THE WALLS one built can come crashing down when the right person is let in.
However, in 20 Questions, these barriers are not mere metaphors as the two protagonists find themselves literally confined within these walls against their will.
The Palanca award-winning piece by Juan Ekis was staged by the Batch 47 Apprentices of Teatro Tomasino from May 28 to May 29. The production transformed Rooms 102 and 104 of the St. Raymund de Peñafort Building into the chaotic enclosure of the main characters.
The theater guild had previously adapted Ekis’ Kapeng Barako Club: Samahan ng Mga Bitter for its 46th season last February.
Under the helm of production director Gie Anne Magdangan (Human Resource Management freshman), 20 Questions sought to immerse its audience in the world of Yumi (Heart Sierra, Philosophy sophomore) and Jigs (Vincent Espinoza, Nursing freshman), as if they too were locked in the same room, watching the story unfold one question and one answer at a time.
The play begins with Yumi and Jigs falling victims to their barkada’s strange tradition.
Every year, the barkada would randomly select two from their group to spend three days in a room together without leaving. When one dabbles in the forced proximity trope, the ending is guaranteed; love (and lust) will bloom.
Yet Yumi and Jigs, both still reeling from their breakups with their respective partners, are definitely not in the mood for love. The two initially refer to themselves as the first “failures” of the tradition.
With less than 50 hours to go, Jigs then suggests a game of 20 questions wherein both of them must ask 10 questions each in order to get to know each other better.
The two are not that close, nor are they strangers either. They are caught in the space of in-betweens and this game may determine what they could be for each other. Their questions—mostly about love, sex and identity—reveal how they exactly think of each other.
The beginning of the play is filled with this smothering tension between the two characters, especially with the circumstances they find themselves in. Despite denying their apparent attraction for one another, the play made it clear what was bound to happen.
Cracks start to appear in the walls they use to shield their heart from pure connection and intimacy. They grow more comfortable with each other as the game progresses, making them somewhat unafraid of sharing their true nature and disposition with each other.
Jigs’ innocence and romantic nature juxtaposes with Yumi’s worldly and crude sensibilities. She is older, bolder and more experienced than him. Her questions push Jigs out of his comfort zone, challenging his feelings towards her, himself and his ex-girlfriend.
Towards the end of the play, Yumi reveals her deepest darkest secret to Jigs, finally baring her soul. Slowly, all the initial perverse notions and insinuations that hang above them disappear.
The pair realizes that the very person they want to be with is someone they can converse with; and they happen to have each other in mind. The last ‘question’ between Yumi and Jigs appears to be more of a request as their doubts are resolved not through words, but through actions.
It has been two decades since 20 Questions was first written, yet its themes are as relevant as ever—especially with what it tries to say about love and relationships. The game extends to the audience, provoking inquiry about the material, the characters and even one’s own beliefs.
Given that the production only presented an hour of the character’s lives, the plot was constrained and limited, allowing its spectators to question it further. As the lamp lights in the room faded and the couple disappeared into a kiss, it was up to the audience to imagine what will happen next, or ask themselves what to take home from the show.
Yumi and Jigs’ relationship was brought to life through Sierra and Espinoza’s natural banter and camaraderie, which both served as highlights of the play. Like magnets, they showed that opposites do attract. However, they struggled during the play’s vulnerable moments.
Perhaps, it was due to the overly sexualized portrayal of Yumi’s character. While the play dealt with mature themes, it became off-putting when Yumi was excessively objectified to prove a point about her character and their relationships. Even if the writing wanted to flesh Yumi out to show that she is more than her desires and how the men in her life view her, it seemed to clash with how it was executed.
It was jarring to see the characters abandon the implied sexual tension towards the end of the play without proper buildup, release and development of their relationship. Yumi’s monologue about wanting to be a violin, an instrument she associated with ‘sincere music,’ was used by the play to push its sensual themes. She related this instrument with lovemaking, a choice that may have exposed the missed chance to deepen her character, as her vulnerability is instead turned into a spectacle.
The story, in turn, portrayed a sexualized relationship between Yumi and Jigs, which contrasted the wholesome intimacy that the writing might have intended to depict.
Despite these, the play still captured the mysteries of love.
The set design succeeded in creating the initial claustrophobic feeling that the characters had felt. There was indeed only ‘one bed’ as the trope goes. The design was made to strategically push Yumi and Jigs together, maneuvering and dancing around each other in this little world created for them. As the play progressed, the messier, the cozier and the more “lived-in” the set became. The welcoming warmth of the lights added to the romance in the air, topped off by the set’s sonic design which had appropriate instrumentals that elevated the characters’ conversations.
For an hour, Yumi and Jigs waltzed around the room, while also seeming as if they were playing a game of cat and mouse. It almost felt invasive on the audience’s part to watch them this way. Whenever they uttered something personal and profound, the spectators morphed into intruders and eavesdroppers, unsure if they were supposed to witness it all. Teatro Tomasino’s intimate adaptation of Juan Ekis’ piece made the production even more charming and engrossing.
In 20 Questions, life and love do not end in periods, for these constitute a series of questions of searching and wondering.
The play encourages its audience to make the first move, to ask the first question and to finally forge a meaningful connection with the person one has yet to truly know. F
