Theater Review: Form Follows Content in 'Children of the Algo'

The Philippine Educational Theater Association's (PETA) twin-bill production, Kislap at Algo, is a work unmistakably made for the youth. The evidence is everywhere: from the 9 a.m. schedule to the high-pitched squeals that erupt from the student-filled gallery during CJ Navato and Felicity Kyle Napuli’s kilig moments in Dominique La Victoria's Kislap at Fuego. But while the first show charms the crowd with its chemistry, it is the second act that captures their reality. Without a doubt, Children of the Algo by Mixkaela Villalon was written not just for them, but about them.

Children of the Algo resonates with the digital-native generation, as it follows four young content creators: Yani (Nyla Festejo), Jen (Frances Marie Akol), Owen (James Pe Lim), and Mark (Otep Madriaga), and their personal struggles hiding behind their online personas. Onstage, you have a massive screen as the background and a scaffolding at the center, which not only serves as the characters' physical anchor point, but also an objective correlative for both building (a personality) and closing off (the truth). Throughout the play, the four would always find themselves behind the steel frame as the scaffolding is pushed and pulled in every direction, again: literally and metaphorically. Johnnie Moran, who directed the play, is also on production design.

Form continues to follow content as the overall style of the play is fast-paced (until it isn't), multi-screen, and jumping from one vignette to the next. This kind of exposition, however, tends to drag, but it could be argued that it's a mimicry of how users doom-scroll through 30- or 60-second reels on social media. After all, don't we latch on to a specific personality for a while, at least up until we find their content boring, full of ads, and maybe even too political?

The latter is all too common, and this is reflected in the character of Mark, a probinsiyano trying to survive in Imperial Manila. His content starts off with pro-tips, but everything shifts when the reality settles in. He deals with long hours in a fast-food gig, irate customers, and the obligation of sending money to his family in the province.

When Mark finally speaks up, a glitch in the background happens, forcing him to invade the other content creators' spaces. Then, as if to invade even the viewers' spaces, he goes on a soliloquy that's bordering on heavy-handedness and too-on-the-nose. But with today's generation glued on their phones, maybe that's a necessary wake-up call.

This is a review of the 2 p.m. performance on January 31, four days after opening.

Kislap at Algo ran from January 27 to February 7 at the PETA Theater Center, 5 Sunnyside Drive, New Manila, Quezon City.

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