How do you adapt a classic without simply translating it?
For the creative team behind El Fuego del Alma, the answer was not to move Tennessee Williams into the Philippines, but to discover how the play had already been living here.
This July and August, Porvenir presents El Fuego del Alma, a full intimate found-space production adapted by playwright Eljay Castro Deldoc and directed by Mark Mirando. Based on Williams’ Summer and Smoke, the production relocates the story to a provincial Philippine setting while preserving the emotional tensions that continue to make the play resonate.
At the center of the work is Alma Ortega, a woman torn between spiritual devotion and earthly desire. Her struggle between duty, longing, faith, and intimacy remains one of Williams’ most enduring portraits.
For Deldoc, the challenge was never one of translation.
“Our goal was never to imitate Tennessee Williams,” he says. “We wanted to discover what remained when the story was placed inside a Filipino context.”
The adaptation emerged through years of development, conversation, and revision. Earlier versions of the project existed under the title Alab at Usok before eventually evolving into El Fuego del Alma. A staged reading presented at Sine Pop in May 2026 provided the creative
team with an opportunity to hear the material in front of an audience.
The response was immediate.
“The production captures that signature Williams tension,” wrote critic Vladimir Bunoan.
Arturo Hilado later described the work as “a signal exemplar of evocative psychological theater.”
For director Mark Mirando, the process became an opportunity to examine how repression and longing operate within Filipino life.
“We wanted to create a version of this story that feels close to home,” Mirando says. “Alma’s longing, her restraint, and her search for connection feel deeply Filipino.”
Mirando, founder and artistic director of Porvenir, has directed original and devised works since 2016. His previous production Hanggang Isang Araw received the Philippine Leaf Award for
Outstanding Production for Children in 2019. His work often explores memory, identity, and emotional landscapes through intimate forms of performance.
Deldoc, one of the country’s most acclaimed contemporary playwrights and a recipient of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, brings his distinctive voice to the adaptation while preserving
the emotional architecture of Williams’ original work.
The production’s staging reflects this approach.
Presented at Sine Pop in Cubao, El Fuego del Alma abandons theatrical distance. Audiences share the same space as the performers, often sitting only a few feet away from the action. The production relies on proximity, silence, and emotional tension rather than spectacle.
“There is nowhere to hide in a space like this,” says Mirando. “The audience witnesses every hesitation, every silence, every moment of uncertainty.”
The role of Alma Ortega is shared by Nour Hooshmand, Harriette Mozelle, and Opaline Santos, while acclaimed screen and theater actor Sandino Martin alternates with Vincent Pajara as
Juanito.
The production also features Madeleine Nicolas, Rolando Inocencio, Sheryll Ceasico, JP Lopez, Janna Cortes, Ingrid Joyce, Johnny Maglinao, and Tristan Bite.
For Porvenir, El Fuego del Alma continues the company’s commitment to creating original Filipino work while reimagining classical texts for contemporary audiences.
Rather than asking how Filipino artists can perform Tennessee Williams, the production asks a different question:
What happens when we recognize that these stories may have belonged to us all along?
El Fuego del Alma runs July 17–19, July 31, August 1–2, and August 21–23 at Sine Pop, Cubao, Quezon City.
Friday performances are at 7:00 PM, while Saturday and Sunday performances are at 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM.
Tickets are priced at ₱1,800 through Ticket2Me.
