The remorselessly ‘camp’ Temptation Island... Live!

Temptation Island...Live! director Chris Martinez had one advice to those who were lucky enough to obtain tickets to the theater adaptation of the Joey Gosiengfiao classic film: "Leave your brains in your homes so you can enjoy the show and have a great time!"

The engaging paradox in this stage play, however, is that one in fact needs brains to appreciate how an outlandish plot can reveal through pure fiction a stark social reality.

Martinez might flash a contempt for a heavy reading of his play, but the simple story line of a beauty contest that turns into a tragedy is about survival of the fittest. It is the Darwin Theory of the natural sciences adapted in a screenplay and a stage play.

Surely, members of the audience during the play’s four nights of full-house run left the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Huseng Batute thinking about bigger issues such as social stratification or simply about how to go about the no-mean task of living one’s life to the fullest amid routinary crises. The play is also about taking small risks and making big choices without which life becomes fatally boring.

During rehearsals, Martinez had ordered the male cast playing beauty queens marooned on an island, "You have to attack your roles seriously and sincerely, especially the love scenes. Make us believe that you are really in love. You are not gays here, you play female roles. You have to feel and act like a woman." (There were numerous sizzling scenes in the play. – Editor)

Earlier, he had warned his friends, "There is no worry that this play might ruin my name. If you cannot hate anything about this play, we failed." The Palanca award-winning playwright had been described as "one of the powerful and influential icons of Generation X."

Martinez, also a filmmaker, had won the first prize for the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 2001 in the full-length drama category for Last Order sa Penguin. He had been a recipient of various awards from the Philippine Educational Theater Association, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Among his works are Sa Sabado sa Sam’s, Baclofen, Last Full Show and Oryang: Pulot Gata.

Marking his 30th birthday, John Lapus decided to give himself a gift by co-producing Temptation Island...Live! which he said was his "modest contribution" to Philippine theater. "In mounting a show on my birthday, I am able to grapple with my birthday blues," he said.

Since 1998, Lapus has celebrated his birthday by either hosting or appearing in stand-up acts in The Library in Malate, Music Museum, or in music bars.

"By co-producing Temptation Island...Live! I am going back to my roots in theater, the Teatro Tomasino based in the University of Sto. Tomas," added Lapus, who essayed the role of Azenith Tobias.

"Why did I choose to co-produce Temptation Island...Live!? I am a big fan of this movie. Unfortunately, I did not catch it during its showing in 1980. It was a ‘For Adults Only’ movie. I first saw it as a re-run. The more you watch it and as you grow older, you begin to realize that the film is so funny," Lapus said in a separate interview.

The Gosiengfiao film classic premiered on July 4, 1980 while its stage adaptation opened on July 3, 2003.

The plot of both the movie and the stage play revolves around four Miss Manila Sunshine 1980 finalists namely, colegiala Dina Espinola (Tuxqs Rutaquio), rich and self-centered Suzanne Reyes (Peter Serrano), perennial beauty contestant Bambi Belisario (Raymond Sydney), and street-smart Azenith Tobias (John Lapus).

As part of the pre-judging process, they go on a cruise which tunrs into a tragedy. After their yacht sinks, they suddenly find themselves washed ashore in a desolate island.

Among the survivors are Dina’s suitor Alfred (Reggie Curley), Suzanne’s maid Yaya Maria (Jonelle Sales), yacht waiter Umberto (Neil Ryan Sese), gay socialite Joshua Rodriguez (Ricci Chan), and his lover Ricardo (Romnick Sarmenta). Christian Vazquez played Tony, Azenith’s first lover.

"The task of adapting a screen material to a stage play or vice versa can be quite treacherous. Immediately, the loss of the lush of the close-up to panoramic medium is given when adapting a movie to stage. While sometimes the essence of the play is lost somewhere while the filmmaker indulges himself in the design of his montage or plastic material," Gosiengfiao said in notes published in the souvenir program of the stage play.

To the people behind the stage adaptation, Gosiengfiao said, "I hope they succeed in where my movie failed."

In the stage play version, Martinez said Lapus wanted to play Azenith Tobias but it was difficult for Lapus to be the only male cast playing a female role. For the sake of consistency, it was decided that all the Miss Manila Sunshine finalists would be played by male actors.

The concept of male actors playing female roles was not new. Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray had done this.

"Admittedly, the interest in and excitement on Temptation Island...Live! is because of the adaptation of the film script into a theater script. Plus, it has a very high entertainment value. It is camp. To appreciate camp, one must not look for heavy relevance but style. It is all about style," Martinez said, pointing to the scandalously pink sand spread across the flooring of Tanghalang Huseng Batute. The sand, reportedly imported from Germany, served as the make-believe island.

He could not account for the near-cult surrounding the movie Temptation Island, but speculated that people have "their own sets of guilty pleasures, people want to engage in cultural slamming, or simply want to take a break from the grim realities of life."

Declaring the imperatives of playfulness in life, Martinez said, "Maybe Philippine theater lacks fun, it is too high-brow, and there is this constant pressure to have relevance in a particular show."

As it turned out, the original script of Temptation Island contained all the necessary ingredients that contemporary film buffs love, notably the gay sector, would love: witty dialogue, tarayan, cynicism, a story about beauty queens and their obsession with fame, sex, and finding true love.

"A lot of gay people loved it because it was unintentionally over-the-top camp and Joey Gosiengfiao was not aware of it at the time. In fact, Joey thought he would win an award for that film," said a film professor at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

However, Martinez’s laudable insistence to remain true to the movie script with minor changes somehow slackened the pace of the play. "I decided to stick to the movie script as closely as possible," he said. "Stage adaptation takes on a mere logistic function combining scenes, plotting entrances and exits. We kept all the dialogue from the movie intact."

The first act could have been dramatically shortened. So was the bacchanalia segment where Yaya Maria was shown indulging in self-gratification in the background as various characters yielded to the yearnings of the flesh. Worth noting were Sese and Lapus who had spectacularly titillated the audience in their extremely delicate making-out scene. It left one feeling in dire need of a cold shower.

In particular, Sese’s academic training in theater arts and long experience as a stage actor manifested in his commanding stage presence. With his soulful eyes and highly controlled body movement, Sese was a standout among the four actors playing male roles.

Sarmenta and Vazquez were sadly miscast in the stage play, and this was painfully highlighted by the superb performance by Lapus, Serrano, Sydney, Rutaquio, Sales, Chan. Curley showed promise although there were moments when he appeared overwhelmed by other actors on stage.

Theirs were short talking parts but Nenuka Belisario (Joey Ting), Conchita Syjuco (Ricky Rivero), Bibeth (Harlene Bautista-Sarmenta), and Ed (Roy San Luis) delivered quite credibly.

Again, it was Sales as Yaya Maria who stole the hearts of many in the audience. Chan and his long lines as Joshua Rodriguez deserved long applause. His English diction was commendable.

Production designer Dante Nico Garcia, musical arranger Jobin Ballesteros, choreographer Dexter Santos and lights designer Voltaire de Jesus must be mentioned for their valuable behind-the-scene contributions to the success of the Temptation Island...Live!

This quality stage production by the Madiraka Events and Services has undoubtedly contributed to energizing local theater.