Adrenaline invaded every inch of the audience as a pistol was raised in the air. It was silent for a while, and then with a loud “BANG!” everyone started to run. But after three hours of blood, guts and hell being broken loose, the lights went on and the dead woke up from their temporary slumber.

(source: http://alicesarmiento.wordpress.com)

Directed by PHSA alum­nus JK Anicoche (Theater Arts, Villa-Celerio ‘03) and co-writ­ten by four Australian play­wrights, Battalia Royale, Sipat Lawin Ensemble’s loose adap­tation of Koushun Takami’s controversial novel-turned-movie, became a huge success after their stunning perfor­mance at an abandoned school last March at Ermin Garcia, Cubao (Another run was done in September.)

The play revolves around 40 high school juniors who are on a class trip to Mt. Pinatubo. In the middle of the trip, they are abducted, tranquilized and sent off to an unknown lo­cation. The minute they wake up, they are greeted by their facilitator and several armed men. After gathering their weapons—katanas, pistols, forks and many more—they run off with only one instruc­tion: Kill, or be killed.

Set in the remains of the abandoned school, the place gave everyone a spine-chilling feel. The concrete ground was bloodstained, and the walls were marked with the sign BR. It was the real deal.

It was no ordinary play. As the players ran and killed each other around the dimly-lit building, everyone else had to run and follow them instead of sitting down in front of a stage. Blood literally sprayed all over the audience. I came across a dead body or two whenever we had to hurry to the next scene. There was even a scene where a group of girls “crucified” their classmate—ending her life with a dagger to the head.

It was total mad­ness, and it all happened in one night.

Each character was por­trayed realistically; it was as if you felt the pain of each stu­dent as they were being killed off. Kakai (Thea Yrastorza), Basti (Kevin Vitug) and Victor (Marco Viana) were some of the crowd’s favorites—going their own separate ways dur­ing the beginning of the show, and crossing paths as the play progressed.

After the show, my knees were shaking and my shirt was stained red. It wasn’t something you would forget overnight—it was something that would forever brand it­self onto the back of your mind; an unforgettable event that you would remember for the rest of your life. Bat­talia Royale, morbidly beauti­ful and perfectly sadistic; will literally make your brain ex­plode to pieces.

Maya Herras