Savagely powerful theater

First posted 22:22:42 (Mla time) July 24, 2005
Gibbs Cadiz
Inquirer News Service

That is the gift galvanizingly offered by "St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos," a musical retelling of a play written by Floy Quintos that was originally mounted by Tony Mabesa for Dulaang UP in 1992. "St. Louis" the musical is not without shortcomings, but in its present form, it is already lofty, powerful, consequential-a firm addition to the pool of theatrical musical material exploring the contours of our national soul.

Quintos' play revisits a largely forgotten footnote in the history of Fil-American relations: the infamous Philippine participation in the 1904 World Trade Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, which saw representative members of local tribes like the Igorots and the Bagobos shipped off to the US and displayed at the fair as "savages" deserving of America's imperial benevolence and protection.

Leading this scantily clad, strange-looking delegation was Datu Bulan, a proud Bagobo prince from Davao. Bulan-his long, black hair later becoming a star attraction in the fair-brought his wife and tribesmen to America in a star-crossed voyage to "do something great," only to see his princely dreams dashed, his identity stripped away, by the white man's contempt for his culture and way of life.

Fluid storytelling

On paper this sounds like so much heavy stuff. But rendered in musical form by composer Antonio Paterno Africa and energetically directed by Alexander Cortez, the play achieves something altogether artful: a light-handed, fluid storytelling that drains out the ponderous politics while highlighting strong emotions and sympathetic characters. Despite its knotty roots, "St. Louis" is remarkably non-didactic, emotionally lucid and accessible. To use a cliche, it makes history come alive, in a sweeping, spellbinding way.

Africa's musical score is the thread that, a bit flimsily, stitches this tapestry together. The composer seems to have toyed with and discarded a number of musical motifs while writing the melodies, such that some songs still have an unfinished, fragmentary feel to them. An example is the reprise of "Pusong Naglalakbay," which ends Act I on an bafflingly weak note.

With more robust orchestration and polishing, vividly expressive songs such as "So Much Prosperity," "I Hold You There" and "Hold Your Head High" can bear out the promise of the material (notwithstanding Quintos' occasionally banal lines like "They call this the land of plenty, so why do I feel so lost and empty?"). The bridge music in-between acts, in any case, is sprightly, summoning a sunny sense of jazz, blues and ragtime in their period prime.

Ghostly images

Cortez's vigorous direction takes a leaf from his own staging of "Hibik at Himagsik nina Victoria Laktaw" in his use of turn-of-the-century pictures and footage projected on the curtain to open the next act. The cavalcade of ghostly images hurls the audience right into that tumultuous milieu, making palpable the issues of colliding cultures and identities that give the story its dramatic spine.

The burden of that history must have weighed acutely on the actors, for their delivery, for the most part, is distinguished by a penetrating clarity and directness. The expo committee trio played by Leo Rialp, Richard Cunanan and James Paolelli is superb, while Mae Ann Valentin, in her short role as Bulan's wife Momayon, exhibits a beguiling voice and a regal stage presence. In the role of Antonio, an Americanized Bontoc chieftain spewing pidgin English, Raffy Tejada chews up the scenery.

Jake Macapagal as the narrator and Ronan Capinding as his granddad are fine actors, but Capinding really blazes across the stage in one of the play's most commanding moments, a race riot number called "Goo Goo Monkey, Come Out and Play." The ensemble's use of the arnis to simulate backbreaking fieldwork in America's 1930's dustbowls is stirringly dramatic, recalling a similar staging in Loy Arcenas' "Ang Romansa ni Magno Rubio" at the CCP last year.

"St. Louis" is, most indelibly, a triumph for Miguel Castro as Bulan. By turns haughty, starry-eyed, obstinate, baffled, broken, his journey from prince to pauper feels complete, substantial. The last scene-Bulan, now an old man without a country and a people, reaching for his old royal headscarf and breaking down-is indescribably moving. It's a pure moment of theater that distills everything good and worth fighting for about one's roots.

With "St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos," Philippine theater just got richer by one new landmark musical.

"St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos" runs until July 31 at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater in UP Diliman. Call 9261349, 9205301 local 6441, 9818500 local 2450/2445.

E-mail the author at gcadiz@inquirer.com.ph