CEBU CITY — 2TinCans Philippines Inc. presents Stay a Little Longer, a full-length drama written by Sarah Mae Enclona-Henderson and directed by Shifrah Bouchikhi-Enclona on Aug. 29 and 30 at The Kabilin Center.

The play follows a woman whose memory moves fluidly across the many stages of her life — a child grieving the loss of her brother, a young woman fighting to be chosen, a wife and mother, a physician, or an elderly woman trying to understand the unfamiliar room around her. But for Her, each moment is real.

As time collapses and identities overlap, the people who love her are forced to confront a difficult question: Do we insist on the reality we know, or do we enter the reality of the person we love?

Enclona-Henderson plays Her; Charlene Virlouvet, Daughter;  Shiella Pestaño-Gemperoa, Doctor; Rio Delizo, Nurse; and Jonathan Tad Tadioan, Husband. Stage management is by Benjun Yu and production design by Louie Carlo Basalo.

Rather than portraying memory loss as disappearance, Stay a Little Longer explores it as a shifting way of moving through time. The woman at the center of the play does not vanish but remains whole, even as her access to memory changes.

At the heart of the play is a question that reaches far beyond dementia: If memory fades, what is left of us?

For playwright Enclona-Henderson, Stay a Little Longer began with the realization that memory loss affects not only one person. “In a world that values clarity, accuracy, and coherence, dementia disrupts not only the individual but also everyone who loves them,” she wrote. “It asks us to reconsider what truth means, and whether being right is more important than being present.”

For Bouchikhi-Enclona, directing Stay a Little Longer is an opportunity to approach the story with both emotional honesty and restraint: “It is about the things we cannot control and the things we choose to hold on to,” she said, adding: “Memory can be fragmented, confusing, and unpredictable, but there can still be moments of peace within it. Rather than trying to make everything clear, I want the audience to experience the shifting landscape of the play with Her — to feel the confusion, the tenderness, the frustration, and the quiet moments of recognition.” 

The play unfolds in a single hospice room, transformed through lighting, performance, sound, and minimal shifts in space, and becomes not only a physical setting but also a psychological landscape where past and present exist simultaneously.

Stay a Little Longer is part of Kulukabildo II: Stories in Direct Light, a program that brings original stories into the light through the distinct voices of emerging Cebuano directors. CONTRIBUTED 

Tickets are available at 2tincans-philippines.yapsody.com.