By PABLO A. TARIMAN
FOUNDED by the late Zeneida Amador and Baby Barredo, Repertory Philipines is on its 46th year and going strong on its 77th season.
Like it or not, it has enriched Manila’s theater scene for over three decades with the world’s classic plays from Antigone to Lysistrata and pioneering productions of the “ Sound of Music,” “The King and I, “Les Miserables” and “My Fair Lady,” among others.
Over the years, it has produced a Lea Salonga, the first Filipina to win the Tony and Sir Laurence Olivier Awards in London and New York. Actors who appeared in its initial seasons have since then formed their own theater groups and doing very well despite the volatile audience turn-out in Metro Manila.
And to think that Repertory Philippines opened with “Miss Julie” in 1967 with seven people in the audience. The theater group has survived the ups and downs of the performing arts starting in a modest school theater in Quezon City and on to Insular Life Auditorium in Makati, Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong and now in Stage One of the Greenbelt shopping area.
Today, Repertory Philippines is a model in theater marketing with full houses from opening to closing nights.
Another proof that it has honed several generations of good actors is its latest production of Douglas Cohen’s musical, “No Way To Treat A Lady” based on the novel of William Goldman.
If the title is familiar, it is because it is also the title of an old film starring Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal and Eileen Heckart.
Except for the role of Sarah Stone (Carla Guevara Laforteza), Detective Morris Brummel (Joel Trinidad) and Flora Brummel (Sheila Francisco), the parts of Pinky Marquez required her to metamorphose from Alexandra Gill to Mrs. Sullivan, Carmela Tocei and Sadie.
Audie Gemora, as the serial killer, had to swiftly reinvent himself in seven other roles from an Irish priest, to an Arthur Murray dance class instructor, a French waiter, a telephone repairman, a pizza delivery messenger, a New York cop, and a female barfly.
What do the detective and the serial killer have in common?
They are both Mamas’ boys in the play which made one seriously reflect on Mama’s boys in real life.
On the other hand, Laforteza quietly shone as a guileless, if, secure but vulnerable Sarah Stone; Francisco had just the right conservative spot for a mother of the 70s and Trinidad wrapped up the part as Morris Brummell with commendable relish.
The show-stealers were Pinky Marquez and Audie Gemora.
Marquez in her quadruple roles, the most notable of which was her part as a dance partner. In this role, she was no less interested in dancing as she was keen on laying her restless hands on the body contours of her dance teacher.
But the most breath-taking transformation was that of Audie Gemora who etched the most details in his roles as Irish priest, dance class instructor, a French waiter, a telephone repairman, a pizza delivery messenger, a New York cop, and a female barfly.
As female barfly, Gemora elicited endless suppressed laughter from the audience as he tried a soprano sound for his female role and not quite succeeding in “his” murderous moment. But from the way Gemora invested his part with cunning, if, spontaneous dramatic fireworks, he actually looked like epitome of evil in “Silence of the Lamb.”
The latest Rep play is proof that it has honed a lot of versatile actors who do well in the most trying theater challenges. Over the years, they have in fact metamorphosed from theater artisans to distinguished performing artists.