Vlad Bunoan

Tuxqs Rutaquio at work with actors Romnick Sarmenta andn Epy Quizon. Handout

Article (news)

Jude Cartalaba

The former 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival entry &quot;About Us But Not About Us&quot; — produced by The IdeaFirst Company and written and directed by Jun Robles Lana — finally comes to life on stage, transitioning from the silver screen to the Power Mac Spotlight Theater at Circuit Makati, where it runs from February 14 to March 8.This upcoming production is the sophomore offering of its newly established subsidiary IdeaFirst Live, following the successful run of the highly controversial straight play, &quot;Anino sa Likod ng Buwan.&quot; &quot;About Us But Not About Us&quot; is the second Jun Robles Lana work to be brought to the stage by award-winning director Tuxqs Rutaquio.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769646016114fad8743a-0cf7-41e8-ac5b-d5057747993b.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Tuxqs Rutaquio at work with actors Romnick Sarmenta andn Epy Quizon. Handout</div>In an exclusive one-on-one interview, Rutaquio discussed the adjustments made in adapting the original screenplay for the stage, ahead of its February run.Like the film, &quot;About Us But Not About Us&quot; opens in a quiet restaurant, but beneath the calm is a roaring storm of suppressed grief, unresolved guilt, and complex emotional entanglement. At the heart of this production lies the idea that truth is a performance, and memory, especially when tied to trauma and love, is an unreliable narrator.As the director, he approached or treated the stage as a liminal space — part confession booth, part courtroom, part haunted house.Tuxqs, as he is fondly called in the theater scene, painted the main scene as, “The restaurant is not simply a place of reunion but a volatile emotional chamber where two men are compelled to perform their truths about a third, absent presence: Marcus.“While Marcus may be physically gone, his influence lingers with almost spectral weight. His memory does not unite but divides, interpreted and reinterpreted by Eric and Lance with shifting emotional agendas.”He added in his notes about the production, “In this production, the stage is not just a restaurant. It is a psychological arena where the dead speak through the living, and the act of remembering becomes an act of confrontation. Through minimalist yet symbolic design — sliding walls, distorted projections, fragmented text, and kinetic movement — we build a world where Marcus is everywhere and nowhere. His death does not end his influence; it amplifies it.“By emphasizing the performative nature of grief, identity, and confession, the production transforms the space into an echo chamber where language wounds, memory manipulates, and love is both salvation and weapon. The play is &#x27;about us,&#x27; but always, hauntingly, about him.”<div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769646043412f6c032db-6258-4149-8a02-bb41e40cfd15.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Tuxqs Rutaquio at work with actors Romnick Sarmenta andn Epy Quizon. Handout</div>Asked about his cast, the director said It was &quot;genuinely exciting and creatively enriching&quot; to work with the original film actors, Romnick Sarmenta and Elijah Canlas.“Their presence in the rehearsal room offered a rare opportunity to revisit the origins of the characters, as they were able to articulate not only the emotional choices they made during filming, but also the intentions, instincts, and subtleties that shaped those performances,&quot; Rutaquio said.“This made the process of translating the story from screen to stage more grounded, as we were able to identify which elements of the characters were essential and which needed to be reimagined to suit the demands of live performance.”He further added, “Working with them allowed me, as a director, to more easily draw out the characters’ inner lives, since their understanding was rooted in lived experience with the material. Their reflections served as both a reference point and a creative springboard, helping the stage adaptation remain faithful to the spirit of the film while embracing the theatrical form.&quot;In contrast,  Rutaquio said the creation of the character of Marcus, now played by Epy Quizon, required a different approach. &quot;Rather than drawing from prior embodiment of the role, his process involved carefully assembling the character through fragments — primarily from the perspectives revealed in Eric and Lancelot’s conversations. Marcus, therefore, emerged as a character shaped by interpretation, listening, and synthesis, requiring Epy to imagine the emotional weight and motivations that existed between and beneath those exchanges. This contrast in processes ultimately enriched the production, as it highlighted different pathways to character creation and deepened the ensemble’s collective understanding of the narrative,” he explained.Sarmenta, a longtime friend of Rutaquio, emphasized that their personal relationship never gets in the way of the director’s work, noting his focus and commitment during rehearsals. The two previously worked together as co-actors in Chris Martinez’s &quot;Last Order sa Penguin&quot; and &quot;Temptation Island… Live!&quot; in 2001 and 2003, respectively. They also collaborated on &quot;Othello&quot; for Dulaang UP, with Rutaquio as production designer and Sarmenta in the title role.Quizon, meanwhile, previously worked with Rutaquio in a 2004 Metropolitan Theater Manila production of &quot;A Midsummer Night’s Dream,&quot; where Quizon played Puck and Rutaquio appeared as Flute, one of the Mechanicals.Canlas, for his part, is a longtime admirer of Rutaquio’s body of work, having followed his productions at Tanghalang Pilipino, and expressed excitement at finally working with the director on this show.

For director Tuxqs Rutaquio, staging 'About Us But Not About Us' is less about adaptation and more about excavation — stripping the story down to its emotional core and letting memory, grief, and confession play out in front of a live audience.

For director Tuxqs Rutaquio, staging ' About Us But Not About Us' is less about adaptation and more about excavation — stripping the story down to its emotional core and letting memory, grief, and confession play out in front of a live audience.

How Tuxqs Rutaquio reimagines 'About Us But Not About Us' for the theater

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How Tuxqs Rutaquio reimagines 'About Us But Not About Us' for the theater

Jude Cartalaba

Published January 29, 2026 12:34 PM PHT

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About Us But Not About Us

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