Of Code-Switching, Chest Hair and Comedy

I remember how I used to treat someone like a god, MY god. I still know the feeling when my day wasn’t a day if I didn’t see him, when my food didn’t taste like anything unless he was there sitting beside me. It’s funny though how life kicks you in the face. I recently learned, to my disbelief (and somewhat to my relief), that he's just like other men...

But enough of that sad, silly stuff. I’m here to talk about Dulaang UP’s Amphitryon, which I watched yesterday with my newly discovered play-mate, Russ. For one thing, I really liked it because it tickled my funny bones. And for another, I am a huge fan of Alkmene’s wedges and busty gown. Okay, I’m kidding. The best thing about the play is the way most of the characters delivered their lines succinctly and how they employed physical comedy to the audience’s delight. They made the play look like a game of hide-and-seek—only it involved crazy Roman gods and bewildered mortals instead of kids.

It took Sosias some time at the start to establish the comedic identity of the play. We were sitting at the second row and we couldn’t help but notice his brand new army uniform that seemed out of place in the set design, which had a Japanese ring to it (meaning aesthetically, because it was far from war-torn; in fact, I appreciated the ethereal feeling at the end of the play, with blown pinwheels, smoke and stars in the night sky). “What is Sosias?” (Note: Not “who”) was the question that kept floating in my head. Then it turned out he was the slave of “Amphitryon! (emphasis on the hands-to-pelvis movement)”.

There were so many things that I love in the play. The classic Filipino lines like “Lintik lang ang walang ganti!” and even the cuss word “P*****ina” were a hit! The spoofs on military training were hilarious too! The code-switching employed was, should I say, bentang-benta, particularly when Amphitryon and Alkmene were in the middle of a heated argument and the former suddenly berated the latter: “Don’t you dare touch me! (Silence…) Maybe later!” Hahaha! Also, employing modern ways of speaking expressions was totally humorous, like “O.M.G.”, and conversely singing songs that most ’80s children are aware of (“Pahipo naman…Huwag diyan!”) was indeed of great comic value. Even the Korean girl beside me was laughing! I was quite sure she didn’t understand most of the dialogues but because the play had such strong visual appeal, it was able to transcend what was on the script.

There were downsides, of course. Some of the actors paused a number of times because they forgot their lines. Also, the act by Sosias of running into the middle row in the audience, not once but twice, could have raised some eyebrows. To me it was fine but Russ got stressed and we weren’t even on that row! Generally it drew bursts of laughter from the audience.

Jupiter was not too convincing as a god pretending to be a warrior-king mainly because he had a soft demeanor and slouchy countenance. Too cute to be immortal perhaps? But Amphitryon! Oh, how I love his booming voice! He would have been fitter to play the role of a god-lover (I drooled over his chest hair!). His facial expressions were so good, I can’t take my eyes off him. And then there’s Alkmene. She was everything I expected—she conveyed beauty and purity in her speeches and actions. Her dialogues with Jupiter were dragging though. We know that Amphitryon didn’t have to be Jupiter, the god of all gods, to get Alkmene’s devotion, but it was Sosias, Charis and Mercury who actually moved the play in terms of story development. I even felt that the other three were there not only to nudge us into digesting the facts of their love triangle but also to let us rest our stomachs and jaw muscles that were aching from laughter.

I could watch Amphitryon over and over again! I would still laugh as hard even when I’m soaked in bitterness over the guy I mistakenly treated as my god...