Posted March 9, 2025, Facebook
Kisapmata is on extended run at Arete at Ateneo University Loyola, April 4-13.
Tanghalang Pilipino’s Kisapmata: Undoubtedly, the highlight of theater so far this year!
Went to the show with memories of the film, my most memorable Mike de Leon work and to my mind, still one of the best of Philippine cinema. As I thought of it on the surface as a settled masterwork of domestic horror rendered indelible by its acting performances (principally Vic Silayan), I was initially more focused on how Guelan Luarca‘s stage adaptation would work on its allegorical level.
Indeed this was inescapable. Mike de Leon’s film had clearly been a parable of the reigning Marcos fascism of the time, and while this carried over into the play, what the current piece succeeded in layering on it, in light of our recent political history (and perhaps that of other countries as well), was a heightened recognition of the internalized hold of authoritarian power on its putative subjects as well. While this was obviously implied in the original work, it was brought home all the more now, whether as Luarca’s intent in reworking his characters’ portrayal or from our own consciousness of the nation’s choice to return to the political paradigm it had once escaped from.
But as the staged production before me progressed, I found this allegorical perspective taking a backseat to the gripping human drama on its own terms. Someone expecting the adaptation to be a carbon copy of the film’s story would be disappointed (or gratified): the story is the same, but not the same.
What Luarca has done, through the reworking of dialogue, scene sequence and pacing, is to transform the material from a straightforward tale of domestic horror into one of thwarted struggles against fate. No longer are the mother, daughter and son-in-law mere hapless victims of a patriarchal tyrant, but are now agents in their own right, capable of gestures, and occasional acts, of resistance, yet ensnared nonetheless not only by the father’s wiles and violence but also by their own flaws and doubts, and the overhanging near-mythical oppressive spirit of the house they have allowed to encompass all of them—tyrants as much as victims.
In this sense, a horror story has been transformed into the contours of a Greek tragedy, which, allegorical intent aside, is first and foremost a poignant narrative of the human spirit pitted against forces that defeat it, but which, the grim ending notwithstanding, affords glimmers of empathy with all its protagonists.
This transformation has been enabled by the wonderful staging of the production. with its minimalist classical spareness (no changes in costume at all for all the actors, the employment of simple eloquent miming to denote doors, shower or even fans against the heat), by the director’s evocative orchestration of the flow of scenes and characters’ arcs, but above all, by the brilliant performances subtly subverting (relative to the film) of their roles by the amazing cast of four: Marco Viana’s Noel no longer just the helpless wimp of Jay Ilagan’ s film portrayal, but capable now of passion and courage; Jonathan Tadioan’s unwonted touches of vulnerability to his malign Dadong; Toni Go’s maddening thrashing against an oppressive father she inexplicably loves.
To me, the star of the evening was Llorvie Nuevo-Tadioan’s astonishing turn as the mother Dely, accorded the role of a haunting Greek chorus in this tragedy, the most downtrodden and physically abused of the characters, yet showing the strength to enact such moments of subversion as her constricted circumstances allowed. It was a performance that must surely be a candidate for acting honors.
I would not have thought to be watching a film classic of the first order transcended this way, but here we are.
