“Well, bawat artist siguro…spectator would have a
different interpretation of performance,” said J. Victor Villareal, one of the performance’s
“machinators”. Happy P was heavily based on Oscar Wilde’s children story The
Happy Prince that was first published in 1988. “Machinator” is a term
used by the performing group to refer to. “Ang nakikita kong purpose ng play is
to show the end of a cycle. The entire experience that you’re watching…yung
happy prince na who’s lived a life of innocence na akala niya alam what is
happy or alam na niya na yun na ang buhay.”
Described
in the group’s advertisement as “an homage to Oscar Wilde, Batibot, poverty
porn, and other faggotries deeply embedded in Pinoy pop culture”, it delivered
what it promised. The performance was part of the Karnabal Festival 2016, a
gathering of independent contemporary performance-makers in the Philippines
which are also curated by the artists themselves. Prior to the performance,
there was a game of Shaggedy Shapopo,
a “follow the leader” type of activity where actions are repeated down the
line. Ian lomongo, a festival participant, sang songs while playing his guitar
by the wall while Wenah Nagales, another Kolab Co. machinator, gave free hugs
for people who wrote down their names and contact details.
The
performance started with Kath Castillo’s storytelling, which started from the
swallow’s (Yvonne played by Bong Cabrera) hopeless love affair with the reed
which led him to the city where the statue of the prince has just been erected.
Castillo played multiple characters which the prince felt pity for. Her
characters spouted a bevy of infamous lines harvested from different literary
and visual genres like her character of the little boy who recited the lines
“Alms, alms, alms, spare me a piece of bread” from the overrated declamation
piece Vengeance is not Ours, It is God’s. In this narrative, the
seamstress from the story was not a seamstress anymore but a victim of human
rights violation. To take away the heaviness of the scene, her character
recited the infamous line “My brother is not a pig” from the film The
Flor Contemplacion Story.
On
the other hand, Yvonne broke the fourth wall a couple of times such as when he
lit his cigarette and jokingly asked an audience member to “shotgun with him”.
Tara Cabaero played the role of the prince, which would physically remind one
of a Madame Tussaud attraction fused with one of Papet Museo’s (the performance
venue) puppets. Cabrera confirmed that he did his own make-up which was very
similar to Nina’s from the 2010 Aronofsky film Black Swan. His
monologues consisted of 100 song titles and a few song lyrics
“The kind of
performance that were seeing is like his [the prince] purgatory. It’s his
chance to redeem himself dun sa mga hindi niya nagawa nung buhay pa siya,” added
Villareal.
Karnabal
Festival adopts a “blank ticketed” admission. This means the audience members get to determine what they think the performance is worth. The festival opened
last June 1 and runs until June 12. For more information, you may visit their
official website at www.karnabalfestival.com or contact 09175064517 and
09178683712. You may also email them at karnabalfestival@gmail.com.
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