Tanghalang Pilipino did this generation a great favor by re-staging Flores Para Los Muertos, the Filipino translation of Tennessee Willam's Pulitzer prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire.
Flores was first staged in 1975 at the Old Raja Sulayman Theater in Fort Santiago, Manila, under the direction of the great Lino Brocka, a fleeting moment in Philippine theater that theatergoers now wished they experienced. The play has been revived every generation or so.
Director Floy Quintos, who considers the Brocka
production of Flores as one of the
"epiphanies" of his youth, revives the play using a set of young actors too
young to remember the iconic Elia Kazan film version, who never saw Laurice
Guillen and Phillip Salvador in the original staging, but whose "modern
sensibilities and experience may add a fresh take on the text."
Quintos did not tamper with the text, nor with
Williams' props and setting, but directed instead with restraint, moving around
the time period of the play and the sensitive translation of Streetcar by the late Orlando Andres.
The result is a smooth, sexy, fade-to-sunset
feel.
In Flores,
Eula Valdes plays the coveted role of Blanche Dubois, a fading Southern belle in
constant fear of her fading looks and missing marriage prospects. After losing
their ancestral southern plantation Belle Reve in mortgage, she leaves the town
of Laurel, Mississippi to visit her sister Stella Kowalsi (Meryll Soriano) in
New Orleans, under the pretense that she has taken a leave from her job as an
English teacher because of her upset nerves. Stella, who is expecting a child,
receives Blanche with warmth but hesitantly, fearing the reaction of her
domineering husband Stanley (Neil Ryan Sese).
Blanche instantly clashes with Stanley, a
working-class Polish immigrant, who is not only irritated by her haughty air
but convinced that Blanche lost their family plantation out of
carelessness, thereby losing Stella's share of the family wealth. As the months
wear on, Blanche develops a relationship with Mitch, Stanley's best friend, and
has settled her mind on marrying him. As Stella's delivery nears, Stanley
uncovers Blanche's past and tells Mitch, who quickly breaks off the engagement,
leaving Blanche lost and desperate.
On the night of Stella's delivery, Blanche and
Stanley are left alone in the house. Stanley confronts her with her secrets
and, succumbing to baser instincts, rapes her—permanently shattering her sanity.
Stanley commits her into an asylum, but life in
the Kowalski house will never be the same again.
The last time I saw Eula Valdes on the
Tanghalang Pilipino stage was when she performed the title role of Zsa Zsa Zaturnah, a gay Darna who
swallows a rock the size of a fist to become curvaceous super heroine with
flaming red hair. It was a little difficult to shake the image of Eula pole
dancing to the tune of Bonnie Tyler's Total
Eclipse of the Heart.
It must have taken a lot for her to make the
transition from that kitschy stint to a delicate and nervous Ms. Dubois.
Blanche is a damaged character from the start,
struggling to disguise her alcoholism and insecurity with pretensions of virtue
and culture. Eula, with her natural gift for portraying outlandish characters,
created a very Pinay Blanche—a little more humorous than the Kazan- Vivien Leigh
version.
But what really surprised me was Meryll as the
romantic, slightly masochistic Stella, who tolerates Stanley's caveman
behavior because of his animal magnetism. Her portrayal of Stella is
exaggeratedly feminine and unbelievably sexy.
Streetcar
is famous for its many memorable moments: Marlon Brando's
pushy and cry-babyish
"Stellah!"; the climactic "I don' want realism, I want magic!"; and the poignant,
perhaps the most memorable Blanche Dubois line, "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the
kindness of strangers."
But in Quintos' production of Flores, the scene that clings to mind is the from-front-porch-to-bedroom love scene after Stanley yells for his wife who is hiding in their neighbor's quarters.
Meryll runs down the wooden stairs in a flimsy negligee,
her soft curves accentuated by the soft stage light designed to mimic
moonlight. Stanley, kneeling, presses his face to her stomach desperately, like
a child abandoned by his mother. They kiss hungrily with Stella's arms wrapped
around his neck and Stanley's arm around her waist. He carries her into the
bedroom where a whole night of love making is conveyed through five minutes of
love noises, soft fading and brightening of lights to show that the night has
deepened and dawn has arrived.
Of all the Streetcar
characters, Stanley Kowalsi is perhaps the most intriguing. Quintos considers
this one of the "traps" in producing the play.
"Who's playing Stanley, everyone asks, as if the
play were all about Stanley," Quintos says in the director's notes on the Flores
souvenir program. "But try googling Streetcar and whose picture comes up?
Marlon Brando's, of course. So most everyone who comes will come to see how the
lead actor measures up to Brando's Stanley. And the much vaunted male sexuality
that he imbued the role with. Which sets almost every actor playing the role up
for failure."
And I was no exception—I was looking forward to
the Pinoy version of Stanley.
Neil Ryan's Stanley has the alpha male force,
yes, but somehow lacks the very subtle boyishness the character is imbued with.
That neediness for Stella's exaggerated femininity and submissiveness that make
the heart flutter. But he did succeed in producing that love-hate effect. His
Stanley is a simple man who produces complex emotions: hate for his chauvinism
and barbarian ways, and love for his resoluteness.
Flores
was recreated at the right time and seen by a generation trapped in a
transition from past values to the present, and by a generation pining away for
the virtues of the old days.
Flores runs until October 25 at the Little Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. It also stars Jonathan Tadionan (Mitchel), Marjorie Lorico (Eunice), Paulo Cabanero (Steve Hubel), Gerald Napoles (Pablo Gonzales), Tara Cabaero (Woman), Rocky Salumbides (Young Man), William Manzano (Doctor), and Jo-Ann Requiestas (Matron).
The playdates of the Filipino version where Eula stars as Blanche Dubois will be on October 23, 24 and 25. Performances are scheduled at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
For ticket inquiries and reservations, call Tanghalang Pilipino at 832-3661 and 832-1125 local 1620/1621. Look for Paolo or Lorelei. Tickets are also available in any Ticketworld outlet (Tel. No. 891-9999) and at the CCP Box Office (Tel. No. 832-3704).
Address: CCP Little Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City
