Ang Dalagita Ay ‘Sang Bagay Na Di-Buo at UP’s Guerrero Theatre is astonishing. Watch it.
Dulaang UP’s Ang Dalagita Ay ‘Sang Bagay Na Di-Buo, an adaptation of Eimear McBride’s novel A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, is intense and electric: theatre as a form of exorcism. You go in expecting a thoughtful entertainment for the age of #MeToo, and you leave with your soul purified in a cleansing flame. It upends all notions of what it is to be female in a world where casual brutality is normal and sexual violence a given, where everything that happens to you is supposed to be your own fault.
Dalagita is directed by Jose Estrella from Rody Vera’s Filipino translation of the adaptation by Annie Ryan. The adaptation is a marvel, following the novel’s stream of consciousness to put us inside the protagonist’s mind. We feel everything she’s feeling, and it is beautiful, ugly, hilarious, and harrowing. For one hour and fifty minutes, Skyzx Labastilla charges across the stage like a raw nerve as Dalagita from fetus to young womanhood, and as everyone Dalagita meets throughout her life. She contains multitudes, and all she needs is a stage and one chair. I don’t know how she does it, but I have to see it again.
I am in awe of everyone involved in this production. More. Alternating in the role of Dalagita are Missy Maramara, Opaline Santos and Hariette Damole (understudy).
Remaining playdates: March 7, 8, 9 at 7pm and March 10 and 11 at 10am and 3pm, at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theatre, 2/F Palma Hall, UP Diliman. For inquiries call Camille Guevara at 0917 823 9531 or the Dulaang UP office, 926 1348 0r 981 8500 local 2449. Help us spread the word in your social media accounts.