Ever wonder what it feels like to build a family in this world where we face serious environmental issues? What does it feel like to look into a future that you know nothing of? Lungs is a play by Duncan Mcmillan which focuses on the 30-years relationship of M played by Jake Cuenca and W played by the brilliant Sab Jose.
Directed by Andrei Nikolai Pamintuan, this Sandbox Collective and 9 Works Theatrical masterpiece hits the right feels. The play doesn’t have any set design, sounds, or a big cast. Jake and Sab were dressed in plain white shirts, jeans, and sneakers throwing lines at each other for a good 90 minutes without leaving the stage and getting an intermission break. Simple and straightforward—that’s what Lungs is like.
The story revolves around the relationship between M and W with M wanting to have a child. Due to the different social issues that our world is facing, though, W feels like bearing a child is a disservice to our society. I won’t spoil the story too much, but M and W’s story has twists and turns that made the audience laugh and ugly cry at all the right moments.
Lungs has a real story that depicts real situations between a couple. M is Jake Cuenca’s character debut in a play and I must say he did great portraying the loving partner of W. What caught my attention during his brilliant portrayal is how his eyes captured the emotions of his character, making us feel the struggle that he faces from the story’s start to its ending.
The tricky part about this play is being caged in a four-cornered box with just lights as the main production accessory. Lungs is a two-person play and Sab Jose showed the audience that she can carry the story along with Jake Cuenca without boring us.
Sab’s portrayal of W is captivating. Her innocence about building a family lures us to look into her heart as a woman struggling to find a balance and making a mark in this world, doing good to the society, and bearing a great responsibility of carrying a child for M. Her feminist outlook is not the kind of annoying execution that sometimes happens in stories.
Lungs is a simple 90-minute long play. There is no extravagant set design or loud music played during the entire duration of the production, but what makes this special is that it makes us focus on the characters’ stories, making us feel their emotions more as we watch their struggles in life.
Lungs is a one-of-a-kind offering from Sandbox Collective and 9 Works Theatrical, giving us a glimpse at what most relationships look like.
Lungs by Duncan Mcmillan runs until October 7, 2018. You can get your tickets at ticketworld.com.ph.
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