The Dressing Room

        To conclude its 40th season, Dulaang UP stages The Dressing Room: That Which Flows Away Ultimately Becomes Nostalgia, a post-war Japanese play by Shimizu Kunio. The show was performed with an all-female cast in English and with an all-male ensemble in Filipino. The English version was written by Chiori Miyagawa while the Filipino translation is by Nicolas Pichay. The production is under the direction of Alexander Cortez.

        The whole play was literally set in the dressing room, where actors and actresses prepare and wait for their turn on stage. However, in this case, the thespians eternally wait for their chance. The tale revolves on four actresses who wanted to portray a coveted lead role.

        The story starts with two old theater ghosts who were dressed in Japanese robes and faces covered with white makeup. They pass their time by pulling pranks on the living actors and exchanging famous lines from Shakespearean and Chekhovian plays. Then, a middle-aged woman comes in who is rehearsing her lines for the lead role of Nina. Later, a sickly young lady enters who tells the woman that she wants her role back. The two actresses fight for the role and eventually the young girl dies. She then joins the old ghosts and they endlessly wait for their shot to be seen on stage.

        Personally, I think the play shows the struggles and frustrations of theater actors. We see their real stories behind the stage, the dressing room. We see their longing to portray a major role or simply just any role that had lines and didn’t just stand on the sides, their dream to be seen and be known on stage.

        For me, I really liked how the story ended in full-circle. A new day starts and the ghosts come in again and repeat their routine. It reveals that they will never have their chance on the spotlight. They were forever stuck on putting makeup and throwing notable lines of characters that they wish but will never get to portray.

        I also commend the actresses especially the two who played the ghosts. They were entertainingly funny but you could also feel their frustrations in their acting careers. I also really like the set design. It came off like a three-dimensional set and was truly spectacular. Overall, the play had an ethereal feel and was hauntingly beautiful.

        All in all, I can say that the play was great. I believe that theater enthusiasts will really love and relate to it. I think The Dressing Room, a story about the theater, is a wonderful play to end the current season of Dulaang UP.

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