Educational, poignant, and bold, Rody Vera's "Under My Skin" brings the plight of living with HIV to light through characters based on actual people.
As part of its Acting on HIV campaign launched in the latter end of 2019, the Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA) caps off its 52nd performance season with a play to educate the youth about HIV-AIDS and to diminish the stigma for Persons Living with HIV (PLHIV).
"It is not a death sentence anymore," said Cherry Pie Picache who plays the lead character Dr. Gemma Almonte, alternately played by Roselyn Perez. "That is what captured me when Melvin Lee, the director, approached me for this production. That is what motivated me to join Under My Skin and use theatre as an artistic tool to propagate the truths behind this condition," she continued.
Written by Rody Vera, Under My Skin revolves around the pivotal moments in the lives of several PLHIV—how they found out that they were "reactive" and how they coped emotionally, socially, and physically. Sans the characters' backstories, it is an informative lecture by Dr. Almonte that begins with the statistical data of PLHIV in the country, the history of HIV which can be traced back to what was then known as Gay Related Immunodeficiency Disease in the 1980s. Throughout the play they explain how it is transmitted, what it does to one's body, the symptoms, and how it develops into AIDS, other complications if untreated, and worse, how it can lead to death. Indeed it was complex storytelling. Regardless, Vera risked it and thematically divided the backstories into parts, wrapping it altogether in a beautiful virtuoso of emotions—from misery to felicity.