With 12 new scripts, this year’s Virgin Labfest (VLF) promises narratives dealing with the complex layers of human experience. Creating a safe environment festival has planted the seeds for a bountiful harvest with works coming to full bloom or ready to burst onstage, embodying this year’s theme, “Pintog,” meaning “ripe” or “swelling.”

Produced by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, VLF is an annual theater festival dedicated to providing venue for new works by aspiring playwrights.

New plays

In Vengeance of the Gods by Hans Pieter Arao, a person is possessed in public. The town mayor’s chief of staff claims to know the reason behind the phenomenon and tries to convince the father of the possessed to join him in his quest for justice.

Ningas by Lino Balmes is about a woman asking a man for a simple favor: To give her a name.

Love in the Brain by Rick Patriarca follows the story of ex-lovers who realize how grueling modern gay dating can be when a former flame discovers that they contracted HIV.

Set during the Covid-19 delta wave in 2021, Pagkapit sa Hangin by Joshua Lim So narrates what happens when a relative of a patient catches the scheme of a doctor and his nurses working in a public hospital to limit the oxygen supply of patients nearing their deaths.

Lipistick at Pulbura by Ara Jenika Vinzon begins with a censor for the Japanese planning to unearth her guerilla fighter friend. In the printing press where she works, the lead character gathers charred scraps of paper like puzzle pieces, revealing her final memory of their friendship before the battle.

In The Foxtrot by Chesie Galvez-Cariño, dancing highlights the complexities of relationships. The play revolves around a middle-aged matron of substantial means and her respectable dance instructor who rehearses for an amateur ballroom dance competition.

Sa Babaeng Lahat by Elise Santos is about three young girls who reflect on their relationships with religion, sexuality and themselves.

Ang Munting Liwanag sa Madilim na Sulok ng Serbeserya sa Maynila by Dustin Celestino recounts the visit of two psychology professors in a beer house, and the conversation they have on love, marriage and privilege.

In Si Hesus Na’a sa U.S. by Neil Azcuna, two separated lovers revisit their past on their way to the airport as one of them contemplates a new lover’s plan to immigrate to the United States.

In Sentenaryo by Herlyn Alegre, relatives arrive at a centenarian’s birthday celebration, hoping they will get a share of his free government money. But what happens when the celebrant dies before the arrival of the barangay captain who will give the money?

The Divine Family by Dip Mariposque navigates the complex dynamic of family members when they are forced to stay under one roof because of the pandemic.

Identite by Jhudiel Clare Sosa scrutinizes the complicated relationship between a daughter and mother.