Whitespace
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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