TAHO serves hilarity,
By John Berger
melodrama
Special to the Star-BulletinTAHO (Theatre Alliance of Hawaii's Others) put themselves on the map in a big way with a debut pair of one-act Filipino plays.
This unconventional little show is a laughfest that transcends culture and ethnicity. It's unlikely Honolulu will see a more consistently hilarious show this year. Director Boots Y. Pascual and his troupe of mostly unknown actors do a fabulous job.
They open with "Veronidia," by Cirio H. Panganiban, which dates from the '20s and is written and performed in the overwrought melodramatic style popular at the time on both sides of the Pacific. Our beautiful heroine, Veronidia (Liberty Chavez), divorced her husband to marry Cristino (J. Martin Romualdez). Her ex is now dying of tuberculosis and she's wracked with guilt. Cristino lives to worship her and do her bidding, but can't stand the thought of her visiting his one-time rival -- "You might as well kill me than go to him!"
Then Veronidia's son, Gorito (Harry Ramos), arrives with news that Daddy died with Veronidia's name on his lips.
Chavez and Romualdez throw themselves into the exaggerated characters with gusto. She suffers elegantly; he ricochets between macho bombast and bug-eyed terror. Ramos' underplayed technique as a physical comedian adds impact as a tear-jerking situation is turned inside out.
Add Fides Ignacio and James Luna-Hill as a mutually jealous younger couple, and Ed Solheim as another member of the unhappy family, and "Veronidia" soars.
The staple playwright's device of mistaken identity drives Julian Cruz Balmaceda's post-war comedy of manners, "Sino Ba Ka Yo?" ("Oh, What a Heap of Garbage!"). Marcela (Dinah Van Scoik) and Crispin (Romualdez) met in an air raid shelter and are now married. Neither knows that the other has an 18-year-old child from a previous marriage.
Crispin jilted a woman named Maria and fears her threatened revenge; he doesn't know that Marcela's maid (Leonarda M. DeGuzman) is also named Maria. Marcela doesn't know that her maid Maria has married Juan (J-Troi Orias). Maria and Juan meet the bizarre Ubaldo (Ed Solheim) and assume he is Crispin, and all this is only the beginning of this fast-moving comedy. Crispin's daughter (Adeline Carlos and Marcela's doofus son (Marino Cabrera) add to the confusion.
Romualdez proves versatile in both roles; Solheim plays Ubaldo in the style of Cesar Romero as The Joker in "Batman," and is absolutely comically weird.
Pascual and the cast embellish both plays with a judicious amount of slapstick, physical comedy, Solheim's exaggerated makeup, costume details such as the white socks Romualdez wears with his tuxedo in "Veronidia," and an assortment of greasy kid's stuff hair styles.
It all adds up to grassroots community theater at its best. Bravo, TAHO!
Review
What: "Veronidia" and "Oh, What A Heap of Garbage"
