In Repertory Philippine’s 2009 staging of Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (a play written by National Artist Nick Joaquin), the audience is presented with an assortment of interesting themes; central is the struggle between art and reality.

Set in Intramuros in 1941, protagonists Candida and Paula Marasigan, spinster sisters and loyal apostles of beauty, art, and poetry, together with their father, Don Lorenzo (an aging, but respected painter), are fighting for an old and genteel way of life, but apparently losing in the face of imminent destitution (their benefactors—two well-off older siblings—refuse to continue financing their day-to-day needs and, instead, plan to sell off their dilapidated mansion, apportion its furniture, separate the sisters, and send the old man to be looked after in an institution). The looming threat of World War II warns that life, as the Marasigan sisters know it, is indeed about to irrevocably change.

Helpless to alter this destiny, Candida and Paula hatch one madcap attempt at solution after another, which lead to a series of hilarious events, heartbreaks, and memorable nervous breakdowns. 

Their father one day bestows on them a gift: a controversial and highly praised self-portrait showing the artist both as a young boy and old man fleeing from a burning city). The sale of this painting can certainly help alleviate the sisters’ hardships and here is where the conflict of the play lies: will Candida and Paula give in and sell the portrait (which can very well be their father’s last work and remembrance) to the highest bidder—in effect throwing sentimentality out of the window in favor of practicality? Or, will they keep the portrait, amidst impoverishment, as testament to the incorruptibility and righteousness of art? Throughout the play you can see this wonderful and tender striving to elevate art and beauty to a place where nothing, not poverty nor deprivation, can sully them. Candida and Paula know that they must willingly suffer and fight to preserve their way of life even if this means humiliation and ridicule in the hands of loved ones. Their battle cry, as coined by one of the play’s characters, the eloquent poet-turned-Senator Don Perico, has become Contra Mundo!—against the world! In the end, Paula decides to ruin the painting to frustrate those who wish to prosper from it (i.e., the charming boarder, Tony Javier; her siblings, Manolo and Pepang; and even the Philippine government who want it donated to them), proving once and for all that art can be a transgressive act.

The play is very rich in insights and symbolisms, which makes you yearn for the time when writers cared about meanings and metaphors. Rep’s Portrait is impeccably acted, directed, scored (and even lighted. Oh, you must see those lucent shifts in light from day to night and vice versa)—definitely a lovely, lovely way to spend your afternoon or evening watching.

Portrait will close Feb. 8 (Sunday) with matinee (3 PM) and gala (8 PM) performances. Catch it for the last time at the Onstage Greenbelt 1 Theater, Makati City.