These Plays on Dictatorship Are Being Staged This August and September

In the age of disinformation, the atrocities of Martial Law, imposed by former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 to 1981, have become largely invisible and forgotten. Cases of torture and EJKs, billions of ill-gotten wealth, and media shutdowns have been buried by both time and secrecy, much like many of the victims of state-sanctioned crimes.

Three upcoming productions this August and September tackle the human cost of dictatorship. The lineup includes an autobiographical adaptation, a Chilean one-act play, and a theatrical version of a classic Lualhati Bautista novel.

Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years (Anvil, 2012), the source material of this play with music, is a compilation of autobiographical pieces by and about the Quimpo family, with Susan F. Quimpo and Nathan Gilbert Quimpo as the main authors. It contains pieces by the rest of the eight siblings, including letters from the two brothers (Ronald and Jun) who lost their lives during the Marcos regime.

Playing the 10 Quimpo siblings are: Gino Ramirez, Neomi Gonzales, Chic de Guzman, Teetin Villanueva, Liway Perez, Jerom Canlas, Joshua Tayco, Timothy Castillo, Jerome Dawis, Rigel Hechanova, Ethan King, and Kyrie Samodio. It is directed by Delphine Buencamino, who's also doing the movement design. The rest of the creative team are: Cholo Ledesma (Assistant Director), Sabrina Basilio (Dramaturg and Librettist), Jose Buencamino (Composer), Arvy Dimaculangan (Sound Designer), Jethro Nibaten (Lighting Designer), D Cortezano (Set Designer), Carlo Pagunaling (Costume and Make-up Designer), Darlyn Romanillos and Jheanne Las (Graphic Designers), and Myra Ho (Photographer).

Subversive Lives opens Areté's 2026 season, which bears the theme "Sa Parang ng Digma."

Subversive Lives runs from August 28 to 30 and from September 4 to 6 at the Doreen Black Box Theater, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City. Tickets are available for P1,800 through Arete Helixpay.

Scene Change, which previously staged Ang Linangan, 3 Upuan, and Dagitab, is back this September with a two-title staged reading cycle that's "centered on Martial Law, disappearance, public memory, and the difficult discipline of remembering." The first is Villa, a 2008 one-act play by Chilean playwright and director Guillermo Calderón. It features three women, all named Alejandra, discussing how to rebuild and memorialize Villa Grimaldi, a large estate used as a place of detention, torture, and execution during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in the '70s.

Giancarlo Abrahan, fresh from his win as Best Director at Cinemalaya 2026 for the film Mag-iina, translates and directs Calderon's Villa. Martha Comia, Meann Espinosa, and Ness Roque are the readers.

Villa runs from September 19 to 20, both at 7:30 p.m., at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater, Circuit Makati. Tickets are available for P850 through a Google Form.

Guelan Varela-Luarca's Desaparesidos, adapted from Lualhati Bautista’s novel of the same name, returns to the theater through a staged reading. It was first mounted in 2018 at the Doreen Fernandez Blackbox Theater, Areté, Ateneo. Varela-Luarca also returns as director, this time sharing the chair with Kat Batara. Readers are Sheenley Gener, Marco Viaña, Jam Binay, Yshma Aquino, Maliana Beran, Jojit Lorenzo, Ge Villamil, Gio Gahol, and Toni Go-Yadao.

Desaparesidos, first published in 2007, follows the lives of former Martial Law rebels Anna and Roy. Through flashbacks and narrations, we learn about the abuses and tortures they—and many other activist abductees (the disappeared or desaparesidos)—had to bear during that dark period.

Desaparesidos runs from September 26 to 27, both at 7:30 p.m., at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater, Circuit Makati. Tickets are available for P850 through a Google Form.

ALSO READ:

Martial Law And Torture Under the Marcos Regime

EdJop: The Voice That Challenged a Dictatorship

From Jakarta to Rome: How Global Conflicts Shaped Martial Law