Rant and Rave: ‘The Sky Over Dimas’

Rating: 3.5/4.0

Ano ang sikreto ng Pamilya Torrecarion?

For weeks now, students been intrigued by the Harlequin Theater Guild to see their latest play, The Sky Over Dimas, to come and find out what exactly that secret is.

Maybe you know already, if you’ve read the Palanca-awarded novel of the same name by CLA faculty member Vicente Groyon. Entangled in darkness of matters and events, the story would be indeed challenging to bring to the stage but with the pairing of playwright Tim Dacanay and director Raffy Tejada, it makes its way with heartfelt determination to deliver an unforgettable theater experience while also demonstrating how work transferred from one hand (as well as one medium) to another can also reach a height of its own in terms of art form and content.

The Sky Over Dimas is a story of family, society, and the dirty things in between. A phone call in the middle of the night compels Raffy to rush home to Bacolod in order to prevent his mentally crashing father from disgracing the family, consolidated hacenderos of the Torrecarion and Jarabas clans. There is so much more to this homecoming mission when it sends the breakaway son deep enough to discover the many hidden secrets of his family, kept for generations, and how it continues to cast a curse upon their lives.

It’s a mystery we would surely enjoy, but the adaptation somehow gives a feeling of compression that causes confusion among the audience, who had to follow a series of brimming thoughts and recollections of the characters, whose portrayals in turn were powerful and unforgettable, pumping much needed drama to the show.

Professional actors who joined the cast favored the ambitions of the production as they displayed incredible craft with the grueling development of their characters. Redjie Jimenez and Mr. Toby Alejar play Raffy’s father George Torrecarion, with Suzette Tijam (in rotation with Harlequin alumni Ace Gutierrez) as his just as insane wife Margie – crazy but human roles that demanded for both the funny and the serious kind, a task they took on with tremendous versatility.

Meanwhile, the rest of the main ensemble (featuring Ruffy Dy Buco, Deo Deguit, Rielle Ramos, Troy Driver, Ash Vigno, and Jeneo Itulid) proved how effective they could be when the spotlight is on them, providing emotions for the audience to ride for the story’s thrilling plot.

Still more to see, we get to enjoy a glorious set design by Joseph Duran, who skilled to fit acres of community to the stage by assembling pieces of an elite-owned world, coordinated with a natural harmony. A grand old gate at the center back and a lonely garden at the front; provincial manor corners and colonial Spanish facades; an elevation for a bedroom in its own corner; these created spaces allowed the varied parties to leave their impression, as well as offering themselves to their most intimate moments.

Harlequin Theater Guild’s The Sky Over Dimas is definitely a play to be experienced. For within the whirlwind of mystery and puzzlement, we discover that buried sins do not simply tally but explode like a Pandora’s box, bringing disaster and reaping sanity while smoking the place over with a profound sense of tragedy. Perhaps, this is the secret to learn here; but then again, it offers so much more.

For this one, Harlequin truly challenged the house and following this performance quality, I am excited for the next production.