True blue Manileños, recent transplants, and visitors to our city all know — there is never a lack of things to do in Manila. This is Coconuts Manila’s guide to all things good and great happening over the coming weekend. Peruse it, take note of everything that interests you, and hit us up on our Facebook page or on Twitter @CoconutsManila to sound off on what you think.
Watch Ballet Manila perform a fairy tale classic
Date: Dec. 7, Saturday to Dec. 8, Sunday
Venue: Newport Performing Arts Theater, Resorts World Manila, Pasay City
Ballet Manila’s Sleeping Beauty was originally slated to stage at the Aliw Theater, but after the theater sustained damage when a fire burned down Star City in October, the show will go on in Pasay City’s Resorts World Manila.
Prima Ballerina Lisa Macuja Elizalde’s love affair with fairy tales continues in this staging of the story of the titular that needle-jabbed zonked-out princess. Expect to be impressed with inventive staging, original choreography, and death-defying turns and twists, plus graceful leg and torso control that only ballerinas can make look easy.
Tickets start at PHP300 (US$6) for general admission and can climb up to PHP3,000 (US$58) for the VIP box, and are available on Ticketworld’s website.
Listen to a live release of indie-pop band Orange and Lemons’ single
Date: Dec. 5, Thursday
Venue: Saguijo Bar, Guijo St., Makati City
Filipino indie-pop band Orange and Lemons are releasing their single “Ikaw Ang Aking Tahanan” (“You Are My Home”) at the go-to Makati live music pub Saguijo tomorrow with the help of fellow Pinoy indie acts Ciudad, Oh, Flamingo!, Them Bloody Royals, and The Geeks.
The band, which calls the Beatles as a heavy influence, has been around since the late ’90s, and disbanded in 2007 before making a comeback in 2017. The four-piece band is now composed of Clem Castro, JM Del Mundo, Ace del Mundo, and Jared Nerona. Their other hits include “Hanggang Kailan” (“Until When”), “Abot Kamay” (“At Arm’s Reach”), and that old “Pinoy Big Brother” earworm “Pinoy Ako” (“I’m a Filipino”).
Door charge is at PHP250 (US$5), inclusive of a drink. Show starts at 8pm. Visit Saguijo’s Facebook page for more details.
See actor J.C. Santos wield nunchaku in a loincloth
Date: Dec. 6, Friday to Dec. 15, Sunday
Venue: The Little Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City
Theater group Tanghalang Pilipino’s staging of this Ilocano folktale classic about the mythical superhuman being Lam-Ang stars actor J.C. Santos, best known for the romantic drama blockbuster movie 100 Tula Para Kay Stella (“100 Poems for Stella”).
Lam-Ang the musical play is based on the Ilocano epic poem Biag ni Lam-Ang, about an immortal with unbelievable strength (and born with the ability to speak complete sentences, so he’s got brains and brawn — and the whole immortality thing) who seeks to avenge the death of his father.
For more about the show, and to see Santos’ much talked-about audition tape, click here. Tickets start at PHP 1,500 (US$) available at the Ticketworld website.
Watch three hours of silent cinema
Date: Dec. 5, Thursday
Venue: Cine Adarna, University of the Philippines Film Center, Diliman, Quezon City
Art collective Kamias Overground, together with the University of the Philippines Film Institute, is presenting “Orpheusatanorium: Free Jazz From Hell.” This nod to surreal cinema puts together three silent films: 1930’s The Blood Of A Poet by French filmmaker Jean Cocteau, 1917’s Perfido Incanto by Italian filmmaker Anton Giulio Bragaglia, and 1926’s A Page Of Madness by Japanese filmmaker Teinosuke Kinugasa.
Surround-sound live cinema and live improvisatory music by 100 musicians, one performing after another, plays for three-hours non-stop inside Cine Adarna. Among them musician filmmaker Khavn dela Cruz, Itchyworms drummer Jazz Nicolas, and Pedicab’s Diego Mapa, among many others.
Admission is free and seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Show starts at 5pm. Visit UPFI Film Center’s Facebook page for more details.
Watch a screening of controversy-plagued Metamorphosis and other indie films
Date: Dec 5, Thursday to Dec. 6, Friday
Venue: Cinema Centenario, 5 Maginhawa Street, Diliman, Quezon City
Didn’t get to see Metamorphosis at the Cinema One Originals film festival? The film, about a teenage intersex character, will be shown again, this time at the 65-seat Cinema Centenario this coming weekend.
Other indie films on the roster include farm-life drama John Denver Trading, modern gay romcom Sila Sila (“Just Them”), and a tearjerker dramedy featuring a deaf-mute character, Isa Pa With Feelings (“Once More With Feelings”), among others. Visit Cinema Centenario’s Facebook page for more details.
Tickets are at PHP200 (US$4), available onsite at the cinema box office.
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