Thursday, October 02, 2014

Cock returns for one weekend re-run


October 3, 2014, 9:00 PM
October 4, 2014, 4:00 & 8:00 PM
October 5, 2014, 4:00 & 8:00 PM
Whitespace
2314 Chino Roces Ave. Extension
Makati

Red Turnip Theater’s production of Cock, a comedy about sexual identity had theater fans and critics raving during its successful initial run earlier this year. Due to popular demand, the Olivier Award winning play returns for a limited one weekend re-run this October 3-5, 2014 at Whitespace in Makati.

Topper Fabregas

Written by Mike Bartlett, Cock tells the story of John (Topper Fabregas) and his gay lover M (Niccolo Manahan) as they bicker, fight and eventually make up. John and M’s relationship is shaken more when the former falls in love with the woman W (Jenny Jamora). The consequent meeting of the three over dinner is made more complicated when M brings along his father F (Audie Gemora) who of course, wants his son and John to be back together. I don’t want to reveal who ends up together after the dinner since one has to get his behind over to Whitespace to find out.

What is remarkable about this staging is that there is just the barest of stage, a circular wall similar to a cockpit arena with the audience seated on four sides as if they’re watching an actual cock fight. And as the characters go through their journey, one is indeed compelled in their minds to place bets (like in a real cock fight) as to who among M and W would end up with John in the end.

Cris Villonco, Topper Fabregas, Ana Abad Santos, Audie Gemora,
Rem Zamora, Niccolo Manahan, and Jenny Jamora

With this bare staging (no elaborate set, no props, and no costume changes), blocking is paramount. A lot was told by the position of the actors like where they were standing, who was facing who, how close was one to the other and whether they were inside or outside the “cockpit”. Never had I noticed symmetry/symmetry in a play before especially in this one where there were just four actors. And the blocking was very crucial during the much talked about sex scene between John and W.

Rem Zamora, Jenny Jamora, Ana Abad Santos, Topper Fabregas,
and Cris Villonco

Red Turnip Theater has been around for less than a couple of years and yet it has already established itself as one of the companies who dare to take the risk and present challenging, thought provoking material to a theater audience who never realized before that they were up to it.

Ticket prices:
P1500 Premium
P1000 Patron

For inquiries:
Red Turnip Theater redturniptheater@gmail.com
TicketWorld 891-9999

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