REVIEW: ‘Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito’ is a terrifying family portrait

REVIEW: ‘Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito’ is a terrifying family portrait

Contrary to how it may look on the surface, Mad Child Production’s season-ender is an eerie, unsettling experience guided by a cast of terrific performers.

It’s impossible to talk about Mad Child Productions’ Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito without revealing that the show isn’t what it claims to be. Behind its deliberately bright, misleading marketing that presents the play as some sort of broad comedy, its true nature is far more surreal. It does, of course, still explore family dynamics, with the perpetually busy Kendra (Thea Marabut) struggling to maintain “perfect” relationships with her parents (Soliman Cruz and Peewee O’Hara) and her brother, Ben (Joshua Cabiladas). But these themes eventually make way for a chilling exploration of loneliness and the fantasy of fulfilling particular roles in a family unit.

Written by New York-based playwright Sam Walsh (under the title This House Is for Laughing) and directed and translated into Filipino by Guelan Varela-Luarca, the production doesn’t take long to show its real qualities. Unnerving direction and performances that constantly feel as if they’re on the verge of collapse make this a uniquely challenging experience—and a welcome year-end highlight in Philippine theater.

Intriguing Mystery

Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito takes place over the course of a number of meetings between Kendra and her family members. Walsh’s script drops us right in the middle of an unspoken conflict clearly gnawing away at them, coloring every line with an anxious desire to defuse the tension in the room. But even when the audience is let in on the secret, the play maintains its mystery—shifting its curiosity towards each character and what could’ve led them to the uneasy bonds they share now. The show only ever hints at the larger world outside the space they inhabit, but these suggestions are enough to characterize this family as one driven by an almost dystopian economic desperation. 

Walsh’s scenes run long, perhaps excessively so in parts, especially in the production’s final, emotionally ambiguous gathering. As the conversations draw out, they risk over-emphasizing already-established dynamics and obstacles that we know the characters can’t seem to overcome. And yet, even just being immersed in the thought experiment of this family living like they do proves plenty intriguing. Acts of kindness can become cruel reminders of what the other person lacks, and love and attention become means to an end. Any trust in anything sincere or honest is ultimately corrupted.

Unraveling Performances

If Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito sounds too grim to find an emotional anchor in, it’s the cast that makes its layering of reality legible and surprisingly affecting. Soliman Cruz and Peewee O’Hara’s characters banter playfully in a way that feels totally improvised. But away from their children’s ears, the stress of their working class lives manifests on their exhausted bodies and in bitter curses escaping from their lips. Cruz’s Bob is frantic and barely able to manage all the responsibilities on his plate. Meanwhile, O’Hara’s Alice is the one who can stand toe-to-toe with her daughter and get her to lower her defenses—a move that can read as sweet, manipulative, or pragmatic at any given moment. 

If the parents are struggling to maintain control, the children threaten to unravel everything. Joshua Cabiladas’ Ben arrives with joy and charisma bursting out from him, but in a different light all his energy comes off like a cry for help, spiraling into a full-on, frightening mental breakdown. And while Thea Marabut’s Kendra may appear to be calling the shots, the way the actress regards her co-stars with pure disdain and horror shows that Kendra has long since trapped herself in this family without knowing how to excise herself from them.

Genuine Terror

It isn’t often that you encounter a play that’s truly scary, and Varela-Luarca fully pushes Walsh’s script into the realm of Lynchian existential dread. From the moment it begins, Varela-Luarca makes it clear that none of these people are as comfortable with each other as they should be. This itch remains for the entirety of the show, tension tightening like a guitar string, and the actors having nowhere else to go but backed up to the corners of the room. Even the production’s set design—a narrow triangular wedge with simple furniture and open doorways; bolstered by Jethro Nibaten’s eerie lights and Carlos Hombrebueno’s creeping sound—reinforces that the reality we’re seeing doesn’t offer much comfort.

At a certain point in the show, Kendra narrates a recurring nightmare she experiences. What Varela-Luarca does to visualize this, through the simplest tricks, is genuinely terrifying. It’s enough to make the atmosphere in the theater feel suddenly, irrationally unsafe. But more importantly, the play manages to reel us back out from the darkness, and into a rare moment of commiseration and understanding between Kendra and her mother. It would have been easy for Nagkatuwaan sa Tahanang Ito to settle for being just a disorienting, haunting experience. But for all of its bleakness and cynicism, it takes on the challenge of making something honest and human out of the wreckage anyway—and that makes all the difference.

 

Tickets: P800 – P1000
Show Dates: Dec 9–15 2024
Venue: Black Box Theater, Old Communication Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City
Running Time: approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes (without intermission)
Creatives: Sam Walsh (Playwright), Guelan Varela-Luarca (Translation and Direction), Paul Martinez (Costume Design), Jethro Nibaten (Lighting Design), Carlos Hombrebueno (Sound Design), Janina Mendoza (Movement Design), Zoë de Ocampo (Graphic Design)
Cast: Thea Marabut, Peewee O’Hara, Joshua Cabiladas, Soliman Cruz
Company: Mad Child Productions