In 2012, Tanghalang Ateneo staged Suzue Toshiro’s Fireflies with the playwright himself in attendance. Impressed by the production, Suzue Toshiro gave the director, Ricardo Abad, English translations of two of his other plays for him to direct. In 2016, Abad directed one of these two plays, My Friend Has Come, which was premiered at Dito: Bahay ng Sining in Marikina and later shown in New Delhi as part of the Asia-Pacific Bond of Theater Schools Festival in New Delhi. Abad now directs the other play, If He Doesn’t See Your Face to complete a trilogy of Suzue Toshiro’s works.
ABOUT THE PLAY
If He Doesn’t See Your Face asks how two people can continue to love each other despite acute physical and emotional constraints. A wife visits her husband in prison. It is not her first visit, nor is it the first time that the husband has been imprisoned for theft. The whole play is a conversation – the couple is separated by a glass window. The husband is pleased about the visit but the wife is anxious: how can she continue to hold on to a marriage and take care of a child if her husband continues to steal and be sent to prison? Their conversation builds to an emotional pitch, “Why do you steal?” the wife pleads. She continues, “I know you love me, but no doubt you’ll steal again. Just loving me is not enough.” The husband manages, a wife persists, and the exchange escalates. Soon one realizes that the glass wall separating the couple represents a more serious obstacle, the inability to access each other’s thoughts and feelings.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Playwright: Suzue Toshiro
Direction: Ricardo Abad
Production & Sound Design: Tata Tuviera
Technical Direction & Lighting Design: D Cortezano
Actors: Delphine Buencamino and Brian Sy
VENUE
The Doreen Black Box,
3RD Floor Soledad V. Pangilinan Arts Wing,
Areté, Ateneo De Manila University
TICKET PRICES
PHP 400 – Regular Tickets
PHP 320 – Senior/PWD Discounts
PHP 250 – Students and Ateneo Employees
CONTACT PERSON
Ivy Baggao
Theater and Events Officer, Arete
fbaggao@ateneo.edu