At 70, Bernardo Bernardo is making a comeback in theater. After 12 years abroad, giving up on show biz and suffering depression, he is back in the Philippines to fulfill his passion.

“I’m scratching my 70-year itch!” he says over coffee. “It’s legacy time. Whatever experience and expertise that I can share, now’s the time to do it.”

We are at Café Romancon, the in-house café of Hotel Benilde. It is the hotel-school of De La Salle College of St. Benilde (CSB) where “Haring Lear,” Bernardo’s recent production, was staged under his new theater company Studio Connections International.

“Haring Lear” is an accessible Tagalog adaptation of Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” written by National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera. It was directed by theater veteran Nonon Padilla, and was brought by the Philippine Educational Theater Association to the Kuandu Arts Festival in Taiwan with English and Chinese subtitles. Its Manila show this year was targeted at students, and was supposed to run on Feb. 27 to March 8 in CSB as part of the Fringe Manila arts festival. But the show was cut short when Bernardo fell ill.

On opening night last March, he was rushed to the hospital after an allergy attack, and had to be rushed back to CSB in a tricycle, the only way to get through Friday night rush-hour traffic. He went on to do the show as Haring Lear, the fallen king about to lose his power and his mind.

It has become a favorite role among the many he has played in his 45 years in theater, he says.

“Being Haring Lear was physically and emotionally draining, like my role as Simoun in Tanghalang Pilipino’s ‘El Filibusterismo’ in 1998,” he says. He also played Katy de la Cruz’s Tatay in the original production of “Katy!” directed by Nestor Torre. And he was Takyong Bagting, a taong grasa, in
“Bien Aligtad,” directed by Joel Lamangan for Bulwagang Gantimpala.

“People didn’t recognize me as a taong grasa; I myself didn’t recognize me!” he says. “And sometimes, it surprises me how closely my life parallels the role I was playing,” he says. “Like when I was playing Zaza, a motherly drag queen, in ‘La Cage Aux Folles,’ directed by Zenaida Amador for Repertory Philippines in 1989; I had an anak-anakan who became my lover, but I ended up heartbroken.”

So doing Haring Lear was “scary, because he has dementia and I was depressed!” he says, laughing.

“As King Lear, my movement should have gravitas but I was weak, so I walked with a slight limp and a bit of a hunch. But Nonon said not too much because we’re not doing ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame!’”

Life in the US

Apart from acting in theater and on TV, Bernardo also writes scripts and adaptations. He finished Journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and took up his master’s in Dramatic Arts at the University of California-Santa Barbara, before he entered show biz upon the encouragement of director Johnny Manahan.

He became popular for his gay roles, particularly as the fierce Steve Carpio in the sitcom “Home Along da Riles” which starred the late comedy king Dolphy. The iconic show ran for a decade.

In film, Bernardo won an Urian Best Actor award for his role as Manay in “Manila By Night,” one of Ishmael Bernal’s defining works.

“I was typecast in gay roles; pinatulan naman ng lola mo!” he says. “But doing gay roles helped me promote gay rights. I wasn’t really open about my sexual orientation before.”

He decided to leave show biz in 2002 after realizing there might not be anything left after “Home Along.” He sold his properties and migrated to the United States, leaving everything behind.

“I imbibed the American mind-set that I should work for my retirement, but it was no way to live,” he says.

In the United States, he conducted acting workshops in small performing art schools. He taught Tagalog at the University of California and University of San Francisco. He also did theater on and off, playing the role of Prudencio in a Chicago production of “The Romance of Magno Rubio.” He had a lot of jobs, including being a marketing director of an ambulance company.

Bernardo says that while his stay in America was stable, those years also marked the death of his loved ones: his mom, brother, sister, adopted son and close friends—which led to his depression.

“I was reminded of my own mortality. Sometimes I would just cry and cry for no reason at all. I thought it was just moods,” he says. “I was a mama’s boy, but I didn’t grieve, and delayed grief is very bad. I detached myself, but I was always there in other ways when they needed me.”

He finally consulted a doctor when he started having “darker thoughts,” and was diagnosed with mild bipolar syndrome. He went to a detox clinic for his condition, which has since become better.

Grieving, though, is still something he has to process. It has been a couple of years since his first visit to Manila, but he has yet to give his mom and departed family’s remains a visit.

“I am not ready,” he says, his voice cracking. “Maybe in time, but all these experiences I had—they make me a better actor.”

Homecoming

While undergoing treatment, he saw online how vibrant the theater community is in the Philippines, and decided to come back to Manila after an invitation from a TV network. What was supposed to be a two-month stay became a homecoming.

Bernardo went back to theater and did “Imbisibol” for the Virgin Labfest, a play about Filipino workers in Japan which was later adapted into a movie. The film won seven major awards, including Best Picture, at the first Sinag Maynila Film Festival held last March. Bernardo played Benjie, the aging overworked employee who supports his family in Manila.

He also put up Studio Connections International with some partners, armed with a vision to “uplift the level of Philippine theater by creating, educating and connecting the people involved.”

“There is a bigger audience for theater now, but talents are overworked and underpaid,” he says. “Sometimes the director is the producer and actor: It is a one-man show. There’s no other eye for blind spots, and there should be ways to make a production even more solid.”

Scratching his proverbial 70-year itch has made him busier than ever, but “definitely happier.” He’s working on several productions now and is also planning to teach acting soon, promising to be “strict within reason.”

“I won’t be like Zenaida Amador na liliparan ka ng silya, or Ishmael Bernal na liliparan ka ng ashtray. Ako na lang siguro ang lilipad.”