There’s an audacity to Grace , the new play by the late playwright Floy Quintos , in reopening the story of the alleged 1948 Marian apparition in Lipa, Batangas, because it implies that the story doesn’t end with the Vatican’s dismissal of the incident as a hoax, even if the Vatican’s word on the subject ought to be the last. The play opened to profuse standing ovations on Saturday, May 25, at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater at Ayala Malls Circuit in Makati City. It was a relief to the show’s cast and creators, who worried about how the piece would land among the audience.
“This play is very quiet, in a season of revenge theater, in a season of ‘Rah! Rah! Rah!’” Frances Makil-Ignacio, whose character Sister Agatha provides much of the play’s comic relief, told Rappler. Other productions in Manila’s recent menu of shows include Bar Boys , Rent , and Pingkian – all musicals with rousing production numbers. Grace , directed by Quintos’ longtime collaborator Dexter M.
Santos, is a straight play. Its action unfolds in the cloister of Lipa’s Discalced Carmelite nuns, and in bishops’ offices in Lipa and Manila. It’s about personal turmoil rooted in crises of faith, of internal conflict belied by the external motions of religion.
The nuns kneel, pray, and witness a shower of rose petals. The bishops argue in whispers and hushed outbursts. They interrogate and gaslight the nuns.
The main character, Teresita Castillo, beholds the Devil an.
