Tanghalang Pilipino presents "Nang Dalawin ng Pag-ibig si Juan Tamad" | February 16-March 11, 2018

World-class Filipino artistry will once again be celebrated as Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, concludes its 31st Theater Season (billed as “Freedom Writers: Freedom Fighters”) with Nang Dalawin ng Pag-ibig si Juan Tamad, a new and original production based on National Artist Nick Joaquin’s story “How Love Came to Juan Tamad.”

Background

Is Juan, The One for Mariyang Makiling? Literary critics describe it as the correct explanation why Mariyang Makiling forever nurses a broken heart and why Juan Tamad remains a pop idol; a model for the young.

Included in Joaquin’s Pop Stories for Groovy Kids (1979), the play is a mash-up of popular folk tales, and follows the love triangle among Filipino legends Mariyang Makiling (diyosa ng pag-ibig/goddess of love), Monte Banahaw (diyos ng digmaan/god of war), and Juan Tamad. Adapted for the stage by Rody Vera and directed by Jonathan Tadioan, the play is teeming with complex characters (including Ba’I, diyos ng lawa ng Laguna/god of Laguna lake and brother of Monte Banahaw), with no one being purely a hero or a villain.

Not only is this production a mash-up of characters (think: your favorite TV series characters visiting your other favorite show), there is an abundance of quotable quotes that will surely feed your soul (aka “hugot” lines). For the dreamers… “Hindi hinahanap ang pag-ibig. Hayaan mong sa akin kusang dumating.” 

The story explores the different faces of love – spiteful, revengeful and selfish…

“Gusto kong gumawa ka ng gayuma para kay Mariyang Makiling. Para mahulog siya, madapa siya, sumadsad siya, tumambling, at mabaliw sa pag-ibig. Pero hindi basta pag-ibig. Gusto kong umibig siya sa pinakagago, pinakatanga, pinakatamad, pinaka-walang kakuwenta-kuwentang mortal sa buong daigdig!”

– a goddess of love falling for a mortal;

“E, anong gusto mo, mahal ko? Ang hirap mong paligayahin!”

“Nasaan ka? Saan ka nagtago! Magpakita ka na! Ibibigay ko sa iyo ang lahat!

- a narcissistic kind of love;

“Wala na yatang mas nakakapagod pa sa pag-ibig. Biruin mo, bawat sandali, iniisip mo siya,

iniisip ka niya. Hindi mapakali, hindi makatulog, hindi makakain, laging aligaga. Laging

tulala, parang laging sinisilaban ang puwit ng mangingibig.”

…and a god of war breaking his boundaries all in the name of love.

“Lalo mong ikaila, lalong nahahalata. Tingnan mo, may bundok bang

nagpapawis nang malapot? May bundok bang nilalagnat, tumitibok ng 1-4-3?”

The iconic characters are reintroduced and given a “New Age-meets-indigenous” look through eclectic & colorful costumes (imagine Ba’I looking like a mad scientist and Ulap – a Cloud – narrating the myth), and the clever use of a minimalist stair platform set design which depicts a bayabas (or guava) fruit formed like a yin-yang.

 

C A S T
TANGHALANG PILIPINO ACTORS COMPANY

 
JV Ibesate 
as Ba’i


Aldo Vencilao 
as Monte Banahaw


Lhorvie Nuevo 
as Ulap


Antonette Go 
as Abugada


Ybes Bagadiong 
as Juan Tamad


Manok Nellas 
as Mariyang Makiling


Eunice Pacia 
as Ina/Hukom

GUEST ARTISTS
Cheeno Uy Macaraig
Dessa Marqueses
Jeremi Flores
Ariel Cruz
Jonalou Fabon

A R T I S T I C   S T A F F
Stage Adaptation RODY VERA


Director JONATHAN TADIOAN


Production Designer MARCO VIAÑA

Musical Director, Arranger, Composer, and Sound Designer TJ RAMOS
Lighting Designer JOHN BATALLA
Assistant Set Designer PAW CASTILLO
Choreographer RONELSON YADAO


Stage Manager DORAY DAYAO

Deputy Stage Manager ERICK SINDOL
Assistant Stage Manager Cristina Adigue 

Synopsis
“The trouble started over clouds…” begins Nick Joaquin’s whimsical story, How Love Came to Juan Tamad. It’s a mash up of three folk tale characters all hailing from the Tagalog region: Juan Tamad, the quintessential lazybone (but mildly witty), Mariang Makiling, the diwata of the magical mountain overlooking Laguna, ang Monte Banahaw, the wargod-like king of the mystical mountain Banahaw overlooking Quezon province.

Banahaw fumes when all the clouds seem to drift toward Maria Makiling’s mountain top. He files a legal suit, attempts to militarize the mountain to harass the diwata Maria, when after so much effort in vain, reveals that he actually might be in love with her.

But oh so jealous! For Maria Makiling is reputed to have lured men in her forest and, when they have fallen for her, she junks her and leaves them insanely heartbroken. Quite the Aphrodite, Monte Banahaw stands as her opposite Ares, hoping to win her over by force.

Unable to understand how love operates, Banahaw instead aims to punish Maria Makiling. He asks Bai, his brother, the water fairy of Laguna de Bai, who in this quirky story, is some kind of absent minded alchemist. Bai promises to put Maria Makiling under a potion’s spell when she comes to visit the lake within the week. And, like Oberon’s “love flower”, the potion should make Maria Makiling, upon opening her eyes from sleep, fall in love with the “ugliest, stupidest, laziest, most worthless” boy.

One morning, Banahaw learns that the spell must have worked perfectly, for now, Maria Makiling has fallen madly in love with a nobody, a loafer by the name of Juan Tamad. She feeds him, fawns on him, gives him everything he wants. But all this fails to satisfy Juan. For he doesn’t desire anything but to sleep and laze away.

Maria Makiling finally meets her match: a boy who cannot fall in love, who misses his old bed, and his mother to take care of him. So one day, Juan asks a cloud (our narrator) to bring him back along with a gilded, bejeweled bed given him by the diwata.

Upon reaching town, Juan instantly becomes a hit… and a role model for all young boys! Parents urge their children to do what Juan Tamad has done: be lazy and hope that they will someday be rich and bring back jeweled furniture.

In the meantime, Maria Makiling has not recovered form her lovesickness. Banahaw, taking pity, asks his brother Bai to concoct an antidote. The thing is… Bai reveals that he never got to use the love potion on Maria Makiling, having been charmed by her beauty, too when she visited. Banahaw, in distress, realizes Maria Makiling was just being her foolish self.

Meanwhile, the towns around the mountain is in deep slumber. //

Co-presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Tanghalang Pilipino and Hotel Kamana Sanctuary Resort & Spa, and brought to you by Yellow Pages, Nang Dalawin ng Pag-ibig si Juan Tamad is Tanghalang Pilipino’s Valentine offering. In this month of “Feb-ibig,” it’s time to explore the complexities of having the freedom to love who we want, to make choices as we please, and to standby with what you believe in.

It opens on February 16 and runs for four weekends until March 11, 2018 at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater), with evening performances at 8:00 PM and matinees at 3:00PM.

Interested sponsors, show buyers, and block buyers may call Tanghalang Pilipino’s hotline 832 1125 loc. 1620 or 1621. You may also contact Ms. Lorelei Celestino at 0915 607 2275 or Mr. Juan Lorenzo Marco at 0999 884 3821. For more information, please visit and like our official Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tanghalangpilipino/.

Tickets are also available through TicketWorld at https://www.ticketworld.com.ph or 891 9999; and the CCP Box Office at 832 3704.

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