Don't give up the fight
Been in a reggae mood lately. I forgot how uplifting it is to listen to reggae; it lifts you right out of the doldrums at work.
About awards, I know what you mean, of course. Usually I root for the underdog or the non-mainstream too. But, happily, there are also times when my choices do win awards. Namely, Wong Kar-Wai. And Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. I know Tony Leung won best actor at Cannes in 2000 for In the Mood for Love.
Anyway, where is Hagrid? I was gonna post my comments on his play Love Me Tender, Love Me Sweet. This is just off the top of my head since I read your play last weekend. I didn't take up playwrighting before, but I watch plays once in a while, so here goes.
I enjoyed reading the play. I could visualize how the scenes (like the pre-production would entail filming scenes like the wedding, kidnapping the daughter in the playground etc., to be used during the play itself) would work. The difference with plays and other works like stories, novels, or poetry is in playwrighting, you have to work with a lot of people (actors, directors, costume and props people, etc.) to make your play doable. I like that your play uses different kinds of media and that it could work.
It's not clear to me who your influences are, but it doesn't really matter. I see touches of what I see in violent cinema here (maybe Korean gangster films, or mga mala-Quentin Tarantino, perhaps?). I appreciate the touches of humor from the stupid gangsters in Mike, Dor, and Bhoy. I found it funny that the ugly maid with the moustache was in dominatrix gear. And that Fil and Mike were talking to each other on the phone and running out of bad stuff to say. It's ridiculous but entertaining.
But I don't know the characters well enough. I dunno why Chari and Lester, after piling on the sweet nothings over the phone, say "Bastard" and "Bitch" respectively after they end the call. What's wrong with their spouse? I've no idea. So nakulangan ako sa character development. And Fil and Sofi... they didn't strike me as brainy grad students at first (they just seemed like young psycho cannibals who like to cook), so it was kinda baffling for me when Fil said later that he was a smart grad student pala. Yes, I suppose he showed an erudite air when he scientifically explained how you don't need to saw off an arm or something to remove it from the body. But it came a little too late.
I see the tension in Chari and Lester's marriage. After going through the most hellish 10th anniv imaginable, they still meet up for dinner but never tell each other what happened. Lester doesn't say he raped his daughter. Chari doesn't say her parents were killed and that she ate them. But I dunno why they did these horrible things! Does Chari hate her parents? Why? Why do they have these evil streaks? I think it's important to answer these questions, otherwise we wouldn't know what to do with the story. If we dunno them, what's the point, right?
And napakamalas naman ng mag-asawa na ito. Why did Fil and Sofi kill Chari's parents? Why did the maid and the gangsters kidnap Anna and force Lester to rape her? Psycho lang sila? These are all random acts of violence and depravity? If so, my disbelief wasn't suspended, perhaps because I couldn't grasp the logic behind why Chari and Lester became subjected to the depraved whims of others who are supposedly of lesser authority (hired help, bungling street gangs, students). Lester and Chari are both successful well-off professionals. I see the conflict, but what kind of statement on power and class struggle is the playwright trying to make? Are you trying to say that when you're subjected to the most extreme circumstances, when you peel back the layers that make up your identity (education, breeding, social status, what have you), when it all ceases to matter, we are all the same? We're all equally base? A two-bit gangster and a lawyer are equals? If so, kailangang lumitaw pa ang insight na ito. Through motivation and more clues in the dialogue, I suppose.
And what's with Lester's blue eyes? (I found it funny though that one of the gangsters dismissively said "I don't like blue eyes" and then they were thinking of picking Lester's eyes out, just like that.) It's like this detail is a clue leading me somewhere, but I dunno exactly where.
Isa pa: alam kong Pinoy ang characters mo (from the names) but I can't see the Pinoy-ness here. Change the names and this could happen practically anywhere in the world. So the question would be: is that a problem? It would probably bring up the debate of "What is Pinoy, anyway?" I dunno, I guess am just looking for a few grounded places so I can properly figure out in my mind where this story is happening. In what part of ordinary suburbia in the Philippines are these ghastly things happening? I think juxtaposing the ordinariness and familiarity of the setting with the ghastly events taking place might help.
Okay, so I'm wondering-- if this play were produced, paano yun, R-18 ang labas niya? You know that there will definitely be people out there who'll be offended by your content. That's why I was saying maybe a bit of an intellectual or socialist approach might help. I think the violence and depravity should be there for a purpose. It should all add up to a statement about (ugh, I hate using this term) the human condition. Hindi pwedeng random lang.
I like the rendering of the final scene, where the scene of the couple having dinner would be in black and white save for the red wine, which should be stark against the monotonous colors. But real red wine is dark. The audience would just see it as dark, right, not stark red. So maybe it should be fake wine that's blood red?
I hope these comments helped. I liked the play but a lot of things in there are kinda random and ambiguous at this point. Pero humahanga pa rin ako sa iyo kasi nakagawa ka ng ganito. :)
Been in a reggae mood lately. I forgot how uplifting it is to listen to reggae; it lifts you right out of the doldrums at work.
About awards, I know what you mean, of course. Usually I root for the underdog or the non-mainstream too. But, happily, there are also times when my choices do win awards. Namely, Wong Kar-Wai. And Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. I know Tony Leung won best actor at Cannes in 2000 for In the Mood for Love.
Anyway, where is Hagrid? I was gonna post my comments on his play Love Me Tender, Love Me Sweet. This is just off the top of my head since I read your play last weekend. I didn't take up playwrighting before, but I watch plays once in a while, so here goes.
I enjoyed reading the play. I could visualize how the scenes (like the pre-production would entail filming scenes like the wedding, kidnapping the daughter in the playground etc., to be used during the play itself) would work. The difference with plays and other works like stories, novels, or poetry is in playwrighting, you have to work with a lot of people (actors, directors, costume and props people, etc.) to make your play doable. I like that your play uses different kinds of media and that it could work.
It's not clear to me who your influences are, but it doesn't really matter. I see touches of what I see in violent cinema here (maybe Korean gangster films, or mga mala-Quentin Tarantino, perhaps?). I appreciate the touches of humor from the stupid gangsters in Mike, Dor, and Bhoy. I found it funny that the ugly maid with the moustache was in dominatrix gear. And that Fil and Mike were talking to each other on the phone and running out of bad stuff to say. It's ridiculous but entertaining.
But I don't know the characters well enough. I dunno why Chari and Lester, after piling on the sweet nothings over the phone, say "Bastard" and "Bitch" respectively after they end the call. What's wrong with their spouse? I've no idea. So nakulangan ako sa character development. And Fil and Sofi... they didn't strike me as brainy grad students at first (they just seemed like young psycho cannibals who like to cook), so it was kinda baffling for me when Fil said later that he was a smart grad student pala. Yes, I suppose he showed an erudite air when he scientifically explained how you don't need to saw off an arm or something to remove it from the body. But it came a little too late.
I see the tension in Chari and Lester's marriage. After going through the most hellish 10th anniv imaginable, they still meet up for dinner but never tell each other what happened. Lester doesn't say he raped his daughter. Chari doesn't say her parents were killed and that she ate them. But I dunno why they did these horrible things! Does Chari hate her parents? Why? Why do they have these evil streaks? I think it's important to answer these questions, otherwise we wouldn't know what to do with the story. If we dunno them, what's the point, right?
And napakamalas naman ng mag-asawa na ito. Why did Fil and Sofi kill Chari's parents? Why did the maid and the gangsters kidnap Anna and force Lester to rape her? Psycho lang sila? These are all random acts of violence and depravity? If so, my disbelief wasn't suspended, perhaps because I couldn't grasp the logic behind why Chari and Lester became subjected to the depraved whims of others who are supposedly of lesser authority (hired help, bungling street gangs, students). Lester and Chari are both successful well-off professionals. I see the conflict, but what kind of statement on power and class struggle is the playwright trying to make? Are you trying to say that when you're subjected to the most extreme circumstances, when you peel back the layers that make up your identity (education, breeding, social status, what have you), when it all ceases to matter, we are all the same? We're all equally base? A two-bit gangster and a lawyer are equals? If so, kailangang lumitaw pa ang insight na ito. Through motivation and more clues in the dialogue, I suppose.
And what's with Lester's blue eyes? (I found it funny though that one of the gangsters dismissively said "I don't like blue eyes" and then they were thinking of picking Lester's eyes out, just like that.) It's like this detail is a clue leading me somewhere, but I dunno exactly where.
Isa pa: alam kong Pinoy ang characters mo (from the names) but I can't see the Pinoy-ness here. Change the names and this could happen practically anywhere in the world. So the question would be: is that a problem? It would probably bring up the debate of "What is Pinoy, anyway?" I dunno, I guess am just looking for a few grounded places so I can properly figure out in my mind where this story is happening. In what part of ordinary suburbia in the Philippines are these ghastly things happening? I think juxtaposing the ordinariness and familiarity of the setting with the ghastly events taking place might help.
Okay, so I'm wondering-- if this play were produced, paano yun, R-18 ang labas niya? You know that there will definitely be people out there who'll be offended by your content. That's why I was saying maybe a bit of an intellectual or socialist approach might help. I think the violence and depravity should be there for a purpose. It should all add up to a statement about (ugh, I hate using this term) the human condition. Hindi pwedeng random lang.
I like the rendering of the final scene, where the scene of the couple having dinner would be in black and white save for the red wine, which should be stark against the monotonous colors. But real red wine is dark. The audience would just see it as dark, right, not stark red. So maybe it should be fake wine that's blood red?
I hope these comments helped. I liked the play but a lot of things in there are kinda random and ambiguous at this point. Pero humahanga pa rin ako sa iyo kasi nakagawa ka ng ganito. :)
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