Review: Twin Bill AL.TER, REVERSE CARD Confront the Past

Manila, Philippines—Closing on Sunday, June 21, Artist Playground and Kho-Lab Productions present “Double Take,” featuring the twin bill, AL.TER by Joaquin Pablo and “Reverse Card” by Chase Kyle Loza. The two one-act plays explore queer identity, hidden truths, and unresolved trauma—timed for Pride Month.

Although the two plays are inherently distinct, their director, Paul Jake Paule, collaborating with his assistant director, Robert Macaraeg, creates a shared visual language, most notably through lighting designer CJ Balontong’s deeply evocative and intentional lighting.

In AL.TER, Paule opens provocatively with a dimly lit threesome set to a pulsing tension. It’s further punctuated by a striking splash of dark blues and purples against the black wall, establishing the story’s high-stakes vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, in “Reverse Card,” the lighting shifts dynamically: various colors pop out during the play’s confrontational scenes and campus bullying flashbacks—heightening this cat-and-mouse game between Marvin (Inah Evans) and John (Drei Arias).

In both plays, Paule and his lighting director ensure that the lighting does not merely illuminate the stage but also serves as another storyteller.

Tucked away from the bustling central business district, the production’s venue, the intimate Illumination Studio, acts as a silent observer, but a powerful collaborator to both plays.  The closed-quarters layout perfectly complements the distinct tensions of each piece, and the polished production design by Balontong, production manager Vince Macapobre, and projection designer Julianne Mary Castro is sleek and professionally crafted.

AL.TER follows Al (CJ Tiongson), a young interior designer who is having a hard time moving on after a tragic loss.  His world is overturned during a chance encounter with a stranger and straight guy Ter (Jon Ven Soco), who happens to be a doppelgänger of Al’s deceased lover. As Al is seeking closure, he respectfully requests that Ter pretend to be the “double” of his lost love and engage in a heartfelt conversation.

Drei Arias plays John; Inah Evans, Marvin.

Soco, who portrays both the heartbreaking memory of the deceased lover and his living doppelgänger, delivers a mindful, nuanced performance. His subtle calibrations in body movement and vocal tone heavily contribute to this emotional take.

What makes Pablo’s writing compelling is how it anchors a surreal, almost paranormal premise in a bittersweet reality. It cleverly incorporates the existential concept of genetic variation not as a mere plot device but as an emotional stake, telling a poignant story of remorse, forgiveness, and moving on.

In “Reverse Card,” Marvin (Evans, who makes her professional theater debut) is an aspiring screenwriter who carries a deep-seated trauma from his high school days and from John (Arias), the campus bully. Years after graduation, their dynamics have been rekindled when John, who side hustles as a male escort, shows up at Marvin’s inherited house. When unsaid truths and buried secrets begin to be unearthed, the room’s atmosphere transforms from a pleasant reunion of sorts to a terrifying chase.

The play seamlessly shifts between past and present, with both actors, Evans, who occasionally drops tongue-in-cheek ad libs, and Arias, dynamically taking the audience to their past high school lives and now adult selves. The proceedings even become more complex when Marvin asks John, who happens to double as an indie film actor—a somewhat convenient plot device—to read and act out a script written for a character Marvin has penned. Although somewhat predictable, the play is still a gripping, uncomfortable exploration of unresolved trauma, where the roles of the victim and tormentor blur.

AL.TER and “Reverse Card” work well as a twin bill, offering an evening (or a matinee) of profound queer theater. While dissimilar in tone and plotting—the former, bittersweet and deeply moving; the latter, thrilling, intense, and visceral—they’re two sides of the same coin, each examining what happens when the past refuses to stay buried in the recesses of one’s mind.