Iza Calzado stars in 'Tiny Beautiful Things: A Play about Life in Letters.' The Sandbox Collective 

All of us need a little Sugar in our lives.

That is what I took away from the Sandbox Collective’s production of "Tiny Beautiful Things: A Play about Life in Letters," based on a book by Cheryl Strayed as adapted for the stage by "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star Nia Vardalos.

In these interactions through letters, advice columnist Sugar welcomes the audience, as well as letter writers seeking advice to her living space.

Under the deft direction of theater veteran Jenny Jamora, the cast does justice to all of these letters, mind you, real letters from real people.

For a fan of Iza Calzado, the movie star, this made me a fan of Iza Calzado, the stage actress. While she has dipped her toes into the theater in the past, it’s brave of her to be top-billed in a production like this. Circuit Makati’s black box theater was set up as an intimate theater in the round where I, even at the topmost row,  was close enough to see every nuanced movement on stage.

Calzado is blessed with such an expressive face. She naturally goes from foolish grins, irritation, sidelong sarcasm, to prolonged looks of anguish.

Now, this was no ordinary script. These were full-length letters and I really applaud Calzado and the cast for the empathic delivery of these without skipping a beat.

Iza Calzado with Rody Vera, Brian Sy and Gabby Padilla. The Sandbox Collective 

More often a faceless name in a playbill much like the play’s letter writers, another surprise is the extremely rare appearance of playwright Rody Vera on stage. Here he brings a weary, sometimes cantankerous, elderly man on stage. His bouts of anger when he asks the particularly all-encompassing “WHAT THE F—K?” question are among the best sequences of the play.

Gabby Padilla, representing women wise beyond their years, plays the gamut from naïve to ditzy to pained. I last saw her in “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” where there was a sequence where her face was projected on stage larger than life. That dramatic flair added a lot of depth to the more serious letters of hers.

At first, Ketchup Eusebio’s Filipino-accented English seemed out of place. But as the play went on, it made the cast of characters more diverse. Eusebio’s charm, particularly when he puts on a hokey head scratching confused persona, gets laughter and cringe effortlessly.

The set reminded me of the recent "Request Sa Radyo" living space complete with different rooms and working furniture, albeit this one was more upper class with how airy and open it was. Even the pre-show sequence, where the cast went about the mundane cleaning and clearing of clutter was sort of fun in its own way.

Speaking of the preshow, there are repeated gentle reminders that there is no intermission in this production. Believe me, heed the warning to go to the toilets as the play will probably extend beyond the advertised 80-minute runtime.

That is actually a good thing because the sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, and sometimes bitter words in these letters and words deserve to be savored. The cast’s deliberate pacing with pauses peppered in to let these words sink in were much appreciated.

All in all, this was a poignant play about life with relatable situations. I left the theater with the comfort that while we are often in need of advice, we are also givers of advice,

The cast, led by Calzado, did justice to the material. There are adult themes so best leave the kids at home. 

This was a great real debut of Calzado into the world of Philippine stage and I hope her fans follow her into the theater.

If that signals a new group of fans discovering the world of Philippine theater, then that is no tiny beautiful thing.

That’s a BIG BEAUTIFUL THING.