I Streamed "password: 03d1pu5_r3x" by Tanghalang Ateneo Here's my Experience
Through my years of learning theater, watching and educating myself in performance, playwrighting and backstage i have seen and explored many, many renditions of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. I've seen the gender-roles swapped, one where they actually suspend a character in the air to perform a hanging and of course the original story. And then, before the year 2020 ended Tanghalang Ateneo announced that they were going to do a virtual-staging of the same story but now titled: "password: 03d1pu5_r3x" which was very intriguing. The idea as well, that they were going to try a virtual-staging of it was curious. Seeing the final version of it now (Streaming March 8-21, 2021) i was excited to see what Tanghalang Ateneo had done, and they did it! The performances were incredible, the ensemble was powerful and had really helped the performances of the leads. And oh, the leads, they were perfect for their roles. Yan Yuzon as "Edipo" continues to give me goosebumps just thinking about it. Alongside are Katski Flores and Miren Alvarez-Fabregas bilang "Tiresias" at "Unang Ginang Yokasta", Marlon Rivera and Gabe Mercado bilang "Egeo" at "Lysanias" and of course Marian Rivera-Dantes as "Pangulong Kreon" which was an inspired casting choice. An honorable mention to the director and translator, Ron Capinding for making a cameo in the role of "Tagapagsalita ng Pangulo" i give my congratulations. What a show.
Virtual staged-plays is a very odd sub-genre that we have created for theatre. This evidently began as a passion-project idea for everybody doing theatre when the pandemic lockdowns first began. It's fascinating to see how fast we grow and quickly make it our livelihood now that we recognize that live-theatre isn't going to be back in business soon. Students are taking online classes for it, doing their Directing finals in social media platforms, making full-blown productions where you sell tickets and even souvenirs.
At one point i found it underwhelming to have watched such a great play like Oedipus Rex by Sophocles in this online platform. Mayroong kulang. For instance, what i love in theatre is that even when the dialogue gets deep and hard to keep up with you still manage to understand the story by how the actors move and portray their roles. In theatre, actions usually speak louder than words so no matter how much i can't follow lines by Shakespeare or Sophocles i still manage to understand it in their body language. That works for me. But virtual theatre completely takes that away. In "password: 03d1pu5_r3x" it was honestly underwhelming to see only the faces of the actors while any body language was completely absent. I felt disconnected, and that i could easily close my eyes and just hear the performance as a podcast. What we seem to forget is that virtual-theatre is also a sub-genre of film and i think that's what was missing in "password: 03d1pu5_r3x" for me. It has potential to be so much more yet it got stuck in the concept of having a Zoom Session-like performance. I believe the best scene in terms of visuals was the final shot of the play where "Edipo" starts wandering blindly into a flowing river in the outside world. That was such a beautifully-done scene and also very nostalgic as i think every rendition of Oedipus Rex has done this. I believe they could utilize making more scenes like that in the future, to appeal to more audiences. Just an opinion.
I still appreciate what the play does and its take on Oedipus Rex's story, so many people on stage and backstage worked hard on this and i want to give them a big hand and congratulate everyone who worked on and supported this production. Oedipus Rex isn't a stereotype story with a stereotype plot. The script is so old it started those stereotypes. Stream "password: 03d1pu5_r3x" by Ron Capinding under Tanghalang Ateneo.
Go to Tanghalang Ateneo's page for instructions on how to get a ticket: https://www.facebook.com/tanghalangateneo/
Direction and translation by Ronan Capinding Blog by Buch Dacanay