Let the Battalia begin

MANILA, Philippines - While waiting for Battalia Royale to begin, the audience of mostly college students and yuppies is spread out across the dimly-lit parking lot of Museo Pambata. Most are huddled in their own small groups, but the air is noticeably charged with a nervous, excited energy.

From the start it is obvious that Battalia is no ordinary play. Sirens ring out through the parking lot and playground. Plastic raincoats, small flashlights and bandanas are being sold to the audience, as well as cards with pictures of each character – you can buy the card of the one you are rooting for to win.

The game is a winner-take-all fight to the death, based loosely on Japanese writer Koushun Takami’s novel Battle Royale which was later adapted into a movie. The characters, a group of students, are shipped to an island and told to kill each other until only one remains.

In the Sipat Lawin version, the characters are students from Our Lady of Guadalupe High School who find themselves on a field trip gone terribly wrong. They are fitted with electric shock collars and are told by their teacher that they are to kill each other by any means possible until only one student survives.

We have stories to tell that are not found in mainstream theater,” says director JK Anicoche on the Sipat Lawin Ensemble. An experimental theater group, Sipat Lawin aims to develop contemporary community theater.

Made up of 12 core members, most of whom are alumni of Philippine High School for the Arts, Sipat Lawin is now on its third season.

Anicoche adds that the group is constantly working on audience development. “While theater audience is usually made up of patrons and students required to watch, Sipat Lawin aims to bring theater closer to the audience by employing new modes of production.”

This aim has led to an exploration of different mediums and techniques to be able to appeal to different audiences: Sipat Lawin’s first production was an experimental play, Haring Tubu-l, in 2010 and was a reaction to the elections at that time. The group’s second project was Imperio Animalia, a play for children. They have also mounted Rmeo Loves Juliet where they worked with kids to explore emerging forms of pop culture such as krumping and flip top.

“We are establishing the range of what theater can do,” says Anicoche. “We are breaking assumptions of theater-making.”

Probably the theater group’s most popular production to date, the idea for Battalia Royale started when the group worked with Australian writer David Finnigan in 2009 to mount his play, To Heat You Up and Cool You Down.

“We began to talk online about an adaptation of Battle Royale,” says Anicoche, who was studying in Japan during the time Battle Royale became popular.

In November 2011, Finnigan and a group of young writers from Australia came to the Philippines for workshops, where the playwrights would give the actors certain parameters – manipulate the characters into giving you what you want, for example – and make observations as the actors would improvise on the given scene. They would then discuss what happened, what motivated each character, and build the play from there.

Core members of Sipat Lawin and cast members from Mapua Tekno Teatro and Dulaang Perpetual developed backstories for each character by creating Facebook accounts for each student in the play.

Australian writers Sam Burns-Warr, David Finnigan, Jordan Prosser, and Georgie McAuley, with director JK Anicoche.

The actors were also asked to translate the English dialogue from the Australian writers into Filipino, based on how they thought their characters would speak.

Dorothea Yrastorza plays Kakai, who is manipulative and clever, and unlike some of the other students, seems like she has no problem playing the game. Because of the brashness of the character, Yrastorza tried to present her as more than a cold-blooded killer: “I had to find a way to humanize Kakai.”

Even her physical appearance has evolved – from short, boyish hair in the first run, to long locks, making her “kikay, but with sensibilities.”

Kakai has developed her own following – many of them watch the play several times and root for her to win. Many audience members look for a certain redemption for Kakai, but Yrastorza surmises, “Ang redemption nasa bawat desisyon na ginagawa niya. Naniniwala siya sa ginagawa niya. Totoo siya sa sarili niya (Redemption can be found in each decision that she makes. She believes in what she does. She is true to herself).”

Anicoche and Yrastorza agree that this is why so many people have become fans of Kakai, despite being more of a villain than a heroine. At some point, we’ve all experienced being an outcast, they say. Kakai is able to face her situation in a headstrong way. “She represents the desire to struggle,” says Anicoche.

Batallia clearly breaks boundaries on many different levels. In terms of staging techniques, the play  makes full use of its venue – site-specific performances being a signature of the Sipat Lawin Ensemble. Batallia has been performed in an old high school building, at the CCP ramp, and most recently at the Museo Pambata, which added to the irony of the whole situation. Add to that the fact that Bodjie Pascua – who many audience members have childhood memories of as “Kuya Bodjie” on the popular children’s show Batibot – plays the role of the professor-cum-moderator of the bloodbath.

Battalia is also interactive. The audience is made to run all over the venue, following the characters, and sometimes even deciding how the story will end. In one portion of the play, a marshal yells,  “Choose your own adventure!” and the audience is free to explore what is going on in different parts of the acting area, which culminates in the final battle sequence – the ending differs per show.

Australian writers Sam Burns-Warr, David Finnigan, Jordan Prosser, and Georgie McAuley, with director JK Anicoche.

Probably the most pronounced difference between Batallia and the movie and novel upon which it is based is the reality that theater brings – the people involved in the story are living, breathing human beings. As the characters fight, the audience gets sprayed with sweat and fake blood. The gunshots feel almost realistic.

Because of the violent, in-your-face nature of the play, Battalia has also gone beyond the sensibilities of some viewers. Though the audience is told at the beginning of the play that they are free to leave anytime, the sex and violence in the play is often disturbing, not just because of the physical nearness of the actors, but also because of the different motivations that the characters show with their decisions.

Many audience members may also be surprised by how they themselves react while watching and interacting with the characters in the play. There are moments when the excited audience cheers when a character is killed. Audience members egg the characters on as they fight. Though one may be a peace-lover in real life, there is a thrill when one of the characters outwits the other. Perhaps that is what is most disturbing.

At the height of the play, the audience is asked to gather around the main stage and one character pleads for his life. The audience, by showing of hands, makes the decision to keep him alive or let him die – a literal life or death decision. Some nights, the character is given a few more moments of life, in other performances, he is not so lucky.

At another point, the audience is again given a chance to change the direction of the play: they can vote to put an end to the bloodshed and the remaining “students” will be sent home. During the first run, the audience was told that two thirds was needed to carry the vote. In another show, they only needed 30 to save the characters’ lives. In the three runs of Battalia Royale the cast has never had to perform the alternate ending, where everyone goes home alive.

However, Anicoche says, many audience members reach a certain catharsis days after watching the play. Questions often arise on what is right and wrong, and why both the characters and audience reacted in a certain way. Once they are given time to reflect, many come to their own realizations about violence, morality, and ultimately, themselves, says Anicoche.

Like the movie and the novel, Sipat Lawin’s play has also acquired cult status. Many of those in the audience have watched the play multiple times and cheer for their favorite characters. But, like any cult classic, there are many who have criticized the play, some even urging censorship.

“Battalia is not just violence, it’s about the struggle to live; humanity’s struggle to survive under certain circumstances,” Yrastorza says on her understanding of the play.

Anicoche relays the various questions that have arisen from audience feedback: How does goodness prevail? Do you rebel? Is it really violence that is a problem, or is it our apathy?

“We want people to question their own realities,” he says.

To address criticism that the play lacks follow up for its audience – a time to clearly think out the implications of the whole story – the group has held a forum called Symposium Royale wherein the various perspectives were discussed. There are online discussions as well on the topic.

Whether positive or negative, Anicoche says that the purpose of the play is to create a venue for discourse, as well as an avenue for reflection for each audience member.  “It is an invitation to understand morality and mortality,” he says.

“When you reach the point of questioning yourself, your family, school, government, don’t just be stuck with the question. Reflect, make a decision,” says Yrastorza on how she hopes audience members will react to the play.

“I hope that we get to understand the prevailing consciousness of this generation so we know where we stand and where we can go,” says Anicoche of his hopes for Batallia and the outcome of the discourses that have arisen from the play.

With its final show nearing, Anicoche says, “I want to do it again in 10 years,” noting that by that time the new generation will give Batallia Royale a new perspective. Maybe audiences in the future will finally vote to stop the game and keep the students of Our Lady of Guadalupe High School alive.

Battalia Royale is featured as part of the National Theater Festival on Nov. 14, 7 pm, at the CCP Main Ramp.