Sipat Lawin’s LOVE: Not Yet A Musical

The gods of love revealed.

Let’s talk about love.

Love, as they say, is a many splendored thing–all you need is love! Yet anyone who has experienced romantic love can say that it’s messy, it’s war. It’s torture for those who wait for it and great hell for those who have lost it.

Sipat Lawin Ensemble and Friends, the group that brought the unforgettable Battalia Royale, brings to life the complications that come with love in LOVE: Not Yet A Musical, the Second Time Around (or as they call it, LoveNot. See the irony?). A play that runs only seven times for the season of romance, this interactive, crowd-sourced play brings you right into the world of the four gods of love–memory (alaala), view/sight (tanaw), heat (init) and cold (lamig). Expect to get slightly wet, to run, jump, draw and scream your heart out while sharing your own stories of crazy love and pain to strangers.

Audiences are thrown into the face of these facets of love and romance and encouraged to lose themselves in the mythos of a world collaborated by lovers, artists and performers everywhere (including collaborations from Leeroy New, OG Sacred, Everywhere We Shoot, Astroboy, and Speak Philippines). This is how love is meant to be–experienced, felt, seen, heard and touched. Wether you’re folding a paper plane for future love, receiving flowers and a sweet phone call or tossing flowers at a grave to let go.

Tanaw is to look for the future.

Much like Battalia, not everyone experiences the same show when watching. Audiences are mixed and plot into several groups, depending on which side you happen to be in. The interactivity, however, is only a small selling point of LoveNot. It’s easy to get lost in the mythology of the show because of the skill of the actors. The collaborations included in this journey collide in a war that has the audiences sharing and contributing that love at the end of the show. Meeting the four gods ends with a fantasmic collaboration at the rooftop, as romantic a location as romantic locations come.

Our tips? Wear comfy clothes for going up and down the steps, bring water to drink (just in case!) and DON’T HOLD ANYTHING BACK! Keep your mind and heart open to the whole thing, and let love into your life.

LOVENot runs throughout the last two weekends of February with its opening show tonight on Valentine’s Day. Ticket reservations and purchases may be made by contacting 0917.500.8753 or emailing lovenotyetamusical@gmail.com. The show will be playing at Ehrewon Theatre near Commonwealth in Matandang Balara.

Love big. Love one. Love all. LOVENot binds us all.

Experience LOVE, The Second Time Around.