An uprising is expected to take place tonight, January 11,
and it's not aimed at causing chaos and anarchy in the country. Kudeta! (The Coup), Tanghalang Pilipino's initial 2008 offering, opens
at 8:00 p.m. tonight at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute (Studio Theater) of
the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
A coup has toppled
the government and the president is held captive in an undisclosed location.
Young military officers consolidate their position by trying to make him sign a document confessing to crimes he has committed against the
nation. To regain power, the president must use everything in his possession.
Does it sound like news from Philippine newspapers? No, they're based on
incidents in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago located in the Carribean.
This archipelago bound by the Carribean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean is the
setting of Kudeta! (The Coup), a "wickedly funny play" written by
Mustapha Matura and directed by Floy Quintos from the Filipino translation by
George de Jesus III.
The celebrated actor, screen playwright and director Mario O' Hara returns to the stage to star as
President Eddie Jones, now facing the very same officers he sent for training
in the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. The Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company
comprise the ensemble of coup plotters as well as characters, past and present,
that inhabit the president's life and dreams.
Playwright Mustapha Matura was born in Trinidad in 1939 and moved to London in
1961. In 1974, he was named The Most Promising Playwright by the Evening
Standard and is now considered one of the leading theater figures in Britain.
The Coup was commissioned by the Royal National Theater of Great Britain
in 1991. Its run enjoyed great acclaim, with critics calling it an "untidy and
intermittently very funny play about an evidently untidy and intermittently
funny country," making for a "knowing, affirmative and fun evening."
Kudeta! performance dates are January
11,12,18,19,25,26, February 1 and 2 at 8:00 p.m. and January 12,13,19,20,26,27
and February 2 and 3 at 3:00 p.m. at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute (Studio
Theater) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Production design by
Tuxqs Rutaquio, lighting design by Dennis Marasigan, sound design by Janice
Carol Dee, and direction by Floy Quintos.
Tickets at P500 (regular) and P250 (student) are available at Ticketworld
(8919999), CCP Box Office (8323704) and Tanghalang Pilipino (8323661/8321125
locals 1620 and 1621.) Discounts available for block sales.