When it comes to love and religion, what's your stand?

How do couples/lovers of different religious or spiritual
backgrounds and beliefs build a healthy,
respectful marriage or partnership together?

This answer is going to be different for each couple/lovers as every relationship is unique.

This show opens with the cacophony of a car crash and spends half of its scenes in a hospital waiting room, "Next Fall" is a surprisingly funny exploration of the nature of love and faith. The play alternates between scenes set in the waiting room of a hospital, where Luke is in a coma after being hit by a taxi, and vignettes that trace in flashbacks the evolving and sometimes tenuous relationship of Luke, a young actor, and the 40-ish Adam.

Adam also decides that now is a perfect time to assault the religious beliefs that are giving everyone comfort. He takes even the smallest mention of faith as provocation. This would almost be forgivable as a conceit if the conversations that resulted were at all balanced.

What “Next Fall” is very good at doing is prompting the discussions in the audience that the characters seem incapable of having onstage.

The characters:


The characters in “Next Fall” — including Adam (Bart Guingona) and Luke (David Bianco), the odd couple at the play’s center. In the hands of these actors, the characters never feel like fictional creations but like real people, endearing and infuriating, and when their time in the spotlight comes to an end, you wish you could stick around and get to know them better.

My Take:

Not everyone will relate to the homosexual relationship and not everyone will relate to the various religious stances held by the characters in the play, "Next Fall." What everyone will relate to, however, is the common denominator of religion in our lives and how it influences our views. That is why this is not just your ordinary gay-love story. When a play presents two gay lovers, one Christian and the other atheist, the audience may lick its lips for a meaty philosophical debate with a modern twist. This play was said to disguise as a tragedy about two men with irreconcilable views of the world, “Next Fall” has nothing to do with God or science.

All that said, there’s a whole lot to love here. Seriously, holy crap, you should see “Next Fall.” You’re not gonna find a funnier, sweeter, more exasperating play in town right now.

The play will be staged at the Onstage, Greenbelt 1 in Makati City on January 13 – February 5, 2012 and it was directed by veteran theater actor and director Audie Gemora.

For tickets, inquiries and other information, call Repertory Philippines at 571-6926 or 571-4941 or email info@repertory.ph. Tickets are also available thru Ticketworld at 891-9999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph.  Visit www.repertory.ph, subscribe to youtube.com/repertoryphils, and add “Rep Phils” in Facebook.

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