R’meo luvs Dew-Lhiett, originally devised by Dulaang Sipat Lawin and staged by Tanghalang Pilipino in 2005, is a jologs adaptation of Shakespeare’s tale of the star-crossed lovers.
Love in the Time of Jolina | Gibbs Cadiz
First off, don’t expect to hear any of Shakespeare’s soaring soliloquies here. The show uses National Artist Rolando Tinio’s Filipino translation in some stretches, but for the most part the earthy, colorful, brittle exhalations of everyday masa living have taken over the Bard’s words.
So a dainty, petticoated phrase like “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet,” uttered by Juliet in the famous balcony scene, now has assumed a scruffy pose: “Ang rose, kahit ano pang itawag sa rose/Alam mong hindi mag-aamoy gross.”
Or how about Romeo’s dazzling rhapsody upon seeing Juliet on the balcony?
“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?/It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!/Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon/Who is already sick and pale with grief/That thou her maid art far more fair than she.”
“R’meo Luvs Dew-lhiett’s” version of this gem is a killer.
“Woah! Ano yung naggi-glitter sa bintana nakadungaw?/Oh wow, si Juliet parang araw na nakakasilaw./Sige, tuloy mo lang ang pag-shine! Kahit pa ang moonshine, kaya mong i-outshine.”
Romeo and Juliet jologsified| Ronnel Lim
The play is set in the slums of Barangay Verona, the characters don ukay-ukay clothes, and the fights are done with balisong and chako. And Dew-Lhiett soliloquizes thus:
Nakita mo sanang pag-blush ko kung di lang madilim Sa dami nang narinig mong sinabi kong sweet nothing. Wish ko lang sana makapagpakipot— Wish ko lang nabawi pa ‘yung love quote, Pero what’s the point, pa-cute pa ba ang emote?
Tragicomedy and Real-life Melodrama
R’meo has his semi-mohawk hairdo bleached, and wears the shiny, satin basketball shorts that every other tambay at the local plaza wears; Juliet, who wears pink all the time you’d think it was going out of style, is the daughter of a social-climbing mother and a spineless father; warring gang leaders Mercutio and Tybalt are the textbook kanto boys – loud, vulgar and crass; while Mercutio’s trusty sidekick Benvolio is loud, vulgar, crass…and gay; Father Lorenzo carries rhum in his mailman bag and smokes weed when no one’s looking while Juliet’s maidservant, or rather, yaya is an old woman with exactly one tooth you’d recognize as a labandera in any damp or flooded street corner washing clothes or hanging out at the local sari-sari store, exchanging gossip with her neighborhood posse.
Photos from Gibbs Cadiz and Deviant Art
Shakespeare in the Philippines 