Makbetamaximus.45
Photo by Khavn De La Cruz
A testament to the power of hybrid theatre during the pandemic, Makbetamaximus.45: This is not a rap opera by Khavn is Tanghalang Ateneo’s gritty and innovative season finale for Pagbabanyuhay/Season of Adaptation in early 2021, in collaboration with Kamias Overground. An irreverent Filipinized hybrid adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the multimedia play traces the rise and fall of Ferdz Pakbet as he tries to take over a local carinderia to gain power over the drug ring behind it.
Refusing to be confined to either the online or physical space, all of the invited performers and collaborators involved in Makbetamaximus accomplished their own individual and group performances ranging from songs, improvised pieces, dances, meditation, visual art creation, and more for a 29-day multimedia festival called Sodom29, with all pre-recorded and live videos streamed on Facebook Live. Selected footage was edited into the final 45-minute online show that focused on the main narrative. Makbetamaximus.45 was the longest-running staging of Macbeth that was produced during the global pandemic.
Roles: Mariya, Sisa
Written by Khavn De La Cruz and Layeta Bucoy
Direction by Khavn De La Cruz
Dramaturgy by Dominique La Victoria
Tanghalang Ateneo
Hybrid production: online, various places across the Philippines (2021)
Photos by Khavn De La Cruz
“It wants us to be hyperaware of every moving piece that makes up the whole, of our act of viewing, or our being distracted as we watch this thing from our homes. Makbet is theater just as much as it is online content.”
— ‘Makbetamaximus’: Election as Tragedy by Emil Hofileña, originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
Solo Performance
For Sodom29, Bea devised a one-hour Twister-inspired improvised performance as Sisa from Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. Creating a twisted version of the popular party game, she had audience members direct her positions on the mat and request songs, nursery rhymes, and other texts for her to recite as her character begged for help to search for her missing sons. Her performance was streamed simultaneously through Facebook Live on the laptop and Instagram Live on the iPhone, providing participants with two different perspectives of her character’s agony.
Watch her full performance on Facebook and YouTube.