Vlad Bunoan

A scene from 'Mga Binago ng Araw.' Mad Child Productions/Facebook

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<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787132813447776496796_17978012472095185_4288945658385727620_n.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="A scene from &#x27;Mga Binago ng Araw.&#x27; Mad Child Productions/Facebook"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A scene from &#x27;Mga Binago ng Araw.&#x27; <em>Mad Child Productions/Facebook</em></span></span></span></div><p>The trope of coming-of-age is a well-worn one, in film, theater or literature, of adolescents grappling with the onset of issues from budding sexuality to the meaning of life; and while the appeal of such dramas never really palls with audiences of any generation (who have all passed through them), it often becomes a challenge to portray these themes with a freshness beyond the realm of cliche.</p><p>Enter Mad Child Productions, a young theater company whose proponents are themselves not that far removed from the age trajectory depicted in their latest stage production “Mga Binago ng Araw.” The play revolves around a group of five 14-year-olds in the scorching-hot summer of 2005 as they fumble through the ups and downs of friendships, intimacies, music, life directions, and just cooling off from the heat; and then it fast forwards to 2026 to their inevitable bittersweet denouements.</p><p>So far, so conventional for the trope. But how pallid such a synopsis would stand against the almost magical evocation of that seemingly callow teenage angst: we see these emerging-from-childhood figures on their own terms, where their sexual attractions, petulant squabbles, and groping toward meaning are not dismissed as childish indulgences but are given the tragicomic weight of real human aspiration. Joms and Nia, Jill and Rage and Ferdie come across as characters with their own personal tempers, quirks and insecurities, which all feed into where they end up 12 years thence; and you feel for them and what they would do with their lives.</p><p>How does the play realize all this? Above all, a quite wondrous script that teases and loops and intimates across the few months of 2005 that the main action takes place. It opens in medias res, that crucial scene of intimacy between Joms and Nia, then moves back and forward, interweaving dialogues between characters, and not above escaping the bounds of realism, as that wonderful close to the first act when the three boys reach for a cosmic snuffing of the sun’s core. Need I point out that this is a Guelan Luarca work? Totally different in  material, in spirit it reminded me of nothing so much as his masterful “3 Upuan.”</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787132867387775955947_17978012397095185_2121634003527738367_n.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="A scene from &#x27;Mga Binago ng Araw.&#x27; Mad Child Productions/Facebook"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A scene from &#x27;Mga Binago ng Araw.&#x27; <em>Mad Child Productions/Facebook</em></span></span></span></div><p>And Mad Child fully matches the material they are handed. The play runs some 2 hours 45 minutes, and it never flags. Minimalist stage design (a couple of boxes moved around, rudimentary steps indicating a swimming pool); street clothes for the characters which are not changed through all the scene shifts; wonderful video projections to suggest the time shifts and the evocation of water; lighting to create an all-important atmosphere of summer heat; and the rock music so appropriately punctuating the first act: all the elements harnessed for an outstanding theatrical experience. Hats off to director Monty Uy and all his crew!</p><p>And the cast! It was remarkable how the five protagonists — Zoe de Ocampo (Joms), Jam Binay (Nia), Maliana Beran (Jill), Vino Mabalot (Rage), Rafael Jimenez (Ferdie) — presumably in their 20s, were so effective, without false affectations, in portraying 14-year-olds with the right tone of awkwardness, pugnacity and poignancy. They — and Francesca de La Cruz, in a late, brief but eloquent appearance as Joms’s sister Trisha — were a superb ensemble. (Parenthetically, it was a treat to see Beran and de la Cruz, two of the Emilias in Tanghalang Ateneo’s “Emilia” earlier this year, together again on a stage.)</p><p>It simply made for a memorable afternoon, for anyone with empathy, to vicariously relive the exhilarating and heartbreak of those years in such a marvelously imaginative manner.</p><div><br/></div><div><em>“Mga Binago ng Araw” runs until August 23, 2026 at Fine Arts Black Box, Old Communications Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City.</em></div>

<p>'Mga Binago ng Araw' revolves around a group of five 14-year-olds in the scorching-hot summer of 2005 as they fumble through the ups and downs of friendships, intimacies, music, life directions, and just cooling off from the heat.</p>

'Mga Binago ng Araw' revolves around a group of five 14-year-olds in the scorching-hot summer of 2005 as they fumble through the ups and downs of friendships, intimacies, music, life directions, and just cooling off from the heat.

Theater review: ‘Mga Binago ng Araw’ turns summer of 2005 into bittersweet memory

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Theater review: ‘Mga Binago ng Araw’ turns summer of 2005 into bittersweet memory

Arturo Hilado

Published August 19, 2026 05:53 PM PHT

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theater review

Mad Child Productions

Mga Binago ng Araw

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