Daily TribuneFor its 21st year, the Philippines’ favorite destination for "untried, untested, and unstaged" theater is ditching the formalities and getting vulnerable.
Cultural Center of the Philippines
Main poster
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SET A - HUMAN RIGHTS STORY OF THE YEAR
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SET B - BALOS
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SET C - SHE'S ELECTRIC
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SET D - FOOTPRINT
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SET D - TAKSYAPO
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SET E - PRESIDENTIAL SUITE #2
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The Virgin Labfest (VLF) is officially growing up. For its 21st year, the Philippines’ favorite destination for "untried, untested, and unstaged" theater is ditching the formalities and getting vulnerable.
Running from 3 to 28 June 2026, at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez (the CCP Black Box), this year’s theme is Hubo’t Hubad. It’s all about stripping away the pretense and exposing the raw, messy layers of identity and memory that we usually keep hidden.
We’re getting 12 brand-new scripts—eight from total festival newcomers—that promise to be fearless, unbridled, and maybe a little bit dangerous.
The lineup kicks off with some heavy hitters tackling the digital age and the cost of truth. Anthony Kim Vergara’s PASSWORD123, PILIPINAS321 dives into the murky world of "Blackteam," a cyber-op posing as a tech support center. It’s a tense look at a cybersecurity expert forced to choose between his moral compass and his paycheck.
If you prefer newsroom drama, Elijah Felice Rosales brings us HUMAN RIGHTS STORY OF THE YEAR, where an award-winning reporter’s big night is crashed by an ex-colleague who claims her "journalism" is a total sham.
History and politics take center stage in PATAYIN ANG MGA SUROT by Floyd Scott Tiogangco, which captures the high-wire anxiety of the final night of the Duterte presidency. While a police operation rages outside, a couple stays indoors trying to kill bedbugs—a metaphor that’s hard to miss.
Meanwhile, Neil Arkhe Azcuna’s BALOS transports us to a Marawi hospital where a wounded fighter’s arrival forces four medical workers into a life-or-death moral corner: do they stay quiet to stay safe, or speak up and risk it all?
Religion and romance get a fresh look this year, starting with Alab Usman’s HARAM, a story following three queer Muslims trying to navigate the intersection of their faith and their hearts across borders.
For a different kind of spiritual reckoning, Gab Mactal’s LUALHATI reunites a former nun and a philosophy professor during a wake at a convent, where buried memories of romance and old-school devotion finally come to the surface.
If you’re looking for something a bit more abstract, Dustin Celestino’s ELEHIYA offers an impressionistic look at the conversations fathers and sons never actually had.
On the lighter (but still deep) side, Ron Evangelista’s SHE’S ELECTRIC follows a reformed womanizer who thinks he’s found "the one," until his friends dig up a discovery that triggers a massive debate on the sexual and philosophical mechanics of modern relationships.
Things get dark and trippy with Faith Ferrer Lacanlale’s BETAMAX, where a woman starts seeing "human pigs" after a fender bender—a descent into madness that peels back the layers of her family’s dark secrets.
Jerom Canlas explores a different kind of haunting in FOOTPRINT, where a grieving family uses a virtual archive to relive memories, only to realize that their unspoken truths are more painful than the tragedy they’re trying to escape.
John Lapus takes us to Tarlac for TAKSYAPO!, where two strangers meet in a "rage booth" and realize their stories of heartbreak are more connected than they thought.
Finally, Gerald Manuel’s BUHAGHAG follows a young woman haunted by a mysterious, long-haired figure that forces her into a desperate choice between saving herself or letting go completely.
If you missed out last year, the festival is also bringing back three fan favorites for a second look. Ade Valenzona’s POLAR COORDINATES follows a student spiraling after a failed Math exam, while Rolin Cadallo Obina’s THE LATE MR. REAL revisits the claustrophobia of a COVID-19 isolation facility where an estranged couple is forced to talk through their failed marriage. Rounding out the "revisited" set is Siege Malvar’s PRESIDENTIAL SUITE #2, a sharp look at a senator’s children trying to save their family name while their mother recovers from a heart attack amidst a money-laundering scandal.
