Two acclaimed stage productions explore the depths of human connection—one through kindness in crisis, the other through friendship tested by ego and art.
‘Come from Away’
Come for the cast (a who’s who in Philippine musical theater), stay for the cast AND the inspiring true story of people coming together and bringing out the best of humanity in the face of one of the worst atrocities ever committed in the history of mankind.
Those people are the 9,000+ residents of Newfoundland, an island off the eastern coast of Canada. For four days in September 2001 they found themselves having to host almost twice as many travelers from around the world whose flights got diverted to the town of Gander after US airspace was closed following three terror attacks in the United States that claimed over 3,000 lives.
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Yes, it’s about 9/11, but, no, the show is not heavy and horrific. It does not offer the sort of heartrending, harrowing drama one typically expects from something dealing with the subject matter.
The jumbo jet-sized surprise and subversive energy of Come from Away, a multiple nominee and winner for Best Direction in a Musical at the 2017 Tony Awards, comes from its daringly, unapologetically positive, uplifting, life-affirming spirit. This is also the source of its beauty and power.
The almost entirely sung-through piece is so light, bright, nimble, and brisk from the first note to the last that its hour and 45 minutes runtime feels like it just zips breathlessly by like a jet on hyperdrive. And yet the show manages to tell not just the stories of at least two dozen characters but also their interactions with each other, all the while painting a picture of a world suddenly thrust into the chaos of uncertainty, division, and unexpected, unwanted change.
Come from Away feels nothing short of a miracle, brought brilliantly to life by the uniformly excellent cast. Described as an “All-star” or “Avengers” of Filipino theater, it includes award-winning veterans Sheila Francisco, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, and Carla Guevara Laforteza, and acclaimed younger stars Gian Magdangal and Topper Fabregas.
Each actor portrays multiple characters—in one number they’re a Newfoundler, and in the next they’re a traveler—and it’s a testament to their dexterity and as well as the deftness of the material that everything is clearly delineated without any need for signposting. This is a masterclass in ensemble acting.
‘Art’
In 2024, the world was shocked at the sale (for more than US$6 million) of an artwork made up of a banana duct taped to a wall. Critics scoffed at the price while asking if the piece can even be considered art.
At least it was something. In 2021, an artist actually sold an invisible sculpture for €15,000. Invisible, as in nothing. All the buyer got was a certificate of authenticity and instructions from the artist on how to properly exhibit the piece.
In 1996, a French art patron bought a 5×4-feet plain white modernist painting with several barely visible fine lines also, in white. The price: 200,000 francs. One of the buyer’s closest friends candidly called it “a piece of white shit” and called out his friend’s pretentiousness, pretensions, and excesses.
It was also never real. It’s the work of art at the center of the play Art, which premiered in Paris in 1994 and went on to win Best Play at the 1998 Tony Awards. Written by French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter Yasmina Reza, the comedy explores the same kind of conversations about art and commerce the banana and invisible sculpture works engendered in the last five years.
Which is to say, the play is a timeless classic: it was relevant in 1994, is relevant 30 years later, and will be relevant in the next three decades and beyond. And it’s not just because of all the art talk. Art is also, if not more importantly, a comedy about the art of friendship and the male ego.
Serge (London-based Filipino-Portuguese-Chinese Bridgerton actor Martin Sarreal, playing haughty in crisp British accent) is the proud owner of the $200 grand white painting. Marc (British actor Freddie Sawyer, excellently simmering) is the “shit-talking” best friend. Yvan (Filipino theater fave Brian Sy, amusingly frazzled and dynamite with scrappy wit) is the self-described people pleaser caught smack in the middle of the dueling duo.
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Yvan completes what would unravel through the course of the hour-and-a-half-long play as a trio of bottled up envy, jealousy, and resentment. That may not sound very much like a recipe for onstage laugh out loud hilarity but Art is often bitingly funny in the way art holds up a mirror to real life.
Neither a gag-fest nor heavily reliant on punchlines, the play delivers smart comedy that’s laced with fraught feelings. This is how it segues smoothly into its more dramatic final moments that see the three friends recapitulating what they’ve learned about themselves and each other from the dark place the all-white piece of “shit” led them to.
Come from Away goes onstage Friday to Sun at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Mall, Makati until June 29. Art runs until June 29 at the REP Eastwood Theater in Eastwood City, Quezon City.
