MANILA — Near the middle of Jon Santos’ performance in “Bawat Bonggang Bagay,” an audience member stands up and tiptoes his way toward the exit. Santos, with the spontaneity of a veteran stand-up comedian, stops his monologue and casually asks, “San ka pupunta?”

The audience member, actually actor-singer Ian Pangilinan, says it’s nature’s call. Santos tells him, “Sige, hihintayin kita” and freezes like a statue, facing the door. Everybody is screaming in laughter, clapping, some stomping their feet.

For a little more than two minutes, Santos stays “frozen.” Pangilinan returns, everybody is clapping. Santos waits for Pangilinan to take his seat before Santos “unfreezes” himself and continues his monologue as if nothing happened. 

Teresa Herrera-Anthony, who plays the nameless female character in the English language version of the local staging of Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe’s “Every Brilliant Thing,” has one of the louder reactions, her laughter reverberating in the hall. 

We’re at the special mid-afternoon preview of “Bawat Bonggang Bagay,” the Filipino translation of “Every Brilliant Thing” by Guelan Luarca, with inputs from Santos. It’s a rainy Thursday for the final weekend twin-bill performances of “EBT” and “Lungs,” also written by Macmillan, by the Sandbox Collective at the Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall of the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in BGC, Taguig City. 

Santos plays the nameless narrator. He and Luarca wrote the script in Filipino to fit the male gay character. “EBT” was originally a short story by Macmillan, who adapted it into a monologue with comedian Donahoe as co-writer. When it debuted onstage in 2013 at the Ludlow Fringe Festival, it was Donahoe who played the narrator. 

If Donahoe originated the role in 2013 and being a comedian and improv actor himself, it can be said Santos performing the Filipino version is a fitting 10-year tribute to the first staging in the United Kingdom. 

For those who haven’t seen Sandbox Collective’s version of “EBT,” it’s a 90-minute monologue on how a girl deals with her mother’s chronic depression leading to suicide attempts. She writes on a notebook a list of beautiful things and events that make life worth living. 

For the narrator, simple things and events like ice cream, water fights, being allowed to watch her favorite TV show way past her bedtime, the smell of pages of a new book, or when you are so close to someone you can ask him or her if you smell like dried sweat and so on. Her mother recovers but after a few years would spiral into her lower depths and breakdowns again. As the girl narrator reaches young adulthood to being a grown woman, the number of things to live for on her list reached a million. 

The items are written on pieces of paper distributed to audience members before the play begins. Every time the narrator mentions the number, the one who has the corresponding paper slip reads what’s written on it. 

Toff de Venecia, artistic director of Sandbox Collective, earlier said Macmillan encouraged the localization of both plays. Thus, Santos’s grown-up character studies college in UP Baguio. Ice cream becomes halo-halo, favorite singer becomes Francis Magalona, favorite movie and theme song have become “Bituing Walang Ningning” and food worth living for is “peking duck na may hoisin sauce”.

There are two projector screens positioned on both sides of the hall where images of the items mentioned are seen. Some items mentioned can be specific so when the number is for peanut butter, shown on the screen in Lily’s Peanut Butter.

Santos says, “Yung may libreng baso pag naubos at my drawing na lily”. 

A master of puns, Santos would sometimes translate his lines in Tagalog to English or makes fun of his own pronunciation. For example, the sentence “Eto lang ang kaya kong gawin” becomes “It’s the list that I can do” instead of “least,” in reference to the list he’s writing. 

He asks the audience for the right pronunciation of “voila” and gets frustrated, says “Voi-ha-la kayo dyan!”

We’re used to watching Santos as impersonator of Vilma Santos, former presidents and first ladies of the Philippines and sometimes the United States and other famous personalities. It’s easy to confine him in those comic roles. We remember the last time he did theater was playing older Emman in “Ang Huling El Bimbo” the musical in 2018. 

With “Bawat Bonggang Bagay,” his spontaneity makes the difference. All the punchlines, the intended puns, all hilarious moments are essential to get the plays’ messages across. It’s the cathartic experience that stays with you even after days of watching “BBB.” You’ll laugh even in your sleep until your wife or husband or pet cat wakes you up. 

Since the setup is theater-in-the round, “EBT” feels like attending a clan reunion or gathering of old friends from school and one of them, the mysterious guy or woman you haven’t seen for decades, bravely stood up for an hour and confess his or her life story. 

Santos only has four shows until July 16, Sunday, 2:30 pm. We’ve learned all dates were nearly sold out. Herrera does “EBT” on July 16, Sunday, 7:30 pm. It was announced limited tickets are still available and walk-ins are accepted.

Oh, just make sure you empty your bladder before the show.