The Good Life: Editors’ Picks of the Week

Man of La Mancha by Repertory Philippines

Opening night at Repertory Philippines’ Man of La Mancha directed by Nelsito Gomez was such a treat. 

Veteran actor Nonie Buencamino is Don Quixote, the Lord of La Mancha, and he is stellar as always. 

We sympathized with the chivalrous self-declared knight, and Nonie moved us with his mix of strength and vulnerability, humor and heartbreak. He brought humanity to the man the world saw as mad. 

The rest of the cast was just as remarkable: Katrine Sunga as the tavern wench Aldonza, Marvin Ong as Sancho Panza the loyal sidekick, Steven Hotchkiss as Padre, Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante as Antonia, Tarek El Tayech as Innkeeper, Alfredo Reyes as Carrasco.

The musical is set within a prison cell that evoked a detention center for immigrants from all over.

Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote made them remember what it was like to hope. 

Every time I’d glance at Mom during the show, she was smiling and her eyes were alight. She’s always loved the song, “The Impossible Dream.”

And in this current toxic environment, the message resonates even more.

To fight the unbeatable foe, no matter how hopeless, to fight for the right, without question. 

The world will be better for this. – Yvette Fernandez, Chief of Editorial Content

Kawayan de Guia and Louie Cordero exhibit, “Interpsychic Colony,” in MO_Space

At MO_Space, Kawayan de Guia and Louie Cordero reunite for Interpsychic Colony, the duo’s third collaborative exhibition. As expected, we get a wild and vivid collision of two image-making practices shaped by comics, pulp fiction, folklore, political satire, and the absurd. Across 40 works, the artists are seen here building a dystopian visual language that feels playful on the surface yet increasingly anxious underneath.

Created between Kitma, Baguio and Cuenca, Batangas, the works were passed back and forth, with each artist reworking the other’s images until authorship begins to blur. That exchange gives the exhibition its title and its charge: an “interpsychic” process where memory, humor, history, and personal mythology mutate into shared terrain. De Guia and Cordero turn nostalgia into something unstable, using pop-cultural excess and grotesque wit to reflect on cultural exhaustion, recolonization, and survival. – Bryle Suralta, Features Editor

“Interpsychic Colony” runs through June 28, 2026, in the gallery’s Main Room; MO_Space is located at the 3rd floor, MOs Design Bldg, B2 9th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, Taguig, Metro Manila. Inquiries: +63 2 84036620

Slo.Villa Restaurant, Hanoi

A surprise breakfast just after we landed in Hanoi turned out to be the defining meal to start the trip. A place called Slo.Villa restaurant did some great fresh pho breakfasts and walked us through our choices of taste and spices.

It was a quaint place on a busy street, not overly luxurious, but had the flavor of both place and time. A walk through of how they said proper coffee should be prepared topped it all off.

The restaurant is located at 16 Lý Thường Kiệt, Cửa Nam, Hanoi, Vietnam, 100000. Visit their Facebook profile here.