Full Contact

By: Darryl Reilly

“I never felt safe in your home, so I made my own!” rails gay Filipino American theater artist Ariel Estrada against his traditional immigrant father during his raw self-written autobiographical solo show Full Contact. “Who else should judge you, if not me? Do you need money again?” asks his father. For 60-searing minutes Mr. Estrada bares his soul while offering a blistering and heartfelt chronicle of his painful life journey. The show is a theatrical collage of pivotal memories laced with universal father and son conflict.

Estrada has demonstrated his acting talent over the years in numerous classical roles with the distinguished Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. He is also a major figure of the New York City independent theater scene. His resonant voice, expressive physicality, and engaging stage presence which simultaneously emits cheeriness and melancholy are all showcased in his shrewdly structured personal exploration.

It begins with him drunkenly shuffling into his Queens apartment in dimness like Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman after scuffling with an unseen neighbor’s dog. From terse Human Resources voice mails we learn he has just been fired from an office job over unspecified altruistic financial improprieties. Thus begins this aching saga.

Estrada grew up in rural Alaska as his U.S. Coast Guard member father was stationed there. Estrada moved to Portland, to Oregon, to attend college and obtained an MFA in acting.

“Homos everywhere!” is his joyous observation at arriving in New York City at the age of 27 to be an actor. He gets a Forest Hills apartment and works as a waiter while going on auditions. This becomes frustrating due to the lack of roles for Asian performers. He has a loving relationship with a depressed HIV+ positive therapist with sad results.

As a young man Estrada became a devotee and practitioner of martial arts, this provided physical and mental enrichment. He then became a teacher for the widowed martial arts guru “Barbara” who owned a national chain of studios. This cult leader turned out to be a grifter; Estrada was left financially and emotionally drained by this long-time involvement.

A Beckettian flourish is Estrada intoning his various ages and then describing the health maladies accrued from his intense martial arts practice. This avocation was the central event of his life and sidetracked his acting career.

Ultimately, Full Contact is a harrowing and striking confessional. It is a feverish and hallucinatory treatment of an unhappy tale of the city.

Director Gaven D. Trinidad’s vigorous physical staging has Estrada in constant motion, there are snappy entrances and exits, pointed stillness, and visual élan.

Scenic designer Cinthia Chen’s all-white décor and spare elements of a chair, desk, television, and a microphone on a stand, wheeled wall panels, all placed with spatial precision are the ideal landscape for this dreamy and wrenching narrative.

Ms. Chen’s witty and accomplished projection design includes snippets of the sunny The Mary Tyler Moore Show sharply contrasting with the bleakness being enacted. The Robin Byrd Show and Family Feud are also counterpoints, as is the satirical segment The Cult is Right sardonically hosted by Estrada.

Yang Yu’s heightened lighting design perfectly evokes a recreated past with flashes of surrealism and bursts of crimson. A growling dog, the essence of the metropolis, other effects, and musical portions, are all rendered by Jordan Ross Bernstein’s bracing sound design.

Full Contact is presented by Leviathan Lab, Second Generation Productions, TLAB SHARES, and Mixed Asian Media as their program Winterfest. It is the opener of a double bill which includes a development workshop of writer and performer Đavid Lee Huỳnh’s solo show X#*! You Very Much, Mom.

Full Contact (through December 7, 2025)
Leviathan Lab
Theaterlab, 357 West 36th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, visit www.leviathanlab.org
Running time: 60 minutes with no intermission