Xander Returns 2016: If you missed it, you are a sad soul and here’s why
If I were asked by my theatre teacher asked me to write an essay about Xander: Returns, I would proudly entitle it “Sh!t, ang ganda. F***, ang ganda talaga. Last na, ang ganda. You have just missed a great work of art if you didn’t watch it, sayang. #MissedOpportunities ”. To build on my thesis statement/title/Hashtag, allow me support my argument with spoilers.
Kidding, I do not want to be responsible for ruining your experience of the play…. should it be re-runned again. Can anyone say **fingers crossed**?
Since I was able to watch the first version, the storyline of the Returns has tied loose ends and improved itself with mega booster jets. The playwright and Palanca awardee, Christian Vallez/Juan Ekis/X, did mention to me before that there are plot holes and discrepancies that he had to iron out with the initial script, to which he did. Not only did he iron them out, the also gave the whole story line a new iOS system with lazer lights and bacon bits. Yes, the play was as good as oven-baked-then-fried bacon. As for the script, it was funny, realistic, and for some weird reason, it made me love our local language more. I know that some of the lines might be ad-libbed by the actors but regardless, Xander was such a healthy use of our native language. Tagalog is not dead, it is very much a live and it is funny.
To whoever made Annie’s Bulalakaw, Friendzone, and Moment song, one of Taylor Swift’s Grammys deserves to be placed on a shelf in your house (Sorry, I don’t know who the music person is but wonderful job). These are three of my favourite new songs, sadly, they are not available on Spotify. I also nor randomly chant chugi, chugi, chorva and Xander-O-Yeah. Should you have released/sold some CDs of the soundtrack, I would be more than happy to buy a copy. They were Filipino tuned but they didn’t sound jej or humiliating (Yes, some local songs are humiliating). I immediately wanted to sing along to your songs in the shower, but if I was given quality vocal chords by God, I would sing them in the office, in the bus, in the mall, everywhere. I know that the actors are not professional singers but you guys were able to pull it off. Congratulations to you too, Joel Parcon, for training them.
P.S. Please submit your songs to radio stations, I am so tired of hearing God Gave Me You or selfie songs in my Grab rides. Our city deserves locally grown songs from local talent that doesn’t sound like garbage. Your sings hit so close to the heart with a very catchy tune, I was hooked the entire show and I am so hoping for an OST on Spotify.
As for the actors, I can’t enumerate each of you but all of you did a wonderful job. I know that some of you are veterans (Hello, Iggy Z.) and some of you are completely new to theatre (Hello, freshmen people who I do not know of) but all of you were great. Pursue this passsion for theatre, we need more actors in this world (on-stage that is). Art will bring you far, trust me and trust it [art]. I know that all of you have sacrificed time and effort during rehearsals and let me speak on behalf of all the people who have watched, thank you. Thank you for the visual treat that I think any other theatre group will have one-hell-of-a-difficult time to duplicate. Thank you so much.
A certain part in the play is a moment where Alexis gets all the power and magnetically pulls people near him. You know that scene where Hulk punches the floor and all the things around him jump? Yes, they were able to do this on stage. Each member synchronized to the rise and fall. It looked and felt so real and I have never seen this in my life. I was thinking of saying that it was like watching a movie scene that was constructed for months in terms of post-editing and special effects. But no, this was not movie magic. This was the magic of getting theatre actors to work together to make something the audience would react to. Breath-taking, heart-stopping, and unforgettably remarkable. All of you have out-done yourselves.
In the end, the cast says goodbye to Xander in a song (obviously, since this is a musical) and as I watched, I felt that each member performing was not saying goodbye to a fictional character but to the play that has been (but I could only assume) a great part of their lives. Maybe it was just me, but I knew that that goodbye was meant as truthfully as they close the show’s run.
To the peopel who have failed to watch Xander Returns, I don’t know what your excuse was for not watching (I am looking at you: students who easily have access to the play) but I only have one word for you: sayang (Alas, you have missed out).
This is a play that deserves your time as much as that exam. This is a play that deserves to be paid for because we need to support (the really good) local acts. This is a play that deserves to be watched because the time you spent not watching the play is (in my opinion) wasted.
I’m not saying that it changed my life but it has left… or rather, replenished my craving for art and most specifically, theatre. If only I have made time for this earlier in my calendar and watched an eariler show rather than the last show. UGH. I would have pulled my family clan, my friends and my workmates to watch this. I am sorry for each of the empty seats because you do not deserve to run a show with an empty seat. The glory and the form of the show deserves to be watched by a full house… however, such is life.
With the stressful life I live, I often see travelling as my destresser. This weekend, not only was I fortunate enough to see the last run of this play but I, without placing it on my calendar, traveled. Last night, I was not in Pasig, I was not in UA&P, I was not in Dizon Auditorium; I was in outer space with Xander and the Amazonas and the other pangkalawakan katropas (Space groups). I do not mean this in the whole “breaking the fourth wall” sense, I mean this in ever sense of the word. I was there. I was in outerspace, I was in the spaceship, I was in the madness with all of you.
Much thanks and praise to the cast and production for this out-of-this-world show (literally). Your last show did not deserve the empty seats, you deserve a full house standing and cheering for you and what you all have made together.
Much Love,
Pat
