Play review - Jun Ispater

Note to students: A sample review for a play (drama genre) that I saw last Friday. While it has a more personal tone rather than a technical one as required in Literary Criticism, it is a review nonetheless. --Sir G

Last July 5 (Friday), I went to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) to watch “Jun Ispater,” a staged reading by Tanghalang Pilipino upon the invitation of a former student of mine [at Cavite State University--Sir G] , who I shall refer to as Tinay. The event was part of “Virgin Labfest 9”, which features “Untried, untested, unstaged plays.”

So right after my class at Philippine Christian University-Dasmariñas, I hopped on a bus straight from Cavite to the CCP. I didn’t know where the Tanghalang Amado Hernandez is. It turns out that to get to it, I had to take an entrance on the right side of the CCP, pass through a warren of offices, and get into a relatively small room at the end. I got there just in time for the Philippine National Anthem.

The experience was a stark contrast with my watching of SOAR: The Musical at De La Salle – Health Sciences Campus. A set of black curtains hung on back of the low stage. There were six music stands on front and six chairs where the actors will sit. The room contained around a hundred seats of so.

The event is termed a “staged reading” where the actors read their parts from a script. But far from being a radio play, the actors occasionally leave their scripts on the stands and act out their parts.

The play opens with the three male characters. The title role is held by Jun Ispater (‘spotter’), a hustler who makes a living by conning out other people in billiards. His friend is a dim-witted buffoon named Boying. The third character is Danny, a foul-mouthed, gun-toting security guard. Jun is in a bind to find money to pay for the tuition fees of his sister, April.

The female characters are April, Jun’s sister, who wants to join a singing contest in order to have money to pay for her tuition. Her friend is Grace, who encourages her to join and win the contest. The cast is rounded off by my student Tinay, a “vocally-challenged” girl who works as a cook and cleaner at the nightclub/billiards hall where Jun works. (In the play, Tinay is described as “pipi”; but she is not mute. Her Wookiee-like vocalizations are among the comic reliefs of the play. I wonder what her lines in the script look like?)

Danny hatches a scheme to steal from the nightclub/billiards hall and enlists the help of Jun, Boying, and even of Tinay. Jun is torn between engaging in an “honest” living as a billiards hustler while Boying is sorely tempted by the offer so he could have money to celebrate his anniversary with Tinay, his girlfriend.

Danny, Jun, and Boying eventually carry out their robbery of the nightclub but they had to take Grace because she was a witness to the crime. Danny eventually murders Grace.

Jun gives the money stolen from Grace to April for her tuition, but instead she spends the money to buy medicine for their ailing mother. Blaming herself for getting Jun in desperate straits just to have her finish college, April commits suicide. (The noose lowered from the ceiling is the only prop in the play.)

“Jun Ispater” is a story of the tensions within society. The conflict is not so much as “Man vs. Society”, a picture that Danny wants to paint: rich versus poor. The true conflict is “Man vs. Himself” as exemplified by Jun and  Boying. In the face of human need, does one remain in the path of “sipag at tiyaga” (‘industry and patience’) or contemplate a life of crime?

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The soundtrack of the play is “Basta’t Maghintay Ka Lamang” by Japanese singer Ted Ito (see YouTube video here). In the play, the song is said to be a favorite of the father of Jun and April. It’s the song that Jun plays in the billiards hall (“Eh yan lang ang laman ng CD eh!”), the song in Grace’s cell phone, and April’s entry into the singing contest. It exemplifies the ideals of Jun and his father: no matter how hard things get, just wait.