Hagedorn’s stage version of ‘Dogeaters’ opens in San Francisco
The cast of “Dogeaters.” MAGIC THEATRE
SAN FRANCISCO–The highly anticipated and long overdue Bay Area performance of Jessica Hagedorn’s seminal work Dogeaters opened just in time for the 30th anniversary of the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship.
Adapted from her first novel of the same title, the play opens at the Magic Theater on February 10. Hagedorn’s tour de force work surveys the clash of power and culture muddled by the veil of sex and celebrity as the Philippines falls apart at the brink of emancipation from the iron-fisted clutches of the Marcos regime. She creates what Madeleine Shaner of Backstage describes as “a pastiche of colorful and violent history… or more concisely, a pageant.”
An ingenious, at times vertiginous, romp through Manila in 1982, a postcolonial terrain made uneven by martial law, Dogeaters deeply probes the Filipino psyche that Hagedorn, by way of Philippine National Artist Nick Joaquin, describes as the result of spending “400 years in the convent and 50 years in Hollywood.”
The play is directed by Loretta Greco and features an ensemble cast of notable actors: Rinabeth Apostol, Melvign Badiola, Esperanza Catubig, Christine Jamlig, Rafael Jordan, Julie Kuwabara, Chuck Lacson, Charisse Loriaux, Jed Parsario, Lawrence Radecker, Mike Sagun, Carina Lastimosa Salazar, Beverly Sotelo, Jomar Tagatac and Ogie Zulueta.
No stranger to the Bay Area, Jessica Hagedorn moved to San Francisco from the Philippines in her teens. At 14, her poetry was recognized by the reluctantly proclaimed “Father of the Beats,” Kenneth Rexroth, editor of the anthology to first feature her poetry, who became her mentor.
Hagedorn’s body of work, consisting of poetry, prose, performance art, music and theater, exemplifies the mix bag that defines what it is to be Filipino. On a universal scale it shows what it means to be from a nation sired, dominated and exploited by colonial oppressors then brainwashed a by a thriving neocolonial enterprise.
In writing Dogeaters, Hagedorn acknowledges her inspiration from literature that blossomed out of South America, which shares a similar colonial past with the Philippines, and the decaying remnants of this past; most especially works by the Argentine author Manuel Puig and his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman, that was also adapted by its author as a play, as well as the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, best known for One Hundred Years of Solitude, among others.
Jessica Hagedorn at the 2006 National Book Awards. MIRIAM BERKLEY
First staged in 1998 by the La Jolla Playhouse at in San Diego then in 2001 in New York, it took years for the play to make it to a stage in San Francisco, and, in many ways, has steered its author to come full circle. “I’m delighted that the play is finally going to happen in San Francisco after all these years. It’s meaningful not only because I grew up in San Francisco, but because the large community of Fil-Ams in the Bay Area will finally have a chance to see it. It’s also exciting to see the gifted, local Fil-Am actors working on Dogeaters and being so fearless. It’s a challenging piece,” says Hagedorn.
Although consistent with the characters and the plot, there is a difference between the novel and play. “The biggest example of the difference between the play and the novel is that the stage adaptation is set in one time frame: the year 1982. Whereas the novel’s non-linear structure moves around from 1950s Manila to the ‘70s and early ‘80s.”
In Dogeaters, Manila’s mythical Studio 54 comes alive on stage, populated by drag queens, beauty queens and movie stars alongside statesmen, activists and rebels. Bruce Weber of the NY Times says of the experience being “always a treat when sitting in the theater feels like travel, when the world onstage reaches out to include you, and suddenly you’re transported to another time and place. It’s even better when your destination is exotic, strange, and specific: say, Manila, 1982.”
Backstage’s Madeleine Shaner, referring to Dogeaters, says “putting history on stage is a huge undertaking, especially if it’s history that hasn’t yet been documented for generations of schoolchildren.”
When asked as to why people should come and see her play, Hagedorn says, “I have no idea if my play will be ‘important’ for anyone to see. Dogeaters can be funny, deeply painful, sometimes troubling. My hope is that people will be curious enough to go to the Magic Theatre and immerse themselves in a unique theatrical experience. One thing for sure is that Loretta Greco is a terrific director and this ensemble of Bay Area actors truly rocks.”
Dogeaters runs until February 28, 2016 at the Magic Theater, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd., Bldg. D in San Francisco. www.magictheater.com / 415.441.882
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