REVIEW: ‘Double Take’ is a disjointed attempt to reconcile with broken bonds of the past
“Featuring the plays ‘AL.TER’ and ‘Reverse Card,’ this twin bill strands its promising performances in a production that lacks coherence and emotional weight.”
Before Kho-Lab Productions and Artist Playground’s Double Take twin bill begins, a voiceover delivers an uncommonly thorough content advisory warning, cautioning viewers about the sensitive themes ahead and providing information about crisis hotlines in case of emergency. It’s quite the thoughtful gesture, especially seeing as both plays featured here immediately establish themselves against a backdrop of death and violence, as told from the perspectives of gay men living in the Philippines.
The first play, AL.TER (written by Paul Jake Paule, under the pseudonym Pablo Joaquin), finds its protagonist being given a chance at atonement when he suddenly encounters the exact look-alike of his late partner in a department store. The second, Reverse Card (written by Chase Kyle Loza), follows the reunion of a gay man with his high school bully, as they meet at the former’s apartment to hook up—only for various secrets to come to light.
However, despite these promising set-ups, Double Take ultimately feels stuck at the idea stage. Even with its glimmers of good performance from several of its actors, the production is unable to display the tension and emotional messiness that its stories deserve—while the scripts themselves lack the clarity and coherence of vision to allow their strange character interactions and haphazardly deployed twists to carry any substantial weight.
AL.TER
AL.TER begins with an admittedly intriguing image—a bed acts as the play’s centerpiece, at first located in an apartment, then in the middle of a department store. This space that’s meant to be safe and intimate is instead used for a secret tryst at the top of the show, then reduced into a display piece devoid of personal meaning. Unfortunately, as the house lights come up on a sleeping Al (played by Johnrey Rivas, alternating with CJ Tiongson and John Ven Soco), the play becomes a less inspired creation.
L-R: Drei Arias, Johnrey Rivas in AL.TER; Photo Credit: Kho-Lab Productions
Rivas has sincerity to spare, especially when he first discovers Ter’s (Drei Arias, alternating with Soco and James Ramada) lifeless body, then meets his doppelgänger. But Paule’s direction essentially pulls his actors out from what should be a surreal experience fraught with fear and regret and turns it into something closer to a meet-cute. It becomes hard to believe that Al has lost the person he loves after a heated, unresolved argument—and it’s even harder to believe that the “new” Ter would even entertain the ramblings of this stranger he meets in the department store. Arias’ oscillation between stoicism and heartbreak registers as flat, and his delivery is so soft that his voice is barely picked up by the microphones.
AL.TER is meant to be the protagonist’s last chance to find closure, but the play doesn’t truly make him confront his sins. The forgiveness offered to him is really just an empty show of courtesy. But rather than come to terms with this unease, the script tries to fashion it into a cheap moral lesson. Al is never challenged with actually correcting his behavior.
Reverse Card
Following this 30-minute first act, the hour-long Reverse Card keeps the bed on stage but builds a much more lived-in apartment setting around it. To this play’s credit, it manages to create a fair bit of suspense through its physical space—whether the characters are occupying different areas, or whether the empty bedroom lies in full view, creating a vague sense of anticipation for what might still transpire between the two men. However, again, the promise of this setting is gradually lost through the story’s meandering twists and turns.
L-R: Gerald Magallanes, Gerhard Krysstopher in Reverse Card; Photo Credit: Kho-Lab Productions
The performers here are clearly more than willing to push themselves to darker territory. As the seemingly innocent Marvin, Gerhard Krysstopher (alternating with Jarold Brimbuela and Inah Evans) maintains a charismatic front as he receives his former bully at the front door, but also reveals deep-seated trauma and a reemerging bitterness for how he was treated. Meanwhile, Gerald Magallanes (alternating with Drei Arias and Lance Cabradilla) is an appropriately sleazy portrait of machismo in denial. But as competent as these actors are, it’s difficult to trace their characters’ psychological arcs; they aren’t able to tie one acting choice logically to the next.
Reverse Card explores familiar ground for a thriller, but falls into the trap of taking left turns that feel random rather than dramatically earned—the supposed tension generated by these new details masking the lack of a stronger underlying structure. The long conversations between the characters stagger between awkwardly timed jokes and sudden recollections of violence from the past, and the script doesn’t give itself enough space to really unpack how Marvin’s desire for revenge is ultimately more self-destructive than restorative.
Double Take
On paper, staging these plays together does make sense, with each one attempting to talk about past lives that these men can no longer return to. Unfortunately, this unifying idea behind the show is significantly weakened by lackluster technical qualities—poor sound, several rickety pieces of furniture, faint projection—and direction that primarily seems to consider these scripts from moment to moment instead of executing them as full, flowing pieces. To be fair, Paule still knows how to set a tone, especially with the use of lights: in AL.TER, the threesome that begins the piece is done to a pulsing beat and a splash of red against the back wall. In Reverse Card, various colors switch on during tense moments or traumatic flashbacks. But Paule’s movement from scene to scene is also disjointed, his pacing slowing to a crawl in both acts.
In the end, as much as Double Take touches on darker and occasionally taboo subject matter, these serious elements still come off muted. Both plays can’t help but feel like they lack weight because these characters are unconvincing—acting in ways that aren’t clearly motivated, and at ease around one another even if there’s nothing comfortable about their circumstances. And if it was Double Take’s intention to explore these contradictions, the show doesn’t possess a strong enough visual language or directorial vision to effectively make a case for its seeming inconsistencies. The experiences that this production depicts onstage are no doubt informed by real grief and anger; it’s the attempt to express these feelings through these plays that falls flat.
This reviewer watched the 8 PM, May 27 press preview.
Tickets: P1,500
Show Dates: May 29 – June 21, 2026
Venue: Illumination Studio, Bangkal, Makati City
Running Time: approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes (with a 15-minute intermission)
Company: Kho-Lab Productions, Artist Playground
Creatives: Paul Jake Paule (Playwright for AL.TER, Direction), Chase Kyle Loza (Playwright for Reverse Card), Robert Macaraeg (Assistant Direction), Dyn Altiche (Costume Design)
Cast: AL.TER: Johnrey Rivas, CJ Tiongson, Drei Arias, James Ramada, John Ven Soco, John Dave Pajanustan, Ian Nepomuceno, Janine Chua | Reverse Card: Gerhard Krysstopher, Inah Evans, Jarold Brimbuela, Gerald Magallanes, Drei Arias, Lance Cabradilla
Comments