Imelda Marcos according to David Celdran

By Joseph Cortes, VERA Files

It is hard to describe Carlos Celdran's "Livin' La Vida Imelda" as theater.

There isn't much in terms of plot or narrative in this performance. What you get is a highly personal dissection of the myth and mystique of First Lady Imelda Marcos and the ramifications of the dictatorship imposed by her husband President Ferdinand Marcos during their tumultuous reign during the Seventies.

The fact that all of this is based on gossip, hearsay and public knowledge cautions you from believing every word Celdran utters. But that he is able to lay down his arguments succinctly makes his point of view a viable one. It is up to the audience to believe him or not.

Which begs the question: why is "Livin' La Vida Imelda" part of this year's National Theater Festival, presently ongoing at the Cultural Center of the Philippines until Nov. 18, 2012? Because, in its very essence, it is theater. Never mind that only one man does the talking. It is a lecture masquerading as a theatrical experience.

Carlos Celdran is known for his unusual walking tours of Manila, which are highly opinionated and entertaining, to say the least. This work is based on his script for a walking tour of the CCP Complex he offers. It places each building within the area in a historical perspective. Since the development of the entire complex was based on a plan by Mrs. Marcos to bring culture and arts to Filipinos, his script frames the entire cultural development of the country on the life and times of Mrs. Marcosand almost everything else that she touched on.

David CeldranThe CCP performance, which is based on two previous theatrical incarnations of this script, which premiered at Twist Gallery in Toronto, Canada in 2011 and at Silverlens Gallery in Makati City in March 2012, has been transformed into a cabaret performance with the addition of a Greek chorus of sorts of mimes and dancers. The whole show is punctuated by music from the Manila Sound, the trademark soundtrack of the Seventies era that reinvented American Top 40 for the New Society's youths. And Celdran's clear book of photographs gets extra help from an audio-visual presentation that serves as a backdrop for the show.

The performance is billed as "Performed by Carlos Celdran," which is a clear description of what you can expect from this show. Trust the man who thought of Imelda's role in Philippine society and why she remains a fixture in the minds of every Filipino to be the best advocate, nay, performer, of his work. Every word, every inflection, every gesture, every exhalation is delivered with conviction: he knows what he is talking about. And even if the cast of extraswho are on stage mostly to mouth the quotes, some of them imagined, that Celdran deliverswere taken out of the show, leaving the author with a slideshow presentation-cum-monolog, people would still surely come to see this show: you no longer have to walk around the CCP Complex to hear Celdran talk; you now find yourself comfortably seated in the air-conditioned comfort of Silangan Hall at the CCP with a full service snack bar at the back offering sandwiches and drinks for those needing a bite and sip as they absorb every word that he says.

And this show is really all talk; for what is at the heart of each theater performance but talk? The life of Imelda Marcos, from her childhood in San Miguel, Manila to her growing up years in Olot, Leyte to her various successes and scandalsthink of the Miss Manila pageant and Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, soft porn actress Dovie Beams, the 1974 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant, tobacco heiress Doris Duke and Hollywood actor George Hamilton, and Libyan strongman Moammar Ghadaffiget dissected with Celdran's signature razor-sharp wit.

See original here:
Imelda Marcos, martial law according to Carlos Celdran