Growing up, the arrival of a Balikbayan box was our family’s high holiday. Decades later as maturity reveals harsh realities, that sweet aftertaste has turned into something more metallic and anxious.

While we understand that the stacks of chocolates bridge gap of their absence, cocoa is a poor substitute for a physical presence at the dinner table.

It is this specific contemporary ache—the geography of longing—that Dulaang UP first captures with haunting precision in “Ang Kaliitan ng Kasalukuyan.”

The lunar pull of the diaspora

At the center of this orbit is Bulan—”moon” in Ilocano—brought to life by Sandino Martin with a performance that feels like a slow-motion collapse. Martin plays a Dubai-based OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) whose return to Manila is less a sanctuary and more a series of transactional performances.

In the first parts of the play, it seems Bulan is in a better position than his sister who works in Qatar. However when the sister appears in the latter part, she brings a different point of view, a fresher take that the viewers should watch closely.

Playwright and new Artistic Director Arlo Deguzman doesn’t lean on the sweeping, loud tragedies we’ve come to expect from the “OFW narrative.” Instead, he dissects very tiny yet symbolic fragments of the present: the forced, jagged laughter of family reunions, the distribution of pasalubong, and the relentless, predatory expectations of family members who have come to view their kin as a cash machine.

Drowning in the desert

The central metaphor of the travel luggage is used to brilliant effect. It is not just a container for clothes; it is an anchor, a burden.

The emotional arc is not an ordinary one. While the earlier scenes are almost physically heavy to bear, the play becomes paradoxically more “enjoyable” as the characters’ guards finally erode.

Photos by Charity Marces of DVOSHORE

I consider the scene where Bulan and his sister meet as the climax, but an unconventional one. It delivers words the viewers are yearning to hear. The long, intimate conversation between the two siblings brings an insightful crossroad of the present and future generations.

A stunning piece of stagecraft is revealed as the house lights rise: the stage has been flooded with actual water. It is a staggering visual irony; while the final scenes are set in the parched landscape of the Middle East, the characters are literally wading through a fluid history, drowning in the weight of what they have left behind.

“Ang Kaliitan ng Kasalukuyan” is a love story for the children of OFWs. It is innovative, gut-wrenching, and undeniably essential. Dulaang UP has once again proven that the most personal stories are often the most universal. With Joel Contrivida of Palawander

For more reviews and stories that matter, email me at christianaligo.mgei@gmail.com. You can also connect with me via Viber at 0917-659-6321.