Here Lies Love: Be aware of the nuances of fact and fiction that trivialize the Marcos dictatorship
By Marivir Montebon
New York - Here Lies Love (HLL) is disturbing with this electrifying disco environment to narrate the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos (Arielle Jacobs), the glamorous wife of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (Jose Llana). It takes you back in tumultuous time but on the wings of disco music. That’s an unsettling dissonance.
A hallmark of HLL is its being the first of its kind on Broadway, the first modern immersive theatrical offering with movable stages and we all bathe in klieg lights and colorful neon swirling on the walls and floors of the Broadway Theater – like drinking to power.
Here Lies Love, the first immersive theater on Broadway and the first all-Filipino cast as well.
Another first on Broadway is that the HLL cast is all Filipino and the producers too, to include Lea Salonga who plays Aurora Aquino, the mother of Ninoy Aquino (Conrad Ricamora). The Filipino performers were stunning and deserving of awards. Costume designer and creative consultant Clint Ramos did a spectacular job on the fabulous wardrobe of Imelda and the entire cast. The choreography by Annie-B Parson is amazing.
Creator-musician David Byrne’s discotheque theme buoys us to dance in this show, and I must, upon the prompting of one actor who’s two feet away from me. But it’s a strange dance.
Without the dancers and the DJ (Moses Villarama) calling the audience to dance, I would just be glued to my seat because no, I cannot dance with Imeldific frivolity. On the screen and theater walls, she would be seen dancing with George Hamilton and Adnan Kashoggi. Tabang!
Unfortunately, HLL is unable to shift the mood of the reality of the era of the Marcoses from extravagance to the pain of poverty and the horrors of Martial Law. It is absent from its choreography and scarce in digital cinematics.
The use of disco trivializes the Marcos militarism. Byrne admitted, in a conversation with Filipino novelist Gina Apostol published by the Washington Post, to not knowing how to show the massive brutality. But an honest depiction could have balanced the ironical true with Imelda’s ‘beautiful’. (For the younger generation, Imelda is known for her guiding philosophy of the true, the good, and the beautiful which has evolved into a satire for many of us).
I was a Martial Law child, Marcos declared military rule when I was in kindergarten. I grew up in a family who admired Marcos (especially my late father), but that trust eventually went pfft because of the staggering economic crisis (which forced dad to leave us and work in America because his business had gone from bad to worse) and scandalous corruption in government.
The disco dance form to narrate the extravagance of Imelda is appropriate. But I found this overreaching, too chaotic, and insensitive to the sins of a dictatorship where many suffered and were expended for its desire of perpetual power.
There were other important elements in Philippine history which were nuanced by HLL: Marcos falsified his WWII medals; more than 3200 people were killed during Martial Law; President Corazon Aquino had no speaking lines; there was no mention of the thousands of shoes of Imelda; Ninoy Aquino broke up with Imelda because she was taller than him, but this could pass for artistic license as no reliable source could attest to their romance; the US saved a dictator thru President Reagan, a Marcos friend, who helicoptered the entire family from persecution during the people power uprising.
A diorama of Imelda at the exhibit area of Broadway Theater depicting her as servant of the poor, impeccably dressed with her signature big coiffured hair.
At the bar on the lower ground floor of the theater, there lies an exhibit of Imelda’s paintings and diorama which were on display in her Santo Nino Shrine Mansion in Tacloban. There you will find miniature icons of Imelda as minister of human settlement, as a campaigner for her husband, as a servant of the poor with her signature big, coiffured hair.
I went home feeling annoyed, the first time after having watched a Broadway show. The audience need to have a clear sense of history to not be doped by Imelda’s sweet talk on love for the country. She loves power.
The redemption of Here Lies Love is its line “freedom is fragile.” And indeed, it is now that Marcos Jr. is president. The timeless message this show could warn us, in all its disco fever, is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We need to know the facts first, before learning the lessons of history. HLL doesn’t clearly provide that, it is so nuanced. It is up to the audience to seek the truth. #
