The once illustrious Lopez-Aranda family has faded.  Celia, once the darling of Philippine opera, and Gaspar, a distinguished ex-congressman, lacked the shrewdness to maintain their once elegant status.  Saddled with a failed marriage, a vanishing career and mounting debt, Celia sold her share of their house to Gaspar, now bedridden.  She managed to stay for free in exchange for being Gaspar’s caregiver.  Gaspar loves listening to Celia’s arias.  This idyllic arrangement is shattered when he slips into a coma.  His daughter, Raquel, comes home from the US, determined to sell the house to salvage her own economic woes abroad.  This signals Celia’s impending homelessness.  With only a few heirlooms to sell, she is at her wits’ end.  A fervent believer of the Sto. Nino, she hopes for a miracle.  She dresses up her grandson, Antony, in Sto. Nino robes to prepare him for the coming fiesta.  She insists this will invoke a miracle that will awaken Gaspar and stop Raquel from selling the house.  Antony’s father, Mombic, while processing his travel papers to work in Dubai, tries to strike a deal with Raquel in selling the property without his mother Celia’s knowledge.  Merced, Mombic’s sister, reluctantly takes on the burden of taking care of Celia and a household sliding to ruin.  The family members clash in a confrontation that reveals their weaknesses and their hopeless ideals.  Mombic leaves his son to the care of his mother and sister, Merced, the only family member who quietly accepts her fate.  As a final ditch to awaken Gaspar, Celia holds a tertulia, inviting her aging opera singer friends.  They sing arias, oblivious to the ravages of time, crippled reminders of a glorious past.  In the middle of a chorus, Gaspar quietly dies, sealing the fate of his sister and the mansion that once was called Villa Los Reyes Magos.  Celia looks out into her once beautiful garden.  She sees Antony, still in his Sto. Nino robe, playing in the garden, offering a little illusion of hope to a past that can never be rekindled.

Fides Cuyugan Asensio, Shamaine Buencamino, Tony Mabesa, Raquel Villavicencio, Art Acuna, Diana Malahay, Joaquin Valdes, Jhizhelei Deocareza 

Director:
Loy Arcenas

Based in New York, Loy Arcenas has designed sets for Broadway shows that have included Once on this Island, Prelude to A Kiss, Love! Valour! Compassion!, and Chita Rivera:  The Dancer’s Life.  He has also designed the sets for the off-Broadway and major American regional theater companies of the United States.  He has collaborated with some of the most exciting American directors and playwrights including Joe Mantello, George C. Wolfe, Anne Bogart, Robert Falls, Terrence McNally, Craig Lucas, Paula Vogel.  For his design work, he has received the Obie for Sustained Excellence of Scenic Design, the Bay Area Critics Circle Awards, the Jefferson Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Circle, and the Michael Merritt Award for Design Collaboration. His directing work in New York includes his collaboration with Lonnie Carter, The Romance of Magno Rubio, for which he received his second Obie and Ralph Pena’s Flipzoids.  His New York directing work is very much associated with the Ma-Yi Theatre Company.  In the Philippines, his directing work includes productions for Tanghalang Pilipino, including The Romance of Magno Rubio; Golden Child, which received the Gawad Buhay awards for best direction, best production, best set design and best ensemble work; and Tatlong Mariya which has been nominated for 8 Gawad Buhay awards this year.

Producers – Daniel Arcenas, Philippe O. Chambon
Screenplay - Rody Vera
Story – Rody Vera, Loy Arcenas
Directors of photography – Lee Briones-Meily, Jay Abello

 

Details:
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Release Date: July 16, 2011
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