‘Septic Tank 4’ Turns Its Satire Toward Theater
It invites the dramatic arts companies into an ongoing conversation about the community’s direction.
The current consensus of many industry practitioners, writers and reviewers, and the audience is that Philippine theater—or at least, in Metro Manila—is experiencing a resurgence or a new golden age. “Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4: Oh Sh*t! It’s Live Sa Cheter!,” the forthcoming play of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), alternately affirms and questions that observation, then invites all the other theater companies to an ongoing discussion about their direction and future as a community. According to the creative team during the press conference on May 4, the play will do this in a spirit of fun, a lot of winking on the side, in effect encouraging artists to laugh at themselves while taking a good look at the mirror.
In an audio-visual presentation, playwright Chris Martinez gave a heads-up, “We’re really pushing the envelope here. A lot of meta moments, name-dropping, and spectacle.” He also promised “a lot of laughter, irreverence, a lot of daring.”
The excerpt shown during the press conference gave a small inkling of what is to come. The players’ dialogue traded in a lot of insider jokes: PETA’s “Rak of Aegis” being mounted for the nth time for commercial reasons; the unavailability of certain name writers who could have appeared in the production and possibly given it a boost; and the difference between the Dulaang UP school of acting and the thespic style of Repertory Philippines.
Director Maribel Legarda explained why the humor was necessary: “When we laugh, we let our guard down and sometimes recognize uncomfortable truths. That is where comedy becomes a mirror.”
Martinez gave examples of those uncomfortable questions and scenarios: “It’s also a good time for us to analyze: is it really the golden age of Philippine theater? … When you go out of the theater, siguro tatanungin mo talaga sa sarili mo: parang ang galing ng teatrong Pilipino, pero saan nga ba siya talaga pupunta?”
This call to self-reflection is one reason why the production essentially creates a play within a play. Playing herself, theater and film stalwart Eugene Domingo assembles a group of artists that will mount a production that supposedly will return theater to its more serious roots: Melvin Lee, Andoy Ranay, Meann Espinosa, JC Santos, Stella Cañete-Mendoza, Joshua Lim So, and Marlon Rivera, supported by the PETA ensemble.
Yet, ultimately, said Rivera, who plays the Director in the production, the material is “supposed to be a love letter to Philippine theater … to everyone here.”
Satire
Rivera and his long-time collaborator and college buddy Martinez own the intellectual property rights to the “Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank” film franchise, which first launched in 2011. Over the years, through various iterations of the independent movie, the duo satirized and poked fun at trends in the film industry like poverty porn, mainstream romantic comedies, and historical revisionism in the digital age. This fourth sequel will do the same for theater, but this time using live performance.
Rivera described the Septic Tank franchise DNA as the “appropriate material to interrogate whatever you want to interrogate right now.” At the same time, he considers himself, along with PETA where he has sat as a board member for more than a decade, as “insiders” in the community. This implies that the jokes and humor lobbed during the actual performance are not being launched by theater outsiders who can be insensitive or judgmental.
Legarda said Septic Tank’s focus on theater “feels particularly timely. Audiences are rediscovering the power of live performance—an immediate, shared experience that exists only while it’s happening.”
PETA Artistic Director J-Mee Katanyag concurred with the timing, especially after the company’s marketing arm suggested the inclusion of a theatrical version of the Septic Tank film franchise in the season: “Given the golden age of Philippine theater, baka oras na nailagay natin ang sarili natin sa septic tank bilang art o theater community.”
On a personal level, Domingo affirmed that it was also “the right time for me to be given the chance to be a part of the golden age of Philippine theater.” She had noted that ”not only one, or two, or three, or the established theater groups are all really blooming and producing. We also have independent theater.”
Domingo was indispensable to greenlighting the production. Mounting a Septic Tank sequel in any form without her was simply unthinkable. Preparation took about a year, with a lot of back-and-forth communication happening between her, PETA, Rivera, and Martinez.
Once Domingo’s participation was assured, Martinez started casting actors for the onstage roles of director, lead actor, and producer, among others. A tougher kind of commitment to the art and the production would be required. Domingo and the core of actors—Lee (the producer), Rivera (the director), Santos (lead actor), and Lim (writer)—will not have alternates during the production’s entire run which will consist of 50 performances. The reason: they will be playing dramatic arts “archetypes” as well as “hyper-real versions of themselves.”
Questions and connections
This chosen core also has strong ties to the theater as an art form and a community. During the selection process, Martinez conducted in-depth interviews, asking them questions like “What does theater really mean for you? Why are you still in the theater when you already have all these options in front of you?”
The material will continue asking questions about theater from the viewers and the artists during the run, mainly about the future of the art form that matters to all of them. Katanyag said that this play does not promise answers, but hopefully the resultant flow of ideas will help inform their future actions “whether we’re actors, creators, reviewers, audience.”
Lee said that neither the play nor PETA will “prescribe” any answers as to where the golden age of Philippine theater will end up. “Each theater company should answer that question and the theater community should define the direction of Philippine theater,” he said. “Pero kung titingnan mo ang pangkalahatang estado at direksyon ng dulaan sa Pilipinas, kailangan natin mag-usap-usap, panindigan at i-articulate kung saan nga ba natin ito dadalhin.”
Still, throughout the inside jokes and mirroring going on, Domingo says that the play’s discussion about Philippine theater is “serious.” First, cast and crew will pull out all stops to show the audience the demands that are expected of theater professionals: “Everybody is required to be a triple threat. We’re going to sing, dance, and act. We’re fighting and making you laugh.”
Domingo paused, then named the ultimate takeaway they hope the audience will get out of the play: “Most of all, you get out of the theater a little smarter, a little prouder, and a little more nationalistic.”
“Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4: Oh Sh*t! It’s Live Sa Cheter!” will run for 50 shows from June 19 to August 16, 2026, at the PETA Theater Center. Matinee shows are at 2:00 pm, evening shows at 7:30 pm.
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