Teatro Pinas Review : Tanghalang Ateneo’s Alpha Kappa Omega

Tanghalang Ateneo’s Alpha Kappa Omega has its own take on the adaptation of the Filipino classic film “Batch ‘81.” The existence of the the core of its narrative was there but the flow and how things executed was adapted to the present time. Some scenes has been made and adapted to the present situation to make things relevant specially to the young ones.
The boldness and honesty of the story was there, the reality that we tend to normalized and the facts unknown to many of us. The monopoly of setting up one mind set towards one goal was highlighted throughout the play, the dictatorship of someone or an organization. What’s good about brotherhood and the fact that it may ruin someone’s life. The hegemonic masculinity that cover up the deficiencies and insecurities of a man was also highlighted. Sometimes brotherhood leads to power and ego tripping. The narrative of the play also have a strong message about the danger of allowing our emotions, mainly our ego overpowered our logical reasoning. The play revolutionized and dissected a lot of socio-political issues through its metaphors.

The artistic execution of the choreography was very distinct and tastefully done for every scene that gave a weird feeling that something sinister was about to happen. Ricardo Magno’s choreographic direction is indeed one of a kind that the body language used, narrates a story of its own. While the direction of Guelan Luarca was clear and straight forward. He executed everything on point, what you see is what you get. Every scene was quite detailed. There were scenes that looks funny but if you’ll analyze and think of it carefully, the subliminal message was not really funny at all. The costume and the set design was a fusion of the period when the movie happened which is the 80’s and the present time. It symbolizes the things that we can’t let go and we can’t move on. Yes time is moving but we are stagnant.

To the whole production of Tanghalang Ateneo’s Alpha Kappa Omega, congratulations!


Written : JC Salud