First to the rather dissonant title. ATE LOVIA translates from Tagalong, a Filipino dialect, as Big Sister. Fair enough. It just gets a bit much when the main character’s name is also Lovia. Is this a case of the playwright just being a bit too clever by half.
A well structured family drama, Jordan Shea’s ATE LOVIA takes us into the world of a Filipino family who have migrated to Australia to escape President Marcos’ regime. The play is set in Sydney in the nineties with the Liberal Government in charge under conservative Prime Minister John Howard. Pauline Hanson and her divisive One Nation party are still getting a lot of airplay.
The play starts with the family just having moved into a new property. The family comprises a middle aged father Jovy and his grown up daughter, Lovia and son, Vergel. The mother left the marriage nine years prior, a decision which Jovy and the two, then children, took badly,. Will the family survive the further struggles that are just around the corner…
The very experienced Kenneth Moraleda directs the action flowing well with very few slow periods. Together with the writer he manages to suffuse some humour into an essentially dramatic work.
Chaya Ocampo gives a good performance as the lead character, a sweet natured woman in her twenties who has been carrying the family since mum left. That has been working fine but she is in something of a crossroads. She wants to give up her job working in no frills Franklins and move to Wollongong and study law at that great University down in the Gong. Will her father and brother survive if she exits ‘stage left’.
Marcus Rivera has the most difficult and dramatic role as the deeply troubled father Jovy. He had a good job back in the Phillipines and a ‘full’ family. He is now living in Sydney down a wife and mother and even worse he has a major drinking problem. He isn’t able to hold down a job for any length of time and risks losing his new home.
I thought that Rivera’s performance needed to be pulled back. It was too intense, nearly all of the time and he tended to shout his lines which was made even more difficult in the tiny Old Fitz space. The performances of the best dramatic actors are more measured and subtle.
Joseph Raboy played his youngest, his son Vergel. Vergel is not a ‘chip off the old block’. His father wants him to be a macho, working class man. Vergel wants to be a dancer. He hides his dance shoes from his father’s eyes and tells his Dad that he is training to be a boxer,. Well, we know how t]\to turn out..
Dindima Huckle Moran gave a delightful performance as Lovia’s cheeky, bubbly, indigenous workmate, advocate and love interest. The scenes between Dindima and Chaya, especially in their renegade Franklin’s employees scenes, were some of the best in the play.
Veteran thespian Anna Lee impressed in the rather stereotypical, comic role of the stressed out director of a community theatre production of West Side Story which Vergel successfully auditions for. Sorry Shea but this portrayal did not sit that well. Some community theatre productions are of an exceptional standard and the directors are very knowledgable and great theatremakers!
Ruru Zhu’s compact stage design, well it has to be at the Old Fitz, worked very well and there were a lot of ‘touches’ to it.
Michael Toisuta’s soundscape was suitably edgy in the ‘big’ scenes.
Verdict. EAT LOVIA was a good drama though I did not sense that something extra, that x factor, which will see one of the main theatre companies pick it up.
Presented by Kwento in association with Red Line Productions, Jordan Shea’s EAT LOVIA is playing the Old Fitz theatre in the Old Fitz hotel on the corner of Cathedral and Dowling streets, Woolloomooloo until 4 June 2022.
Production photo by Lucy Le Masurier