my Battalia Royale 3 experience

our access passes which I got at Moonleaf Maginhawa

BR3 bandana - comes with the
suvival kit

September has been a whopping month of plays for me. I've never watched or will watch (Phantom of the Opera in t minus 3.5 hours) so many theater performances in a month. After September 2nd's hilarious Potted Potter ('One must live and the other shall die' voiced by Dumbledore a number of times, much to the despair of Harry and the chagrin of the audience, is FTW!), I managed to find a last minute companion in my sister last night for Sipat Lawin Ensemble and friends' rerun of a loose adaptation of the Japanese novel and film of roughly the same name: Battalia Royale 3.

When I came home from work after my Thursday shift, I had even thought about rewatching the film, just to refresh myself on the details. Well, once BR3 started, I realized I didn't have to. Though many of the subplots in the film were included in the play, I find that (even though I was awed by the film), the play was so much better because everything's much more raw. I can see the conflicts going on in the characters' faces, hear the emotion in their voices, see the nuances of their body language. The details of the characters' lives are also much more real since they're set locally, and these kids' lives are akin to what modern day high school teens are doing. They even have facebook profiles to boot!

BR3 ID-style access badge

They also made out the most of the grounds of Museo Pambata by utilizing different areas, and it's the audience who have to move around to see what's happening. At the beginning, we were split into three groups, hence, different groups of people witnessed different things. Towards the end, anybody could choose whichever they wanted to watch. If you have friends with you, it's better to split up so that you can talk about what you saw afterwards and fill each other in on what happened to the other characters. My sister had to leave early and so I didn't have any eyes on the others as I stayed by Julius, June and Lakhi in the Third Man story arc. I was particularly hooked on them because the class vice president Jessica was leading one group and she seemed straightforward and righteous enough that I didn't doubt she'll lead her companions towards the path she deems right. Now Sebastian Kiriyama on the other hand was a type of person I don't really like when I watch - the spoiled, rich, user-friendly type who most often speaks English (what's happening to Filipino youngsters, really?) and has a band of girls with violent tendencies following him. I did like the nerdy guy from the film who tried to deactivate the collars that broadcasts their location and would automatically kill them if there was no winner. He was also the class president and you know there's something between him and the girl the moment she entered their lair. Plus he was so serious at the beginning, promising himself that he will do anything to survive. Since they weren't so popular at the beginning, I stayed to witness what the bouncers called "Poledance Massacre." It was not so much of a massacre since there were only the other two and there was no pole, but the song did stick to me. The Nemeses arc was also very popular as Kakai cunningly almost made it to the end, making a mortal enemy out of Victor, who easily became an audience favorite. Victor also had a major fight scene with cute but a bit deranged Kalil, as they were both skilled in martial arts. With smoke machines and a well-choreographed battle, well, what's not to like? And everybody knew who to root for right away. And guess who won? The most righteous of them all, who at the very beginning made a stand that they would not participate in the game by not fighting, by trying to get out of it alive. One just has to make that choice in that split-second or else die in the hands of someone who has decided to play the game and win.

BR3 rules - heed!

The whole time, the audience is aware that they are spectators in the game. We were even given the choice to stop or continue with the game. And the audience almost unanimously voted to have one of the students live, only for Fraser Salaman, their teacher to shoot him as soon as he was released.

It's a good thing it was not raining. Different performances have different scorers - I believe tonight Brigada will be the one providing the live score - so it's definitely worth it to watch again. I'd also wanna watch again if only to know how the others were snuffed. It would be interesting to find out the circumstances that caused the others to finally kill their classmates. Or how only the three survived for the final showdown at the end *wink wink*.

A different viewing experience as the audience ran around the place, witnessing the effects of the pressure of knowing only one of you has to live after eight hours, gore and skin - I bet there's a lot to interest every boy and girl out there. It's rated NC-17 though. So check the age and fitness or tiredness level of the person you're bringing hehe. Side note: did see Manix Abrera and Miro of Stonefree among us.

[Edit: 09.25.2012 | 5:50 AM]

Here is a picture of Alab. It's his card that was included with the survival kit I bought. The survival kit contained a flashlight, a map of the grounds, a glowstick (which I lost somewhere) and a bandana. I never did see Alab. I found out from the PR person's tweet that he's in fact good in disguise. Him and Sophia - who apparently is popular in class -  make me want to see it again. Well, besides finding out how the Lighthouse and Kiriyama famillies were decimated, Alab included. [end of edit]

And is it just me or did the performers look like they could really look like genuine high school students? Does this mean I'm old enough to get to the point that I could see them that way? Haha.

Either way, it's only until next weekend. So when you're not doing anything more important tonight, or next week on Friday, Saturdays and Sunday, go buy tickets!