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Khavn’s hybrid theater ‘SMAK!’ brings Bituin Escalante and Bong Cabrera back on the live stage in Berlin
The Philippines, having one of the longest lockdowns since the start of the pandemic two years ago, has become a barren land for theater actors. Besides financial constraints and safety protocols, theater companies have since decided to shift to streaming archival works or producing plays shot like films for online viewing.
Though a brave, few groups are testing the waters to open their doors to a live audience, many opted to remain close.
The opportunity to perform again before a crowd came to Bong Cabrera and Bituin Escalante in the form of a hybrid theatrical production in Berlin via Kamias Road, Quezon City.
We’re referring to filmmaker-musician-poet Khavn de la Cruz’s “SMAK! SuperMacho AntiKristo: A Headless 100-Act Opera To Mend All Broken Bicycles Of The Universe According To Jarry & Rizal By Khavn, Grand Seer Of The Philippine KKKingdom”.
“SMAK!” for short, it is Khavn’s homage to French poet-dramatist Alfred Jarry and our national hero, Jose Rizal.
“I discovered Alfred Jarry when I was in my favorite theatre and film bookstore in Amsterdam around 15 years ago and found a copy of his book ‘Ubu Roi’,” Khavn told us via FB messenger.
“Ubu Roi” or “King Ubu” is Jarry’s most influential work, a parody on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” “Hamlet” and “King Lear,” using street slang words. It was staged for one-day-only in December, 1896. “The same month and year when Rizal was executed. So I thought, there’s a connection there,” Khavn said.
Thus, born ‘SMAK!’, a modern theater of the absurd combined with silent cinema, avant-rock music and spoken-word poetry to be staged at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin with Filipino and German actors from April 13 to April 28.
Khavn described “SMAK!” as a revenge tale about mother-warrior who lost her children in 38th century Mondo Europa. It has a film component produced by Achinette Villamor, titled “SMAK!: Nitroglycerin in the Pomegranate.”
With seven performances, each lasting five hours at Volksbuehne’s 850-seat theater with a live audience, Cabrera and Escalante are elated and thankful to be part of “SMAK!”
The last time Escalante performed in a theatrical production with a live audience was for Trumpets re-staging of “Joseph The Dreamer” at the Globe Auditorium in BGC. It ran from the 3rd weekend of February until the 1st weekend of March in 2020, one week before the government imposed the first lockdown in Metro Manila.
Escalante plays Mamamakbet, the queen of the main character named Ubulbulul, played by German actor Daniel Zillmann.
Khavn told us, “[She is] the original Lady Macbeth. A Scottish vampire from the 11th Century. She constantly sleepwalks with lots of blood, shit, and cum on her hands. She always whispers plots into Ubulbulul's ear. Evil gossip monger who fucks everyone and everything. She uses her enormous vagina, mouth, and asshole to hypnotize. Ubulbulul is her 12th husband. Takes her name from ‘Lady Macbeth’, and ‘Makbetamaximus: Theater of Destruction – This is Not a Rap Opera by Khavn’. Pakbet refers to a Filipino dish of bitter melon and fermented shrimp paste.”
“Makbetamaximus” is another hybrid theater with film components by Khavn, produced by Tanghalang Ateneo and was streamed in the middle of 2021.
Meanwhile, the “SMAK!” gig came to Cabrera like a theatrical oasis after a long journey.
“I’m very excited to be doing all the processes inside the theater at makadama ulit ng [and to feel the] energy ng audience. Though the rehearsal process is different here,” Cabrera told us via FB messenger.
His role is called Pope Mustard, the spiritual head of Ubulbulul’s kingdom.
As Khavn described Pope: “He has also mastered the history of Philippine dance from the third to 38th centuries. Became the pope through the nunnery route. Believes that baptism by his piss is good for the pores and the best path to salvation. Is in consultation with Faustrollol for bottling and marketing his holy water. Comes from Jarry’s The Pope’s Mustard Maker, which is about the legend of Pope Joan.”
Cabrera continues: “This is the first time I am doing face-to-face, from rehearsal to staging. So, parang normal na rehearsal dati sa Pilipinas. ‘Yun lang, I am in a different country and under contract ako sa Volksbuehne.”
He said he misses the sight and feel of a sea of faces laughing, smiling, frowning and clapping together.
“Sa live performances nakaka-miss ‘yung mafi-feel mo ang init ng energy, ‘yung maririnig mo ang reactions ng tao real-time. They also feed your performance.
“It makes the experience kasi na buo. ‘Yun ‘yung pinaka na-miss ko. Yung ramdam mo hininga nila, maaamoy mo sila to a point,” he added.
“SMAK!” is produced by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.
Cabrera and Escalante together with other Filipino musician-actors Bullet Dumas, Roxlee, Jonathan Reyes or King John of Hobbit House, and Khavn himself, will act and perform in “SMAK!” in all seven performances in April.
Afterwards, “SMAK!” will be part of the Volksbuehne’s repertoire for the rest of the year with all-German actors based in Berlin.
Female lead of “SMAK!” is German superstar Lilith Stangenberg, who plays Sisa Jarry. The past two years, Stangenberg has been in the Philippines many times. She has acted in Khavn’s recently finished films “Orphea” (2020) and “Love Is A Dog From Hell” (2021).
In the international scene, Stangenberg has just finished “Seneca: On The Creation of Earthquakes” for director Robert Schwentke. She plays Paulina, the wife of John Malkovich’s character, the Roman philosopher Seneca. This is now in post-production and also has Geraldine Chaplin, Mary Louise Parker and Julian Sands in the cast.
As of posting, Villamor said tickets for the premiere night of “SMAK!” on April 13 are nearly sold out. Prior to “SMAK!” there’s a also month-long retrospective of Khavn’s 15 films starting April 7 at the 24-hour cinema truck of the Volksbuehne Theater. The opening film is “Love Is A Dog From Hell,” topbilled by Stangenberg.
— LA, GMA News
