Still reeling from the festivities, acceptance, and love that Pride Month has had to give to the LGBT+ community, Stop Kiss couldn’t have come at a better time.
Stop Kiss is the story of Callie who is a New York traffic reporter and Sara, a school teacher in the Bronx. Their friendship eventually blooms into something more as they banter and spend time with each other. In essence, Stop Kiss tells the story of two women who are assaulted after sharing a kiss.
A kiss, which is usually seen as something so beautiful, resulting in a series of catastrophic events just goes to show the struggles of the LGBT+ community. Despite the play being written in 1998 by American playwright Diana Son, Stop Kiss is still relevant today because of the challenges that hinder the LGBT+ community from living a life completely free of discrimination. While the Philippines is considered as one of the most LGBT-friendly countries, the acceptance that prevails is the country is undiscerning when it comes to the heavy struggle the community faces.
First staged in the Philippines by New Voice Company in 2003, Stop Kiss returns after 16 years with the same actresses playing different roles — this time, Aliw Award winner Missy Maramara is Callie, and Gawad Buhay award nominee Jenny Jamora is Sara.
Along with Maramara and Jamora in the cast are Tarek El Tayech as George, Gabe Mercado as Peter, Robbie Guevara as Detective Cole, Jay Valencia-Glorioso as Mrs. Winsley, and J-mee Katanyag as Nurse.
Maramara shines as Callie as she seamlessly transitions from one scene to the other. The play relies on interchanging the past and the present— from laughing with Sara in their first meeting to crying in distress as a detective interrogates her. While jarring at first, the scenes playing on the stage progresses naturally as the past and the present move closer to each other.
It is worth mentioning that the production design of the stage by Gawad Buhay and Aliw Award-winning director, and designer, Ed Lacson Jr., works impeccably for the non-chronological structure of the storyline. To add, the assembly of vibrant characters surrounding Callie and Sara, kept the audience on the edge of their seat until the pivot to the play’s climax.
Callie and Sara’s dynamics on the stage was a delight to watch–both demanding characters without outdoing and overpowering the other. Their seemingly sweet friendship also factored in the two’s chemistry; each one testing the waters and how deep it can go and while it was apparent from the opening scene that the two would end up closing the distance between their lips, it was nothing short of satisfaction when they finally do.
Stop Kiss will have a limited 8-show run from July 12 to 14 and 19 to 21 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight, Circuit Makati. Tickets are now available at https://www.ticket2me.net/e/2445/stop-kiss or http://www.tinyurl.com/StopKissMNLTickets
For show buying and other inquiries, contact Camille Abaya at 09158359210 or stopkiss2018@gmail.com.
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