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I got to watch the revisited plays of the Virgin Labfest XX: Hinog this year, specifically Set E, which is entitled ‘Panghimagas.’ As someone who has always wanted to go but never seemed to catch the annual festival of brand-new one-act plays, it was a nice way to finally catch a set as this set features standout works from previous years. Held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines‘ Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez, each play runs about 30 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission between plays to allow for stage designs and props adjustments for the for the next play.

Not having seen a Virgin Labfest in over five years, I had forgotten how magical it is to witness new work being presented, even if Set E features plays that are a year or two old. These pieces still speak powerfully to the contemporary mindset. As these are standout productions, there was no question that each one hit hard, whether it was comic or tragic in theme.

Identite

Written by Jhudiel Clare D. Sosa
Directed by Meann Espinosa
Cast: Ash Nicanor and Kitsi Pagaspas

This surprising comedic play about a mother discovering her daughter’s dildo is a definite crowd-pleaser. The play tackles the generation gap surrounding the attitudes on sex positivity. When the mother finds her daughter’s stash of sex toys, the two go head-to-head about values and morals and social norms. It’s all played for laughs and even the mother becomes almost a caricature of the conservative, traditional Filipina who doesn’t even realise that sex can be pleasurable. Through the play, a discussion is presented; a bridge between the youth’s more liberal attitudes about sex and self-pleasure and the more repressed ideologies about women and their own desires.

The dramatic situation is funny enough, but Meann Espinosa directs Nicanor and Pagaspas to really go for the laughs. It’s played for comedy, and you can hear the whole audience erupting in laughter at every punchline. Pagaspas fully embodies the caricature, even punctuating her provincial accent (I think it’s a Batangueno accent) to really emphasize her rural mindset. It even gets physical as the women chase each other around. I’m wondering, though, how this would play it with a more restrained approach. The play is funny as it is, would it be stronger to not punch the punchlines?

As a progressive person who grew up with liberal, sex-positive parents, I wished the daughter (played by the magnetic Ash Nicanor) stood her ground more and the play didn’t try to find a compromise that coddled the elder woman’s feelings but, tonally and culturally, it is pitch-perfect to the Filipino experience. We always acquiesce to our parents and them taking a tiny step forward to understanding us while the younger generation takes huge steps to accommodate their feelings is part of why the Filipino family bond is so strong.

Pagkapit sa Hangin

Written by Joshua Lim So
Directed by Jose Estralla
Cast: Elora Espano, Wenah Nagales, Tim Mabalot, Gold Villar-Lim

Set at a provincial hospital in the middle of the COVID epidemic, a doctor and two nurses must make a choice on which lives to save when the supply of oxygen tanks run out. Exhausted, drained physically and emotionally, the trio must make an impossible decision as the means for sustaining the lives of their patients have become limited. While they devise a plan, one of the patient’s guardian has taken notice and a debate about who gets to live, and die erupts.

Dressed in PPE, Espano, Nagales and Mabalot imbibe the tiredness of their characters. They are too tired to hope, to think clearly. You can see it in their gait, their posture, their line delivery. They are running on adrenaline. It’s wonderful if it weren’t so real and even if the pandemic is just two and a half years behind us, it’s still too soon. It immediately grants this production weight. As things start to unravel, the play unfolds the human drama of having to make a decision on who gets to survive. It’s riveting. Estrella’s direction keeps the energy flowing as the tension rises when Villar-Lim’s guardian begins to undermine the medical team’s decisions as it directly affects her father, who is least likely to survive his current condition. 

At 30 minutes, the play feels like a lifetime. Joshua Lim So’s script makes no judgment on his characters but manages to show each one at their breaking point. The play doesn’t provide an answer but shows us what we are made of when were forced to make impossible decisions. It felt like I was holding my breath the entire run of the show.

Sa Babaeng Lahat

Written by Elise Santos
Directed by Caisa Borromeo
Cast: Jam Binay, Francesca Dela Cruz, Yanni Lopez

A hilarious coming-of-age story set in an all-girl’s Catholic high school, ‘Sa Babaeng Lahat’ is a brilliant exploration of young girl’s navigating their faith and sexuality as they are hit by puberty. The religious, sheltered Marie believes she is pregnant with God’s child, the next Immaculate Conception, while her best friend Regina struggles with her feelings with the school’s resident tomboy, Gab, who actively flirts with her.

Wonderfully directed by Borromeo, she allows Binay, Dela Cruz, and Lopez to really explore their characters and embody the highs and lows of young girls turning into young women. Jam Binay’s Marie could easily fall into a trap of the conservative idiot, but she infuses Marie with so much sincerity and charm that we see that she’s a victim of being misinformed or not properly educated at all. She’s not naive for comic’s sake but it’s coming from a deep-seated issue that is still prevalent until now. Yanni Lopez’s Gab is so fully realized that she comes off as authentic and true.

And while all three are amazing and show off great chemistry with each other, this play is Francesca Dela Cruz’s through and through. Her Regina is a force of nature. She’s acerbic, mean, prickly but Dela Cruz has so much charisma that we can see that it’s all a facade, hiding something deeper within. While all three show impeccable comedic timing, Dela Cruz takes Regina and runs away with it turning her into a whirlwind that has the whole audience in stitches. It’s a powerful display of a great stage presence without making it look like a performance. Borromeo did a wonderful job at directing them that the comedy flows, the chemistry works, and the issues about shame, faith, youthful desires, and queer acceptance doesn’t get lost amongst the laughs.

My Rating:

VIRGIN LABFEST XX: HINOG is ongoing until June 29, 2025, at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez (CCP Black Box Theater). Festival passes are available at the CCP Box Office, or you can get your tickets through TicketWorld and Ticket2Me.