‘Yemaya’: A magical realism play that re-examines migration and the American dream
Yemaya, 9 Works Theatrical’s first straight play, may be based on “obscure” material, as company managing director Santi Santamaria himself admitted during the media roundtable on May 22, but its message about migration, aspirations, and the American dream may cut close to home—especially in a country like the Philippines where millions of its citizens have opted to work overseas to find a better life.
The title is the name of the ocean goddess of Santeria, which is described as a Cuban-based religion that is a fusion of African traditions and the Roman Catholic veneration of saints. The deity is brought to life in the play by acclaimed theater artist Bituin Escalante who describes her character as a harbinger of both good and evil to the individuals of the little fictional town in Cuba who take the raft and immigrate to the United States.
“I am their protector or their destroyer, I am their alpha and omega,” Escalante tantalizingly hints, adding this age-old cautionary observation: “Kasi kung ano ang gusto mo, iyun din ang puwedeng pumatay sa iyo.”
According to director Ed Lacson Jr., the material is steeped in “magical realism” with shifts from this real world into another more surreal reality or another location. The proximity between the two nations where the action apparently happens—Cuba and the U.S.—is also essential to the plot development. The cast was tight-lipped during the interviews, not willing to give any spoilers away. Still, Escalante promised twists and turns of the unexpected, saying that of the many theater productions that the audience has seen and knows about, “we know their stories and what’s coming.” But in Yemaya, the audience “doesn’t know what’s coming” or possibly can’t anticipate it.
Lacson, who also designed the set, says that among the elements that drew him to pick the material out of many that he had read are the “images [which] are really just not something you would normally see on most of the scripts.” The ocean is an important driver of the drama. Lacson gave a preview, saying, “There is a passage in the script that [has] things float in and out of the surface. You don’t know if you’re underwater, above water—but the water is always present. There are images of floating in the water, so all of our sentences are tied up with ropes, water, boulders.”
An epic journey
9 Works Theatrical’s Yemaya is actually Eljay Castro Deldoc’s Filipino translation of Yemaya’s Belly by Quiara Alegría Hudes, who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Water by the Spoonful. Theater aficionados will probably recognize Hudes as the writer of the book of the popular musical In the Heights.
According to the production notes, at the heart of the drama is the epic journey of a young boy, Jesus/Mulo, who “ traverses the lands and seas in search of his true place in the world.” Cursory internet research reveals more details from the original play: the very first taste of a thirst-quenching Coca-Cola spurs the Cuban lad to seek another world beyond his family’s humble farm. One of his well-meaning, if naive objectives: a meeting with the all-powerful American president.
Lacson acknowledged that the play taps into that familiar “feeling of wanting to move to the U.S. This idea of the American life. That’s why I say it’s a migration story.” At the same time, he maintained that the 9 Works Theatrical production “is a translation, not an adaptation. We’re not moving the setting to the Philippines. There are just a lot of nuances in the script that cannot be fully moved into a different location.”
Escalante added that “there was never a need to adapt [the material] to the Filipino experience” because it “moves you deeply and speaks to you so much.”
At the same time, the hero’s journey symbolizes more than just the usual dream of getting a US visa, a green card, or foreign citizenship. It speaks of venturing beyond one’s comfort zone to fulfill heartfelt aspirations, no matter how seemingly impossible. “We always think of something: to live in the mountains or on the beach,” Lacson elaborated. “Or kapag lumaki ako, yayaman ako. Even as a kid, mababaw siya kung hindi mo siya iniisip, but it kind of drives you. And then when you grow up and realize the world that you actually live in – then that notion of moving away becomes more real.”
A matter of balance
Some of the cast and creative team can identify with or relate to the material because they have worked overseas. Lacson himself first read Yemaya’s Belly in August 2025 while staging performances and Broadway musicals on a Norwegian cruise line. “I’m in the middle of the ocean reading a script about the ocean,” he mused, “about a boy who wanted to find a better life, which was very relatable to me at the time.”
He obtained his first cruise line contract a few years ago, shortly after the pandemic, working his way up to his current senior stage manager position. His “constant proximity with water, the ocean, ports, and sailboats” helped shape his direction of the material.
Just like Yemaya’s young hero, Lacson found that once leaving the comfort of home, he had to adjust to a different cultural setting and prove himself to strangers who had no idea of his achievements in his home country. “When you work on a cruise ship, you’re basically an OFW,” Lacson said, “Parang nag-migrate ka to another country.”
“I had to remove myself from a community that I’m already very familiar with and then transplant myself in an international working environment,” he continued, explaining another reason why he could relate to the play. “I’m completely new. Nobody knows about my work. You don’t have anything to bank on except for real skill. But eventually, when you put in the work, you show them that you do have the skills to perform.”
Interestingly, Benedix Ramos, who alternates with Tommy Alejandrino in playing Jesus/Mulo, says that not all of the younger generation of Filipinos are enamored of the idea of going overseas. Compared to the previous generations, he believes that today’s Filipino millennials and Gen-Zers have more access to platforms and digital tools that give them a voice and can help them effect change. He said, “Because nowadays, I think puwede makatulong ang social media sa generation ngayon at hindi na magplaplano na lumabas ng bansa. Kasi kaya naman dito sa Pilipinas. Kaya naman nating gawin kung tutuusin.”
It is a sentiment that the character of veteran actor and director Herbie Go can relate to. He plays Tico, the buko vendor who advises Yemaya’s young adventurer *not* to take the journey. Tico represents the Cuban community who acts as “the voice telling the hero, ‘No! Your soul is in here.’”
Some of the creative team can again relate to the hero’s juggling act because they just might be trying to find their place in the intersecting space of two worlds.
Lacson shared that he “is planning” to migrate to another location outside the country. At the same time, similar to his current 9 Works Theatrical scenario, he is more than willing to return to his theater family in the Philippines to direct again, should the right opportunity arise.
Go, who has been staying in the Philippines since 2020, will be returning to the US later this year. The actor in him finds creative fulfillment by performing in experimental plays off-off-off Broadway. Go, who has lived in New York for more than 15 years, does have a more realistic perspective of the “constant American dream of the people, the grind every day.” And there are times, like his character Tico, who is loyal to the Cuban community, he tends to “miss home so much.”
In a sense, the hero’s external quest for that something better might need to be balanced by a deeper search for meaning that can be realized internally. As Escalante described another part of the material that resonated with her powerfully, “it’s the lost horizon … the lost kingdom … the home for decades.”
Yemaya will be showing on all weekends from June 13 until July 5, 2026, at 8:00 PM on Fridays, 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Makati
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