Icebag is a play staged every semester in the University of the Philippines Los Baños. It is the most awaited stage play of all. This semester’s performance is its eighth, the farewell performance of Kiko, the main character, Rand, Kiko’s lover, and Chan, a dream girl.

The play was divided into two parts. The first part was composed of 17 monologues, well, it was 24 when I saw it on its first show, a monologue representing an hour of a day. The second part was the love stories. Yes, plural. Think of all kinds of love, and put them all together. Gay love, lesbian love, unreturned love, love that transcended time, adulterous love, friendly love, et cetera. It may seem to be too crammed up, but that is what makes it a great play. You see a lot, hear a lot, and learn a lot, but you only watched one stage play.

The play had enough publicity even before it was practiced so it didn’t really need that much effort on that field. It was the talk inside and outside the university campus. There was also all those bond papers with “… loves ICEBAG8” everywhere: waiting sheds, light posts, walls, etc. It’s hard to miss them that you will look ignorant if you haven’t heard of it.

Its first night was a Monday, and classes were suspended that day so some students only returned to UPLB just to see it. I saw it on its first night. It was staged at the New College of Arts and Sciences Auditorium. The line was fine except that instead of letting us in by 7pm, it was delayed by 3o minutes, or so. And there were also a lot of people who just fell in line with those they know who are near the doors already, so it was kind of unfair to those at the latter part of the line. Getting inside wasn’t pleasant, though we waited for longer than expected in line. The softness of our seats was enough to make apologies for our standing to long outside. Inside, we still had to wait for some time before the play actually started. There was a live band playing while we waited, so I guess they anticipated that it would take some more time before it starts.

The singing of our National Anthem started the play. It was sung by a character in the play, and the flag was lifted and waved by a character also. I can tell that they would be acting too because they were wearing heavy makeup and wearing clothes that would be considered too much if that would be the only thing they would do that night.

Everything went dark again, and then the red lights turned on, and there was the first character to do a 12-midnight-monologue. After his monologue, everything went dark again. And when the lights were on again, a different character was on stage, and he did a 1am monologue. Then, after his last line, the lights turned off again, and so on until the one who did the 11pm monologue. They delivered their lines really good. Their makeup and costumes matched the character they were supposed to portray, and the mood of the light gives the audience the supposed “air” of the story they were telling us. There were very minimal props used through the whole play, but it was fine because it made us focus more on the characters, their lines, their facial expressions if visible, and the story.

I guess it took quite longer than expected because on its second night, some told me that the monologues were cut. Instead of twenty-four, they cut it off to seventeen. It is a little unfair to those who did not see it on its first night because they saw a little less than what they paid for, compared to us who saw it on its first night. But maybe, just maybe, they cut off only those scenes which weren’t as impressive as the others, so those who would see it would not miss that much of what they originally paid for.

The second part was about love, assorted kinds of it. There was gay love between Rand and Kiko which was a result of an online relationship. There was also the one between Diana and her leading man, the love that transcended time and even commitment because Diana’s leading man was already married and had a family. There was also lesbian love, brotherly and sisterly love, unreturned love, love between friends, love for a niece, and love for food. There was even the “act of love” between a gay and a lesbian.

It all seems absurd, but we have to admit that all of these really happens everywhere, every minute, and every second. A car crashes somewhere this very moment, a driver gets killed, a baby is born, and another gets aborted. Someone could be getting married, while another couple gets divorced, and some could be having sexual intercourse, intoxicated and not. Let us admit it. It is reality.
@ 1:31 AM