BABUYAN ISLAND. Germano Gervacio's play was set in one of the Philippine archipelago’s northernmost islands where Carlos (played by Nicco Sanchez), a prolific writer, was currently working on a script for a film that starred Toni (played by Queenie Roluma), a starlet whose provocative performances onscreen catapulted her to fame. Photo by Marco Villanueva for The Xavier Stage.
A review by Angelo Lorenzo
The Xavier Stage (TXS) premiered its second play for its “Aspects of Love” season on Monday, July 24 at the Xavier University Little Theater. Attended by an audience that filled half of the theater’s seats, “Babuyan Island” presented maturity in its content with the dialogue between a hot-tempered, suppressive screen playwright and a seductive yet tragically harassed actress for adult films.
Originally written by Palanca Award recipient and Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) Filipino Department Professor Germano V Gervacio, the play was set in one of the Philippine archipelago’s northernmost islands where Carlos (played by Nicco Sanchez), a prolific writer, was currently working on a script for a film that starred Toni (played by Queenie Roluma), a starlet who may not have acquired the same literacy as Carlos due to a traumatic experience with a librarian, but whose provocative performances onscreen catapulted her to nationwide fame and a five-digit talent fee.
The set on stage, designed by Xavier Center for Culture and the Arts (XCCA) director Hobart Savior (also the play’s director), along with TXS’s production team, contained a fence of bamboos encircling what appeared to be Carlos’s quarter where Toni visited one night to engage in a small talk that led to an exchange of backstories, sexual humor, personal angsts, and the revelation of hidden desires.
Insatiable longing
Its mature content, however, dug deep into internal issues rooted by insatiable longing which both characters perennially pulled in their lifetime, but to no avail.
Bargaining with a librarian when she was in early elementary to obtain her favorite book, “Little Red Riding Hood,” Toni unveiled her first sexual experience didn’t start as pleasing as viewers saw her in films. Even on the peak of her career, she continued battling harassment by overcoming it through her filmic performances. If she couldn’t beat them, she had to join them. But unlike Little Red whose innocence was also robbed by deceit, Toni played with the wolf, but eventually took on the role of the woodcutter in the play’s final scene.
Carlos, on the other hand, struggled to satiate the passion for being the hero. His previous works, although published which earned him literary success, weren’t able to achieve his dream to “change society” when he was young. To his dismay, the dream ended as his two consecutive marriages did on the grounds of committed abuse. Although in denial, he made this a reason to Toni that he couldn’t engage in a relationship with her and will only prefer a kiss more than long-lasting romantic affection. He settled as a screen playwright so he could earn without getting frustrated by his dream of his past.
Prevalent social issues have also been discussed in the play. Carlos spoke one line that challenged the essence of manhood, “Ano ang tunay na lalaki?” in the midst of questioning the role of men – more than sexual counterparts for women or heads of family – in society.
Toni abhorred cockroaches which plagued her and Carlos’s quarters, resembling pests that bother people and spread diseases – a representation of the corruption of the pure and the destruction that it could bring to the tainted. She killed two by stomping one with her foot and slamming against another with the copy of a book written by Carlos.
The symbol of the dragonfly which Toni asked Carlos the number of eyes it has mirrored that of sight that could frame perception. What people may see on the surface may mark their judgment, just as how men viewed Toni as an object in her films more than the woman that she wanted to become. “A mother to rear a child,” she said to Carlos in one scene after she asked him to sleep with her.
An aspect of love
Beneath its erotic surface is a play substantiated by a human being’s capability to love. For Toni, it was to earn her dignity and the desire to raise a child of her own despite the prejudice she faced with her career. Carlos met with grief upon hearing the death of a loved one, thereby revealing the pain he could still feel after being an abusive husband in two failed marriages.
To look beyond eroticism, Savior noted that the play dealt with matters that need to be talked about even in a sectarian university such as Xavier Ateneo; hence, proposing liberal education through theater.
“We are a university,” Savior exclaimed during the open forum succeeding the premiere. “We should talk about [these].” He went on suggesting that liberal education could be a primer for a life of compassion or reflection.
“The play is highly metaphorical,” he continued. “It has symbiotic layers. In turn, Carlos and Toni found the light from each other because they each have their own story.”
Gervacio who wrote the play back when he was a student at the University of the Philippines, posted on his Facebook page a day prior to the premiere: “Mas gusto ko itong gawing kuwento ng pag-ibig. ‘Yung pag-ibig na payak at walang pretensyon. Isang uri ng damdaming bukal at walang kinikilalalng katuwiran kundi ang pusong nagtutulak dito.‘Yung pag-ibig na sakdal linis."
(I prefer to make this as a story of love. One that is simple and no pretentions. The kind of love that evokes genuine emotion and knows no other reason but the heart which beats for it. It is love that is untainted.)∎
“Babuyan Island” runs from July 24 to 26 at the Xavier Ateneo Little Theater.