleasers as the avowals of pet love or the rush of gender diversity, but I could, this time, see such outbursts of humor and community feeling as a tonic against a more complex world than what I had thought the musical assumed, where the charming squabbles of a gay couple ended in a break-up and the moving display of interfaith in prayer co-existed with the lingering feelings of alienation toward the Muslim.
Indeed, the whole almost-miraculous eruption of love and friendship among island community and international passengers was occasioned by a horror. Who’s to gainsay the genuine affectionate and “corny” good nature that, at least for those few days, did override that world?
Was I just in a different frame of mind? But there’s no question that I was also responding to a superb production. Not prepared to claim that this was better than the Broadway show. (Perhaps I just had a better seat?) But on its own terms, the entire direction (by Michael Williams), the orchestration of the cast as they shifted roles and moods, and as they segued from town locations to plane interiors, was dizzying. The choreography (by Delphine Buencamino) was infectious. One hardly felt the one and three-fourths hour (no intermission).
But, above all, the cast! Can any production improve on that ensemble? Every player had his/her (multiple) roles superbly realized. But I do have to single out a few—perhaps inevitably, given my dramatic biases, those most instrumental in lending to the complexity of the musical: Topper Fabregas as Ali, embodying, beyond all the goodwill, the intractable reality of conflicts over identity; Carla Guevara-Laforteza as Hannah, whose heartbreaking I Am Here brings us back terribly to the tragic event that originated it all; and for me, the musical and dramatic highlight of the show, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo’s showstopper Me and the Sky, one person’s trajectory of life and passion bringing together the affirmation and tragedy of humanity.
The musical and dramatic highlight of the show was Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo’s showstopper ‘Me and the Sky,’ one person’s trajectory of life and passion bringing together the affirmation and tragedy of humanity
It’s been over 25 years since I watched Art on Broadway, so necessarily my memories of that production are less distinct. But it has stayed in my mind as possibly the best play (non-musical) I’ve watched on Broadway. Again, on a personal taste level, I have a strong bias for understated theater, and this production was the epitome of that, with elegant and sparely minimalist staging, and a script that relied on wit and nuanced delivery to avoid coming across as inconsequential. (It revolves around a painting, but it’s really less about art than about friendship.)
There was a local staging, I think, by Actors Actors Inc (now The Necessary Theater), which I skipped (and later regretted it), as I feared spoiling my memories of the play. But I was keen on catching the Rep production, as the play had reminded me of a Pinter play like Betrayal, which Rep had staged under its Bridge program, and which I had liked a lot.
Martin Sarreal and Freddy Sawyer in ‘Art’ (‘Art’ photos courtesy of Rep)
But Rep’s Art was very different from the recollection of the play in my mind. It can hardly be termed minimalist, with a more elaborate staging: furniture being moved about, jackets donned and doffed, other artworks on display about before the painting in dispute makes its appearance: a more “real” setting, if you will. The whole production felt modern (where the Broadway show felt classical, almost abstract). The trio of the cast came on as more expressive and kinetic (indeed making their entry in antic mood). As may be expected, it took me a while to adjust to this vision of the play, but I realized it is in the nature of theatrical works to lend themselves to reimagination.
(I have to say that I could not quite grasp the directorial treatment of the painting, however: initially viewed by the actors out of audience sight, then brought out and moved about, often its back to the audience, before finally being installed on the wall. I probably missed the intent, but to my mind it sort of lost its focal role in the play.)
London-based Filipino-British actor Martin Sarreal has appeared in ‘Bridgerton.’
The acting performances of the three members of the cast—Martin Sarreal, Freddy Sawyer (both from Britain), and local theater veteran Brian Sy—were all accomplished turns; if possible, with their looser and more expressive movement, more realized individual characters than I remember from 1999. I have to say, though, that effective as the individual roles were, I missed a critical element of chemistry, particularly crucial in evoking the actuality of a friendship that was the whole point of the work and made sense of its progress. (I did wonder if it would have contributed to the production to have drawn for its full cast from local theater talents who would have had years of familiarity and, well, friendship.)
‘Come From Away’ has remaining shows on Friday, June 27, 8 pm; Saturday, June 28, 3:30 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday, June 29, 1:30 pm and 6 pm, at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater, Makati City. ‘Art’ has performances on Friday, June 27, 8 pm; Saturday, June 28, 3:30 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday, June 29, 3:30 pm, at the REP Eastwood Theater, Quezon City. Check Ticketworld for tickets.
