Yul Servo: A Sheer Surprise on Legitimate Stage

Tanghalang Pilipino’s final opus for its 18th season, MASS, did not have the gripping, sweeping cinematic scenes of the stage play Himala, one of the company’s most recent phenomenal productions.

Mass, however, offered something better: The sheer searing rawness of Yul Servo’s performance and his genuine emotions that immediately connected him to his audience, young and old alike. Those were no mean feat for a maiden lead role in a production by, arguably, the country’s best theater company at the moment.

As if the soul-wrenching Servo surprise as Pepe Samson were not enough, Tanghalang Pilipino had served the local theater buffs with an enviable theatrical bacchanalia by assembling several of the elite of the local stage actors and actresses in MASS under the direction of the talented Chris Millado.

The stage play MASS, although a period piece, was a masterful, powerful production that rightly deserves commendations from the Aliw Awards, the only award-giving institution locally that recognizes notable theater talents and productions.

MASS was really about your average Filipino trying to make sense of the socio-political chaos and decay around him even as he fought for his everyday survival, until he finally took a definitive and decisive stance on how to solve his personal and the country’s problems.

Vera’s adaptation of the Jose novel begins with Pepe Samson, an illegitimate son of the revered intellectual Tony Samson, leaving a Pangasinan village in a bid to secure a more humane life in Manila through his studies in a diploma mill university in Recto. But he ironically lands in the slums of Tondo, where he experiences the harshest realities of life on the edge of powerlessness and deprivation. Immediately, disappointments turn into disillusionment, and destitution drives him to transform himself into a thief, a drug pusher, and eventually an activist, a sacristan, a murderer, and finally a revolutionary. Side by side with Pepe’s quest for his place in the chaotic scheme of things is his attempt to uncover secrets surrounding his father and his efforts to reconcile with what he unearths.

When Yul clinched the lead role of Pepe Samson, director Millado had imposed only one condition. That he relinquished professional commitments other than those related to MASS during rehearsals. The actor’s difficult decision to temporary halt "work" extraneous to MASS served him well and was visibly manifested in his moving performance, which was "a revelation" to a number of serious theatergoers. Yul ably showed the audience what he has despite the burdens of kilometric lines that had to be memorized and the more than two hours of blocking.

This reviewer would be the first one to admit the primary impetus that motivated him to see MASS was to check whether Yul could deliver on stage. After all, he is better known as a movie and television talent. His past stage appearances were in supporting capacity. Was there really anything substantial behind those impish but sexy smiles and a body seemingly sculpted by Michelangelo? The second reason was to get reconnected with MASS playwright Rody Vera whom this reviewer has not seen in almost 20 years. The multi-awarded Vera was a study group mate of this reviewer in many botany and zoology courses they took while both of them majored in B.S. Biology in UP Diliman. Unfortunately, Vera is in Japan for a conference and will return to the Philippines by the end of March.

The magic and eloquence that was Yul’s performance in MASS more than a thousand times compensated for the disappointment of not meeting Vera, once described by National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose as "the finest" among the young playwrights and belonging to the group of "the vanguard of Philippine stage" that include Nicolas Pichay, Jun Lan, Vic Torres, Liza Magtoto (another colleague in UP Diliman), Jovy Miray, JB Capino, George de Jesus, and Chris Martinez.

Jose characterized Vera’s script for the stage adaptation of his novel MASS and the production as a whole as "an original and exciting rendition" of the novel. The script for the stage play Balete was the end product of Vera’s first foray into adapting Jose’s novels. Balete was adapted from Tree, one of the novels in the Rosales saga of which MASS was the last in the series. Millado had directed Balete for PETA a number of moonrises ago.

When the painfully shy Yul took his final bow, several reviewers in the audience looked at each other as if in agreement that he indeed delivered beyond expectations. The initial doubts had been unfounded. The gifted novelist Jose told Yul that he performed exemplary and that he liked his take on the Pepe Samson character. Even Yul’s more senior colleagues in MASS had some jitters whether he could hack it, and much to their amazement, he stood his ground and noticeably stood out among them. One had commented that it was "a humbling experience" to have worked with him.

With MASS, a new stage actor, capable of handling testy, complex leading roles, joined the small galaxy of the finest of the fine local stage actors. Now, perhaps, all Yul needs are three or more lead roles in major theater productions to erase lingering doubts about his stage acting skills. Also, Yul must immediately start doing acting workshops that will help him get a genuine grip of the intellectual side of acting out a particular role. This will immensely help him refine his craft.

It would be grossly unfair not to laud in strong terms the other fabulous cast members: Madeleine Nicolas, the versatile Lou Veloso, Bodjie Pascua, Ronnie Lazaro, Roeder Camañag, the very straight Kokoy Palma, Tess Jamias, Diana Malahay, Johann de Guzman, Marjorie Ann Lorico, Cris Pasturan, and Edralin Cabrera. All of them contributed in making the stage play MASS a truly worthwhile endeavor and a great celebration of Filipino theater artistry and craftsmanship.

Multimedia artist Norberto Roldan’s set design for the stage play was his first collaboration with noted director Millado. Doubling as an installation art during daytime, Roldan’s set design for MASS was unobtrusive yet artistically captured the sacred and the profane by using images of the Sto. Niño, Guy and Pip, and a host of other religious and non-religious icons. Perhaps, influenced by the traditional Japanese architecture, Roldan creatively designed sliding panels to match swift changes in scenes.

To solve the challenge of numerous changes of sets and of Pepe Samson talking to many characters, Millado adeptly used a revolving stage for simultaneous scenes while lighting designer Dennis Marasigan did a good job also of helping Millado conquer the difficulties posed by simultaneous scenes.

It must be mentioned that the device used by Millado where a scene freezes and Yul talks to the audience to share his insights on a particular character provided memorable comic relief to the otherwise dark and heavy script. Yul’s intermittent talk to the audience was reminiscent of the gorgeously handsome Jude Law in Alfie.

The stage play MASS should be remounted in a bigger venue to enable a greater number of theater enthusiasts to savor one memorable theater production.