Act I: Scenes 9-11 Summary

In Scene 9, Rio and her cousin Pucha are in hotel café made up to look like a jeepney, a cheap form of transportation in Manila. Pucha is excited, because she just saw Brooke Shields, in town for the film festival. Pucha proceeds, in her haughty revelry, to berate the meek waiter for his slow service. When the waiter begins flirting with Rio, Pucha is scandalized. In her opinion, lowborn ethnic Filipinos have grown too forward. She asks Rio why she is so down, and Rio discussed how much she loved her recently-deceased grandmother. They remember the Doris Day movie they snuck into at the Odeon, and Pucha talks about the new multiplex theaters in Manila. Rio, meanwhile, is disgusted by her father's new wife, a runner-up in the Miss Philippine's competition. They discuss the gossip surrounding Daisy...