Writer, choreographer and performer Max Percy brings Baklâ to Summerhall’s Demonstration Room this Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The sole performer on stage, Max unpicks the effects of intergenerational trauma stemming from his heritage in the colonised Philippines, exploring the coping mechanisms used in this progressive, unrestrained piece.
Blending physical theatre, humour, and monologue, Max covers a wealth of material in Baklâ, interweaving elements of historical trauma, coming of age, and the queer experience into this sixty minute piece.
Opening with Kim Petras tunes Treat Me Like a Slut and Coconuts blasting, Summerhall’s Demonstration Room is turned into a queer nightspot as Max watches his audience file in. As the music fades, the performer explains the meaning of Baklâ, sharing its Tagalog usages including: 1) a person who is sexually attracted to people of the same sex; 2) Filipinx LGBTQ+ community; 3) unable to reproduce. Max shares English-language equivalent before asking the audience if they are aware of any other slurs, encouraging them to share. Blending the historical with the present day anecdotal, lighting changes and shifts in Max’s physicality thrust us back to Homonhon Island in 1521 where The Philippines are colonised under Spanish rule.
The historical elements of Baklâ allow Max to shine a light on an era of colonial rule and its lingering effects on the Filipinx population and their descendants. Exploring the starvation and cruel practices employed by the colonisers in imposing flashback scenes, Max seamlessly blends narratives to a contemporary age, reflecting his own personal experiences. Max brings a well-pitched humour to the fold, lulling audiences in with his warm-demeanour whilst also creating an accepting, trusting bond in sharing the often challenging effects of intergenerational trauma.
Delving into concepts of masculinity and older relatives reactions to his sexuality, Max explores a stilted relationship with his grandfather. This anecdote reflects the challenges queer individuals often face with relatives, whilst further linking Max’s experiences to that of his Filipinx ancestors. Exploring his relationship with his sexuality and the want to be desired not othered, leads to an unsettling sharing of a traumatic sexual encounter. These themes are given physical representation through spectacular rope work and some confident physical theatre, as well as metaphorical interpretative movement which captivates.
Max intersperses video into the production with impressive effect: advertisements for skin-whitening soap link with anecdotes of Max and his sister attempting to lighten their eye colour with dangerous home concoctions, whist audio recordings describe Jessica Alba’s apparent journey from Mediterranean to Germanic skin tones also play. Max successful depicts the damaging social myth that whiteness should be preferred and the traumatic effects that will ripple through for non-white individuals through this cultural dominance. Similar adverts of American astronauts arriving at Philippine fast food chain Jollibee, continue to show the otherness depicted in marketing.
In Baklâ, Max Percy explores the damaging, lingering effects of intergenerational trauma in a beautifully pitched human manner. In its rich creativity, Baklâ blends physical theatre, history and a sharp humour, resulting is a gripping, thought-provoking watch.
Baklâ runs at Summerhall’s Demonstration Room. Tickets can be purchased here.