Published in Interaksyon Lifestyle March 24, 2013
There are actually two lady protagonists in Repertory Philippines’ production “No Way to Treat a Lady.” One of them, the obvious one, is the spectre of late theater legend Alexandra Gill (played by Pinky Marquez) whose fame and presence still haunt her actor failure of a son, Christopher (Audie Gemora). The other is Sarah Stone (Carla Guevara-Laforteza), the smart, wealthy, and pretty fiancée of perpetually down-on-his-luck cop Moe Brummell (Joel Trinidad).
In a sense, both ladies are competing for the affections of the men in their lives – and these two gentlemen have made it their sole mission to prove that they can still rise above their current misfortunes. Many of the press releases surrounding this production focused on the twin hats that Gemora wore for this play – as lead performer and director, a mean feat which he pulled off superbly. However, it was fitting that the final bows at the end both positioned Gemora and Trinidad as equals. The material by lyricist, composer, and playwright Douglas J. Cohen, based on the novel by William Goldman, has their two characters playing off each other.
As Christopher Gill pointed out in one pivotal scene, his and Brummell’s fate are intertwined. Christopher needs Brummell’s investigation to put them both on the front pages of the New York Times, the resulting fame of which would supposedly remove them from the road of obscurity and mediocrity. The stakes are huge – especially when Brummell starts wanting to have a life outside that of the one where his own living mother (Sheila Francisco) holds sway. And Christopher could have carried his insane plan ad infinitum, tying himself and Brummell in an endless dance of death, had the down-to-earth Sarah not entered the latter’s life and called an end to the proceedings.
Don’t let the darkness of the plot fool you, though. This short musical is a romp, only a few plays can create an engaging balance between psychologically-driven murders and winning numbers that stir you out of your seat to laugh and cry with the characters and their dilemmas, and this production certainly does deliver, hands down. The songs actually do not call attention to themselves, but act more like liberating confessions that show the hearts of the characters and bring them step by steady step closer to the climax.
The small ensemble of actors does seem to be having the time of their lives. Gemora chews up the scenery as the unbalanced, attention-seeking Christopher. The audience begins to look forward to the various personas his character will adopt to execute the murders – a dance instructor, a cultured art gallery custodian, a lonely female looking for companionship in a bar. Underneath all that, however, Gemora still manages to project a tortured soul struggling with rejection and failure. This actor is one of the more accomplished of his generation—and it takes a really excellent performer to convince you he is a bad one.
Trinidad matches Gemora song for song, dialogue for dialogue, and wit for wit, although his character is not as complicated. His Brummell is the other side of the coin of Gemora’s Christopher – another supposed failure living in the shadow of his mother; yet though the odds are stacked against him, he chooses love over obssession, and light over darkness.
Francisco plays the nagging loving Jewish mother to the hilt, and Guevara adds the necessary touch of sobriety to the proceedings. Pinky Marquez’s energy and pizzazz bring the house down as, like Gemora, she plays a variety of roles in several different scenes in just a few minutes.
The cast is having fun in this production, and their enthusiasm carries the audience with them from the time the curtain opens to the final bow. The economical staging, with very few whistles and bells that can distract from the pleasure of viewing, allows the material and the actors to shine. It is an opportunity that Christopher Gill would have killed for.
• No Way To Treat Lady is a Repertory Philippines production. It’s on its last run today, March 24, at 3:30 p.m. at Onstage theater in Greenbelt 1, Makati City. For ticket details and reservations for this final weekend run, please call Repertory Philippines at 571-6926 or 571-4941 or email info@repertory.ph or log on to www.repertory.ph. Tickets are also available through Ticketworld at 891-9999 or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph.
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