Martin del Rosario and Elora Espano. Photo from the Facebook page of The IdeaFirst Company 

It was the year 1993. Peasant Nardo and his wife Emma were driven out of their village when it was attacked by the rebels. They became close friends with Joel, a soldier who helped them settle in this new community. One year after they met, on one night with an eclipse, Joel visited their shack to bring them some food, and also to play cards with them. However, when Nardo had to go fetch water at the well, Joel and Emma had other plans in mind. 

I first knew of this Jun Robles Lana work as a film that he both wrote and directed. The film was noted for its remarkable camera work as it followed the three main characters in one long continuous take in and around a small hut furnished only with a dining table and a bed, which notoriously included a 15-minute long sex scene. It starred Luis Alandy as Joel, Anthony Falcon as Nardo, and LJ Reyes, who won the Urian for Best Actress, as Emma.

It turned out that this material was actually first written as a one-act play in 1993, when Lana was only 20 years old. It won first place in the Bulwagang Gantimpala playwrighting contest back then. When Idea First decided to venture into producing theater plays, it seemed natural that "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" was their first choice. However, Lana decided to have someone else direct the project, a job which went to seasoned director Tuxqs Rutaquio.

The first time I watched this play was a "stripped-down" press preview show held last February 9 at the Arete in Ateneo. That show starred the main cast of this run, namely Martin del Rosario as Joel, Ross Pesigan as Nardo and Elora Espano as Emma. The second time I watched was during the regular run at the PETA Theater, starring the understudies, namely Edward Benosa as Joel, Vincent Pajara as Nardo and Denise Esteban as Emma.

At the Arete, director Rutaquio's set design consisted of a hut with a small dining table and a bed, a small closet, and a doorway. There were three columns at the back where shadowy trees were projected to represent the forest outside the house. The lighting design of John Batalla and the sound design of TJ Ramos complete the atmosphere of tension and dread. The show felt long, running for about 2 hours without an intermission.

Elora Espano and Ross Pesigan are veteran theater actors whose stage experience started in their student days in UP Diliman. Also very daring in her indie films, Espano captured the passionate fervor and mental alertness of Emma as she engaged in dangerous games. Pesigan imbued Nardo with an obfuscating air of blankness that may be interpreted as folly on one side, or cold-bloodedness on the other extreme.   

Movie and TV star Martin del Rosario is making his first foray on the legitimate stage with this play, and what an auspicious debut this was! Unlike other neophytes, del Rosario delivered Joel's kilometric lines with confidence and energy, giving them a 100% emotional wallop. He was very comfortable with his body even during sensual scenes in various stages of undress. He was never self-conscious, as if he had been doing stage work for years.  

At the PETA, the set was basically the same house and its furnishings we saw at the Arete, enhanced by more red lighting and more eerie sound effects. However, this time the three trees at the back of the house were huge three-dimensional tree replicas with thick roots. There was an area on stage where Emma would use real water to take a bath. This time around, the play felt brisker and more streamlined as expected, lasting only 1 hour 45 minutes without a break.

I had seen Vincent Pajara act on stage several times before, from "Ang Nawalang Kapatid" (2014) to "Sakuntala" (2017), to "Dekada 70" (2020). His Nardo felt more mature and confident, not a wimpy cuckold at all. Edward Benosa's voice sounded a bit hoarse, but he was still able to deliver convincingly as Joel, with his hefty build exuding swagger and sensuality. He just tended to have unnatural hand gestures which can be distracting. 

The biggest revelation here was VMX star Denise Esteban, who was also on her debut as a stage actress -- and what a difficult role she got right off the bat. During this regular run, there was actual back side nudity from Emma right from her very first scene bathing, then she got more daring during the sex scenes. Esteban's Emma really got the audience reacting during her scenes as we heard audible gasps and whispers with many of her explosive lines. 

The sex scenes during the regular run looked more graphic, but carefully blocked. However, more than these steamy moments, it was really still the complex, convoluted plotting of the story, and those lengthy, well-written arguments and counter-arguments about marital morality, or military-rebel conflicts, that held us rapt in attention throughout the play, until that intense final act. Watching it a second time around was even better.

IdeaFirst Live's production of Jun Lana's "Anino sa Likod ng Buwan" runs until March 23, 2025 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City. 

This review was originally published in the author's blog, “Fred Said.”