Cherie Gil, world class

There isn’t much to go on as far as the play Master Class is concerned, particularly in the context of current third world Philippines in the throes of pretentious change. Halfway through, at intermission, I found myself cramming a cup of coffee and a cigarette, content in the conclusion that this was all – all! – for the benefit of a small market of theater goers who want to be able to say they saw this and that foreign play. Goodness knows that those ticket prices are beyond middle class leisure. But I was here, and I had paid for tickets. I had internally kicked and screamed through most of first act, the way I usually do when foreign plays are adapted by local theater productions. My first reaction after all is to ask: why this? How many local plays have yet to be staged? Into the second act, I realized, Maria Callas, while far and away and totally removed from our conditions now, says so much more than just: look at me, I’m a diva! Callas as woman Because while the rags to riches story is marvelous, it is a stereotype in third world Philippines. In Master Class though, Callas is given a chance to show how she was constructed as an image that was fodder for speculation and gossip, and how this always meant getting the worst of her in photos and in the news. We see her as a woman who succeeded in performing the best arias that got her standing ovations all over the world, but who also suffered the stereotyping that she ended up living out. But of course this is the dynamic of being celebrity, but as with many women, Callas also just wanted love. And this apparently, was her failing. Seeing her teach this master class though, is a testament as well to her spirit. She was stereotype, yes, she was diva, as expected. But too, she’s a woman who knows not to rest on her laurels, and instead actually wants to share it. That soft spot is what’s startlingly overwhelming about her persona. Cherie portrays Marie One realizes two things in watching Master Class. First, that the struggles of woman, image and otherwise, public figure or private, are the same in many ways, and that as you empathize with Callas’ story, you realize how sisterhood lives, beyond death, across races, despite differences. Second, that you do not know a world class Filipino performance until you watch Cherie Gil do this play. Because it is she who does it all here, she who practically does a monologue, she who never falters, she who portrays Maria Callas as a beautiful pained soul. In Gil’s hands, Callas’ caustic attitude towards the world works with her weakness in relationships, and ties together into one character that reminisces about love but has the hardest of exteriors. A person that pines for the past of fame and glory but enjoys the quiet and wisdom of age. As I got up to do a standing ovation on impulse, I realized in the end this is what’s Pinoy about this production. It’s that Cherie Gil makes us realize that there’s a master like her who’s in a class all her own. Cherie Gil and the Pinoy pride she invokes is ultimately what makes Master Class relevant, and worth it, in our context. - GMANews.TV