Watching Virgin Labfest 5's Set C: Blood Sports.

Because I'm not working as an SM for this year's Virgin Labfest 5, I won't have that "perfect attendance" that I had during the past 2 Labfests, hahaha. But of course, I didn't want to miss Set C: Blood Sports (Trilohiyang Dinuguan), for Tad's play. Tuxqs had casted him and Riki as the 2 leads for Miss Lallie's play, Doc Resureccion: Gagamutin ang Bayan. Considering this is the Tuxqs-Lallie tandem for the 3rd year in the row, I was excited to catch it. Neither Tad nor Tuxqs had given me any inkling about the play aside from the synopsis that was posted in the Labfest schedule.

Caught the 3pm (opening) show last Thursday. First play was Kitchen Medea, a monologue by Kiyokazu Yamamoto, which was directed by Yoshi Tashihisa. Mailes played Medea in the one-woman show. Basically it was about a woman whose husband left her for another woman. In time, her loneliness developed into mild insanity, and she ended up sacrificing her children for the tragic downfall of the other woman.

I was sitting at stage right with Russell during the first play, and I got tired of the view, so I moved to the middle, right in the very first row with Tony, for Asawa/Kabit, written and directed by George. The supposed awkward and frustrating situation of a wife and a mistress meeting for the first time was given a witty treatment. As they compared each other to see which one is better off with the husband, some verbal and even physical catfights ensued. I had actually expected more than one physical catfight, and Tony had confirmed this as he had seen a rehearsal of the play before. What I had noticed was that some of the dialogue kept going around in circles, combined with slight awkward dead air. Did they forget some of their lines?

During the 15 minute intermission after the second play, I noticed the extreme set change which included putting one of the platforms on top of the other. Because of this, Tony and I had decided to transfer to seats 3 rows back so as to save our necks from straining to look up during the whole duration of the third play. Yep, the one I was waiting for, Doc Resureccion. And without bias, Tuxqs and Miss Lallie didn't fail to astound me once again. The play was about 2 cousins running against each other for mayor. One was a doctor who claimed he wanted to change his former hometown, while the other was a local to ruin his cousin's chances to win the election. At first, you wouldn't know who to believe, the decent-looking doctor who claims he means well, or the filthy-looking one who lives off odd jobs and strives to be a janitor. Riki and Tad gave quite riveting performances (ahem, still no bias here, alright?) as Doc Resureccion and Boy Pogi, respectively, plus equally awesome supporting performances by Angeli, Tita Peewee and Crispin Pineda as Elsa, Mang & Pang. Congrats, y'all! Hahaha, the magic of the fishing hook and wire into Riki's eye was instantly revealed to me by Tad after the show.

Last opening day of all Labfest shows today, even though today's set showcases Virgin Labfest 4: Revisited. Congratulations to all the sets' artists!