For its 49th Theatre Season, which also marks the company’s 50th founding anniversary, Dulaang UP adopts the theme “Paano Umalala nang may Pag-alaga?”—a season centered on collective memory, historical consciousness, and what the company describes as the need for “radical care” amid growing historical amnesia.

The season also commemorates the 130th death anniversary of José Rizal by putting his two revolutionary novels in conversation with one another through back-to-back productions inspired by Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo.

Dulaang UP positions the stage as a “living archive”—a space where artists and audiences can encounter history, interrogate it, and consider its relationship with the present. 

Fiestas y Muertos Reimagines Noli Me Tángere

Opening the season is Fiestas y Muertos, directed by José Estrella and based on the Filipino translation of Noli Me Tángere by National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario.

Estrella's reimagining places two contrasting forces at the center of its theatrical world: fiestas and muertos.

On one side is the chaotic and almost compulsory happiness of public celebration. On the other is a quieter and more unsettling reality marked by deterioration and death. Through this contrast, the production returns to Rizal's San Diego, where elaborate religious festivities can obscure poverty, corruption, and suffering beneath the spectacle.

Fiestas y Muertos reframes the novel through a ritualistic interplay of celebration, decay, life, and death—allowing a story written in the 19th century to confront audiences in the present.

Fiestas y Muertos runs from October 23 to November 15, 2026 at the IBG-KAL Theatre in UP Diliman.

Performances are scheduled every Friday at 7:00 PM, with Saturday and Sunday shows at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM.

Nitrogliserina Imagines What Comes After El Filibusterismo

Dulaang UP continues its exploration of Rizal in 2027 with Nitrogliserina, a new play by Guelan Varela-Luarca, based on and inspired by El Filibusterismo and directed by Dexter M. Santos.

This alternate narrative pursues the revolutionary possibilities left unresolved in Rizal’s final novel. What if the story we inherited was not the one we needed?

Interrogating the limits of reform, the violence of established orders, and the fantasies of liberation that continue to haunt the Filipino imagination, Nitrogliserina confronts the precarious aftermath of a revolution. As power structures collapse and new futures emerge, the play offers a meditation on the price of remaking a nation.

The production is scheduled to run from February to March 2027, also at the IBG-KAL Theatre, UP Diliman.

Ticket Information

For Fiestas y Muertos, the Early Access Promo runs August 3 to September 3. Regular tickets are reduced from ₱1,200 to ₱1,000, while the UP Community rate is ₱630 from the standard ₱690, with the UP Community discount applicable to Friday performances. PWD/Senior and UP Alumni/Non-UP Student tickets are listed at ₱960.