MABINING MANDIRIGMA at CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino

"Mabining Mandirigma" places the spotlight on Apolinario Mabini, played by cross-gender actors Monique Wilson and Hazel Maranan. There are many reasons why Mabini, a Filipino revolutionary leader and the first Prime Minister of the Philippine, is the "Philippine hero par excellence for the Philippines today," which the show's librettist Nicanor Tiongson firmly believes. Although a paralytic--he moves around using a wheelchair or a portable hammock, Mabini was revered as the "soul and light of the revolution," "the brain of the revolution." A staunch nationalist, he was also the chief advisor to General Emilio Aguinaldo, the first President of the Philippines, alternately played by Arman Ferrer and David Ezra in this fourth staging of the musical, directed by Chris Millado.