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| Bibeth Orteza is Pilar |
Tanghalang Ateneo is honoring women in their 41
st
season with Dolorosa by Peter Zaragoza Mayshle under the direction of Jenny
Jamora, it opens last August 16 at The Doreen Black Box, Arts Wing of
Arete
inside Ateneo De Manila University campus in Quezon City. They call this season
as Ecriture Feminine, Sulat Babae in short The
Women’s Season.
It is not easy watching Dolorosa, this is a 3-hour play
set in three different periods of Philippine history starting at Spanish
colonialization, to Japanese occupation and at the present time, it tells a
story of a family from a father who artistically creates a Mater Dolorosa statue
and later lost it, and her only child Pilar who explore the unknown world trying
to find that important missing family patrimony that she can pass to her
children.
Even though there are breaks in between hour of the play,
Dolorosa is full of confusion at first set, giving you many questions on what
is going on, you can feel that there is something to be developed in its story,
yet you religiously being observant on the next scenes and to the next scenes,
because it really involves a lot of characters that you will see only in that
set, same goes to the to last two hours of the play.
Having the legendary Actress/Writer Bibeth Orteza as the
old Pilar, is a joy to the play, she still proves that she can pull you from
your chair amidst a full of young cast that surrounds her, truly she is a master
of her craft and this is one performance you should see, but her younger self
played by Zoe De Ocampo is another to watch out for, this girl can deliver no
matter how kilometric the lines are, and she did it with clarity.
Our favorite part is where the five different Virgin Mary
appear inside The Neither of Pilar’s world, Jamora execution of using all sides
of the
theater is brilliant to see, that is one magical part of Dolorosa that
is so pleasing to watch, just prepare yourself looking at all directions to see
those Immaculate mothers.
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| Zoe De Ocampo as the young Pilar |
Dolorosa other cast are Ron Capinding, Claudia Enriquez,
Rowie Gutierez, Aj Umali, Sabrina Basilio, Dani Capinding, Francesca Lois Dela
Cruz, Kat Dizon, Kim Donato, Shaun Erwin Ocrisma, Darl Anne Dominique Alba,
Zarya Almocera, Nicole Chua and Michaela Mendoza. The technical team are Elise
Ofilada as the Dramaturg, Jomelle Era for movement design, D Cortezano as
Lighting Design, Earvin Estioco is the Assistant Lighting Designer, Arvy
Dimaculangan for scoring and sound design, Benjamin Padero and Carlo Tabije for
the production design, Robin Aronson is the vocal coach and Rachel Swartz as
the text coach.
Here are the playdates Aug 16, 17, 24, 31 all at 2:30 PM, and Aug 15, 17, 22, 24, 29, 31 are all at 7:30PM
Special thanks to Tanghalang Ateneo for all the photos.
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