“Hindi lahat ng nagmamahal ay minamahal pabalik (Not everyone who loves is loved in return).” One line. Five stories. Countless hearts broken, healed, or awakened. After a sold-out, critically acclaimed first run earlier this year, “Para Kay B” — the powerful stage adaptation of Ricky Lee’s best-selling novel — is back.
The return season runs from September 12 to 28 this year at the Doreen Black Box Theater, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University. It will be co-produced by LA Prodhouse and Fire & Ice Live, in partnership with Tunog at Liwanag sa Teatro.
With an exciting new ensemble cast set to be revealed, the creative team is dialing up the intensity, humor, and emotional depth that made this show a phenomenon earlier this year.
With direction by Yong Tapang Jr. and adaptation by Eljay Deldoc, Para Kay B boldly dismantles the myth of the happy ending. As LionHearTV aptly puts it, the show “acknowledges the harsh truths of love—that not all relationships end in happiness, that love is unpredictable, and that people don’t always change for the better.”
At its core is Lucas, a quiet, emotionally withdrawn author writing five short stories about five women — each representing a different side of love, loss, and longing. Lucas believes in a cruel arithmetic of the heart: only one in every five love stories is allowed to succeed.
The women, however, have other plans.
A meta love story
Bessie, the B in the title, is Lucas’s muse — loud, bold, and unforgettable. But in a twist of fate and betrayal, she wounds the one who wrote her. Her story is left unfinished.
Irene avoids boys whose names start with J. Sandra drifts through life, returning again and again to Room 23 of a motel. Erica is a social media endorser from a place where people have forgotten how to love. Ester is a widow whose only memento of a great love is a photocopied photograph.
Together, they form the backbone of Lucas’s novel — but they also begin to rebel against the man scripting their fates.
These characters don’t just live in his head; they interrupt him, argue with him, challenge his choices. The play blurs the lines between writer and written, artist and muse.
This meta-narrative is both theatrical and deeply personal. It asks, “Who owns the story — the one who writes it, or the one who survives it?”
Though audiences raved about the original cast, this return is set to raise the bar with a new ensemble of performers taking on the iconic roles of Lucas, Bessie, Irene, Sandra, Erica, Ester, and the many others who orbit their lives. The upcoming cast reveal has fans abuzz with speculation: “Who will play the new B?” “Is there a new Lucas?”
While we won’t spoil the surprise just yet, we can say this: this new cast is ready to bring their own textures, timing, and truth to the characters, promising a fresh take while honoring what made the original run so impactful.
And they’ll have the perfect stage for it. The show’s set and sound design are intentionally minimalist, allowing character and story to take center stage.
As critics noted, the visuals serve as “a vibrant underscore rather than a distraction,” with smart use of projections, lighting shifts, and symbolic props creating dynamic spaces for deeply internal journeys.
The evolution of a modern classic
Eljay Deldoc began adapting Para Kay B for the stage back in 2011 — and has reimagined it with every iteration since. This new version continues that evolution.
As in previous stagings, Deldoc distills all six chapters of Ricky Lee’s novel into an emotionally compact, politically aware theatrical experience.
The script doesn’t shy away from taboos or from politics — it embraces them, just as it embraces the complicated, contradictory ways people love. It gives its female characters space to speak, to fight, to collapse, to rage, to want, and to walk away. As one character says, “We are not the stories you write about us.”
Director Yong Tapang Jr. meets this challenge with clarity and courage, weaving the ensemble stories into a cohesive, emotionally layered 2.5-hour experience (including a 10-minute intermission) that moves briskly yet never glosses over the quiet moments of reckoning.
Whether you saw the March run and are coming back for another gut punch, or you’re a first-timer hearing about Para Kay B through word-of-mouth, this new staging is an invitation to reflect, grieve, laugh, and unlearn.
It’s not just about who gets their happy ending. It’s about what we carry when we don’t.
Tickets are now available at Ticket2Me: bit.ly/PKB2025Tickets.