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As a river is the confluenceof many streams, so contemporaryPhilippine theatre is the consequenceof many cultural traditions and his-torical influences. The forms ofPhilippine drama that co-exist todayamong the different peoples of thePhilippines may be divided into:1) the indigenous forms, principallythe rituals and mimetic dances; 2) theHispanized plays, which include thekomedya, the sinakulo and the reli-gious playlets; 3) the America-in-fluenced dramas, as exemplified bythe drama and sarsuwela as well asbodabil and the "legitimate" plays;and 4) the contemporary modernplays, as typified by works realismand expressionism and dramas thatrevitalize traditional forms.

THE INDIGENOUS FORMS

The rituals and dances of earlyFilipino tribes which imitate actionstaken from real life, were held orperformed together or separately onthe various occasions of a person'sbirth, baptism, circumcision, initialmenstruation, courtship, marriage,sickness, and death; or for the celebra-tion of tribal activities like going towar, hunting, planting and harvestingrice.

In most rituals, a native shaman(called catalonan or babaylan) goesinto a trance as the spirit he is callingupon possesses him and, while en-tranced, kills the sacrificial animal (apig, chicken or carabao). This act,which represents the supplicant'sdeath at the hands of god, adaptsitself to the different occasions forwhich the ritual is held. Among theZambals (1680), the baptism of a child is done in honour of the godMalyari. First, the shaman kills theanimal prepared by the child's parents.Then, amidst the chanting of thechild's relatives, he dresses the childin his best clothes, unravels his longhair, and ornaments its fringes withpieces of gold (wishing the childprosperity in life). He then pours theblood of the sacrificial animal on thechild (symbolizing the offering of thechild's life), and then proceeds to cut the child's gold-embellished hair tothrow to an eager audience (remind-ing the child that his prosperity mustbe shared with the tribe).

Indigenous dances are evenmore clearly imitative of real actions.The Igorots of the north have a dancethat re-enacts the hunt for and thekilling of a boar, as well as thepractice and ways of headhunting; theNegritos of Zambales have a dance

"Larawan" written by Nick Joaquin and

which shows the techniques of gather-ing wild honey in the forest. TheTausogs of the south have dances thatrepresent how oranges are picked,how not to catch a mudfish, howbutterflies make love. The mostimportant dance, however, amongmost Philippine tribes is the wardance. In Sulu, two English travellersof the 18th century describe how, inthe celebration for the circumcision ofboys in the tribe, each man in a hugecircle of warriors displays his fightingprowess before the newly-circumcisedboys. Each warrior displays all themany ways of fighting with broadsword and spear, and later, with krisand shield against an imaginary enemy.

Drama of the Emerald Isles

by Nicanor G. Tiongson

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performed by the Tanghalang Pilipino.

As a whole, the rituals anddances of early Filipinos reflect thephysical and "metaphysical" cultureof early Philippine tribes — theirmanners of dressing, hunting, fightingin war, courting a girl, catching a mudfish and picking oranges. Further-more, these dramatic forms fulfill themost basic needs of the tribes. Ritualsensure food for the tribe, cure thesick, and assure the well-being ofnewly-born children or new-wedcouples, while most of the dancesanswer the dual need for entertain-ment and education. Through thesedances the young learn all the dutiesthat will fall on them as youngermembers of the tribe — fighting,

hunting and food-gathering for boys,picking oranges (among others) forgirls, and making love for both.Lastly, these protodramas work forthe collective good because they re-enforce the social harmony and unityas well as the survival of the tribe.Rituals of baptism circumcision,marriage, as well as dances thatinstruct children, seek to draw anindividual into the life of the tribe.The dances that instruct children onthe techniques of picking oranges orcatching mudfish or fighting in war,clearly work for a good harvest andplentiful fruits and fish. Finally, thedisplay of war dances teaches thenewly-circumcised boy the primary

duty of manhood, i.e., fighting toensure the survival of the tribe againstall aggressors.

THE HISPANIZED PLAYS

The Spanish regime from 1521to 1898 saw the rise and populariza-tion of various types of secular andreligious drama, the former usuallystaged to celebrate town fiestas, andthe latter, to highlight the importanceof Catholic liturgical feasts or seasons,like Christmas, Lent or Easter.

Of the secular dramas, the mostimportant and popular was the ko-medya, a play in verse, performed formany nights. This theatrical spectacleincludes elaborate marches, lengthychoreographed fighting between indi-viduals or armies, or between princesand princesses in male disguise, lions,highwaymen and giants, and magicalartifices for the "miracles" wroughtby heaven to save Christians in distress.

Deriving stories from the nativeversions of European metrical ro-mances, komedya scripts usuallydepict the conflict between the Chris-tian and Moorish kingdoms of Me-dieval Europe, and/or the love be-tween Christian princes and princesses,and their Moorish counterparts.Typical of these fiesta plays is thepopular "Comedia de Atamante YMinople" (1844), whose story revolvesaround the widower, King Lodemonteof Verona, whose blind love forDuchess Luandra drives him to havethe infant Crown Prince Atamantekilled, and to order the marriage ofhis sister, Florinda, to Luandra's ac-complice, Daciano. But Florindaloves only the principled GeneralAristipo, and Atamante is rescued fromthe forest and raised by a shepherd.Soon after, Luandra gives birth toPrince Minople, who later decides tolook for his half-brother Atamante. Inhis absence, the Turkish Moors occupyVerona, to avenge the death of their

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General, but in no time, GeneralAristipo reconquers Verona.

Meanwhile, the Emperor ofTurkey has called a tournament to finda suitable hushand for his daughterLaudamia. Minople wins but is chal-lenged by Atamante. Not recognizingeach other, the two fight savagely.Atamante kills Minople, but finds outlater that he has killed his brother.Laudamia consoles Atamante, andthe two lovers flee from Turkey andbring the news of Minople's death toVerona. Luandra dies. The Turksattack Verona to rescue Laudamiafrom her "abductor". Atamante leadsVerona's army to victory over theinvaders. The remaining Moors arebaptized, Atamante and Laudamiaare married, and finally rule as thenew King and Queen of Verona.

As popular but more numerousthan the komedyas are the religiousplaylets and dramas, which attest tothe importance of Catholicism toSpain's colonial rule. Many religiousplaylets in the Philippines merelyaugment the Catholic liturgy or dra-matize more fully the feasts andevents narrated by the liturgy. The"Panunuluyan" reenacts the searchfor an inn by Mary and Joseph onChristmas eve, while the "Pastores"and "Tatlong Hari" dramatize theadoration of the Christ Child by theshepherds and the three kings, respec-tively. The "Osana" depicts Christ'sentry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday,just as the "Via Crucis" and "SietePalabras" recall the carrying of thecross and the crucifixion of Christ,respectively. The "Easter SundaySalubong," on the other hand, dra-matizes the meeting of the RisenChrist and his grieving Mother Maryin Galilee, while the "Moriones"narrates the story of Longinos, theRoman Soldier who was beheaded forbelieving in Christ's resurrection.

Full-blown religious plays include

the "Tibag" which focuses on thesearch by Helena and Constantine forthe true cross of Christ, and theobstacles they encountered and over-came during that search -- mainlyMoors and Jews who wanted tosuppress Christianity; and the"Komedya de Santo," like Iligan's"Comedia de San Miguel" (1890)which narrates, in charming episodes,Luzbel's rebellion against God, St.Michael's punitive attack on therebels, the fall of the angels into hell,and the unleashing of the seven gro-tesque capital sins of the world.

Of the Philippine religiousdramas, however, the most outstandingand enduring has been the "Sinakulo,"staged during Lent and often for eightconsecutive nights during Holy Week.The sinakulo started as the dramati-zation of the "Pasyong Genesis,"the most popular verse narrative onthe life and sufferings of Jesus Christ,later augmented by apocryphal storiesfrom other pasyons and religiousbooks like the "Mártir sa Golgota".Conventions of the form includemarches, chants and arteficios formiracles. As in the komedya, there aretwo distinct camps in the sinakulo.All the holy cpeople (banal), led byChrist and the Virgin, chant theirlines in a lachrymose manner, walk tothe beat of a funeral march, move andgesture with anemic meekness, andrespond to injustice with submissivetears. All the bad people (hudyos), onthe other hand, practically spit outtheir lines in a crisp and harsh chant,march pompously into and out of thescene to a double-step march, and sawthe air with numerous gestures thatare as vigorous as they are obnoxious.As in the komedya, however, Christrises in glorious victory over theforces of darkness and his followerswatch him and his mother ascend intoheaven in triumph.

The plays introduced by Spain

represent a drastic departure fromindigenous forms in subject matter,function and orientation. First, thekomedya presented European princesand princesses from European king-doms of long ago, while the sinakulosdepicted the life and sufferings ofChrist, a story imported from Europewhich at that time had absolutelynothing to do with the country'sculture. Second, the komedya gave the"Indios" a chance toescape from thetravails of his real world, into an idealworld peopled by a "beautiful" whiterace whom God always showered withvictories, while the sinakulo dishedout superstitious miracles to them andmade them believe in the myth thatthe good so easily triuphs over all evii,simply because it is good. Last, thekomedya propagated the Spaniards asthe superior race, and taught blindobedience to the monarchy and itshierarchy of authority and hate forthe Muslims of Southern Philippines.The sinakulo, on the other hand,shaped a colonial will, which madethe Indios accept all the sufferings inthis life - mainly those dealt to himby the friars and Spaniards — all in"imitation" of the meek and sufferingChrist and in the hope that all thosewho suffer on this earth will berewarded in the kingdom of heaven.

THE AMERICAN-INFLUENCEDDRAMAS

The drama and the sarsuwela, the two most popular drama formsduring the first two of the threedecades of the American regime, werefirst introduced into the country bySpanish theatre groups in the lastdecades of the 19th century. Spanishas they were in origin, these playscould not help but be reshaped byFilipino playwrights, according to thetemper and needs of the early Ameri-can period.

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"Ang Taong Yungib ng Pekin (Peking Man)" written by Cao Yu, translated and performed by the Tanghalang Pilipina

Of all the theatre forms witnessedin the country, the drama is probablythe most versatile and protean. Itcould be written in verse, in prose orin both verse and prose. It could haveone, two, or three acts, and could becalled various names, depending onwhat its subject matter emphasized(Úrico, romántico, histórico, social,etc). Whatever its form, however, itpresented an aspect of Filipino life,culture, history, and even topicalissues, on stage. Of the many types ofdramas, two stand out as the mostimportant: the drama simboliko orrevolutionary dramas of 1898-1906,and the romantic dramas that haverisen in popularity throughout thiscentury.

The revolutionary dramas ofthe turn of the century, written bynationalist playwrights like Aurelio

Tolentino, Juan Abad and JuanMatapang Cruz, were labelled "sedi-tious" by the Americans becausethese plays exposed, attacked, andexhorted Filipinos to fight the coloni-zation of the country by America.Using an elaborate system of symbolsand allegories and "harmless" lovestories to mask anti-American messages,these dramas were staged in Manilaand its neighboring provinces inhundreds of performances. Often,playwrights and actors were arrested,by Americans during these perfor-mances, imprisoned and charged withsedition.

Typical of these plays is JuanAbad's "Tanikalang Ginto" (GoldenChain). In this 1902 play, Liwanag orlight (symbol of the country) wantsto wed her sweetheart K'Ulayaw (Re-volutionary Filipinos). But Liwanag's

uncle, Maimbot or Greedy (the U.S.A.)refuses to give his consent to themarriage (independence). He bribesLiwanag with a golden bracelet(America's initial promise of helpagainst Spain); but Liwanag prefersK'Ulayavv's gift of a handkerchief (aminiature revolutionary flag). Inanger, Maimbot chains Liwanag to a tree and pays K'Ulayaw's own brother,Nagtapon, to guard Liwanag. Nag-tapon's conscience bothers him, butwhen K'Ulayaw comes to rescueLiwanag, Nagtapon shoots his ownbrother dead. However, Diwa orSpirit (the spirit of struggle) comesdown in a huge bubble and takes awayLiwanag with her, with the promisethat in the future Liwanag would bemarried to K'Ulayaw who would alsobe resurrected. The play ends withdeath and the devil dragging Maimbot

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and Nagtapon to hell.

As more and more Filipinosbegan to accept American rule, therevolutionary dramas slowly disap-peared and the more "safe", if super-ficial, romantic dramas rose andreigned for the next decades. Typicalof. these dramas is "Esperanza,"written in 1916 by Jose Ma. Rivera.Esperanza, a dancer-for-hire in theSta. Ana Cabaret, meets a customer,Artemio, with whom she falls in love.Artemio, the scion of a rich family,is also infatuated with Esperanza andproposes marriage to her. Artemio'sparents refuse to bless the marriageand disown their son but he goes onanyway and marries the "loose"woman. As the play opens, the sickArtemio goes to the doctor and leavesEsperanza in the house washingclothes to earn their keep. A formercabaret customer entices Esperanzaback to Sta. Ana but Esperanza fightsoff his offers of a "good" life. Delfin,a friend, arrives to announce thatArtemio's parents are coming becausethey found out that he was sick. Uponseeing Artemio, the parents take pityon their son and forgive him, but stillcannot accept Esperanza. Just then,a knock is heard on the door and incomes a lawyer who announces thatEsperanza is the sole heiress of a wealthy relative who had just died. Toshow her golden heart, Esperanzadonates half of her fortune to anorphanage, thus proving to all thateven a woman like her can mend her"common" ways.

Together with these romanticdramas, the sarsuwelas had theirheyday in the '20s and '30s. Usuallyin three-acts, with music and dancinginterspersed within the prose dialogue,sarsuwelas often focus on a love storybetween members of the upper classes,spiced up with comic love episodesbetween servants, and made morerelevant with satirical attacks on

usurers, Americanized Filipinos,corrupt politicians, and lazy husbandswhose husbandry are wasted oncockfighting and other vices. In"Paglipas ng Dilim" (1902), PreciosoPalma tells the story of Ricardo, ayoung doctor who is in love withEstrella, a modest, retiring seamstress.The "modern" and aggressive Caridadtries desperately to catch the handsomedoctor.and succeeds at first in misre-presenting Ricardo to his beloved. Inthe end, however, all misunderstand-ings are cleared up and the doctor andhis seamstress plan to get married aseveryone sings "Paglipas ng Dilim"(After the Darkness).

The revolutionary dramas ofthe 1900s represent an importantbreakthrough in the development ofPhilippine theatre. Dramas, like"Tanikalang Cinto", faithfully reflectthe material and "metaphysical"culture of Filipinos in costumes, sets,dialogues and situations; and morethan this, present, in allegory, thestruggle between the Filipinos andtheir American colonizers, and thereprehensible collaboration of richFilipinos with the Americans in thefirst decade. Furthermore, these playsanswered the urgent needs, not of a few, but of the majority of the Fili-pinos, to explain the implications ofAmerica's presence in the countryand to exhort Filipinos to fight orsupport those who were still fightingin the mountains. Clearly these revo-lutionary plays worked for the ferventdesire of the basic masses to liberatethemselves from the yoke of foreigncolonialism. Here, indeed, is Philippinedrama at its meaningful best.

The romantic dramas and sar-suwelas too represent a significantdevelopment of the Spanish regimeplays, if only because they alreadymirror Filipino life and culture. UsingFilipino costumes, dialogues, situa-tions and sets, most of these plays

succeeded in reflecting the basiccontradictions in Philippine society,e.g., the conflict between the tradi-tional and modern cultures, or betweenthe landlords and peasants.

Meaningful too, are the needsthese plays fulfilled. While it is truethat these plays degenerated into pureentertainment as the decades wore on,still in their heyday, the dramas andsarsuwelas were an effective vehicle ofsocial criticism for the people. Throughthem, playwrights launched diatribesagainst usurers, against Filipinos withcolonial mentality, against men whodid nothing but drink and smoke andcaress their fighting cocks, and mostof all, against rich Dons and Donyaswho looked down on the poor. Nowonder then, the masses supportedthese presentations.

But the fact that the massessupported and continued to supportthese plays is no guarantee that theseplays redound to the benefit of themasses. For while most romanticdramas and sarsuwelas do present a realistic picture of the conflict betweenrich and poor in society, they usuallyanalyze and solve these problems ina most unrealistic fashion. In theseplays, usurers always relent in theend, colonial mentality is exposedand eradicated, cock fighters anddrunkards mend their ways, and therich parents accept a poor or "loose"woman as a daughter-in-law — aseasily as Christ worked miracles inthe komedya and the sinakulo tofavour the good. Playwrights employobvious coincidences, blatant acci-dents, and other such die ex machina in order to achieve a correct (notnecessarily happy) ending for allconcerned. Thus, they do give riseto false hopes among the masseswho are led to believe that the statusquo is good after all, and are blindedto the bitter ending of such stories inreal life.

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"Ang Papillitis ni Mang Serapio" written by Paul Dumol and performed by theCebu Central Colleges - Barangay Kalubihan Theater Workshop Company.

In the field of drama, the Ameri-cans brought two important types tothe Philippines: the bodabil or stageshow and the so called "legitimate"plays. Of these two, the stage showwas more popular and hence, more ef-fective.

In the first decades, bodabilsongs and dances served as intermis-sion numbers to circus animal acts orto the afternoon showings of thecinematographo. In 1921, however,Luis Borromeo came back to thePhilippines from Las Vegas, and startedhis own full-fledged bodabil group,which performed at the Savoy, Realtoand Sta. Cruz Theatre. The showcaught on. More troupes were formedand these, together with Americanmovies, succeeded in finally banishingthe sarsuwela from the Manila stage.During the Japanese occupation,bodabil appended the romatic dramaas one of its highlights. Thus was bornthe stage show which has survived toour day.

The stage show is not a play buta potpourri of songs, dances, comedyskits, and romantic dramas. Bodabilsongs, dances and many comedy skitsare derived mainly from what is popularin America at any particular time.Inevitable, therefore, Filipinos whoperform in the stage show consciouslyimitate and naturally end up as the"local versions" of the Americanoriginals. Thus, Diomedes Maturanbecame the Perry Como of thePhilippines, Eddie Mesa, the localElvis Presley, Victor Wood, the localTom Jones, while Bayani Casimirocopied Fred Astaire's routines, andCanuplin was hailed as the CharlieChaplin of the Philippines.

Through the westernized educa-tional system established by the Ameri-cans, Filipinos were introduced to thefirst samples of "legitimate theatre inthe Philippines". Broadly speaking,

"legitimate" plays are those whichhave so-called "artistic merit". Ex-clusive schools for the rich, whichwere steeped in "good" (read wester-nized) education, led in the productionof Shakespeare in the '30s, until othergroups picked up and presentedcontemporary western classics, in theoriginal English or in English transla-tion. Today, some theatre groups stillmount Broadway plays, especially NeilSimon comedies and grand musicalslike "Mame" and "My Fair Lady,"while others continue to translate the"classics" of the western stage (So-phocles, Plautus, Shakespeare,Goldoni, Moliere, Ibsen, Checkov,Shaw, Wilde, Arbuzov) into Filipino,hoping thereby to "educate" thetastes of the masses. Still others haveadapted plays like Bertolt Brech's"Caucasian Chalk Circle" and "TheLife of Galileo Galilei" because oftheir political messages.

In evaluating the stage showand the so-called "legitimate" plays

written by western playwrights, one isconfronted with a phenomenon thatis very much like the komedya. Likethe komedya, the stage show and thewestern "ligitimate" plays, presentedin the country by Filipinos, containnothing of Philippine life and culturein them. The stage show has Filipinostwisting their tongues to and gyratinglike Elvis Presley or flexing their limbsin the air a la Fred Astaire. In thesame vein "legitimate" plays haveFilipinos faking Lawrence Olivier'saccent to be convincing as Macbethof Shylock, or adopting a New YorkJewish accent to do justice to NeilSimon.

Like the komedya too, theseplays entertain by transporting au-diences into worlds that are far fromreal. Filipino masses who see the stageshow are enticed into the Americandreamland through songs, dances,comedy skits and production numberson stage, while their richer countrymenwho have been more steeped in western

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culture, imagine themselves in NewYork or New Orleans, Elizabethan orVictorian England, involved in theissues and conflicts of these far-awayplaces. Where the first audience getsits "kicks" from the show on stage,the literati get their catharsis fromempathy with the characters of a Williams or Miller play. For a whilethe insights of these modern plays arecertainly valid, they often are bluntedand even rendered inutile for theFilipino audiences, who tend tosituate these plays within the contextof colonial culture in the Philippines,to the detriment of the reality theypresent.

Finally, because of their proveneffectivity in Americanizing Filipinos,bodabil and "legitimate" plays cer-tainly help to facilitate and make morepalatable to the Filipinos America'seconomic presence in the Philippines.With the wide acceptance of Americanmaterial culture among Filipinos,Filipinos have in fact started to thinkand feel like Americans. Thus, both

the mass-supported stage shows andthe elite-sponsored presentations of"legitimate" plays help to perpetuatethe economic dominations of thecountry by America, a dominationFilipinos fought against vehementlyat the turn of the century when theirminds had not yet been captured byAmerican culture.

THE CONTEMPORARYMODERN PLAYS

The rise of a Filipino nationalconsciousness is the most significantdevelopment that affected Philippineculture in the decades after WorldWar II. The 1950s witnessed the firstattacks by Claro M. Recto on con-tinued American presence in thePhilippines even after political inde-pendence was given to the country in1946. The 1960s saw the gradualpoliticizations of intellectuals whospearheaded the formation of thefirst nationalist organizations and

the first significant mass actions inthe period. By the late '60s and early'70s, militant mass organizations ofstudents, workers, and professionalswere holding demos, teach-ins, dis-cussion groups to mobilize everyoneagainst "American imperialism, localfeudalism and bureaucrat capitalism."The imposition of Martial Law in1972 did not succeed in suppressingthe growth of these mass movements.

All these developments neces-sarily gave rise to the nationalistconsciousness, which assumed differentand oftentimes conflicting ideologicalinterpretations, but which underscoredto all concerned Filipinos the neces-sity of searching for and/or forminga Filipino national identity in culture.Because of this, scholars began tostudy and analyze Filipino folk cul-tural forms which used to be snubbedas worthless and backward by theirAmericanized/educated predecessors.Teachers began to reorient academiccurricula to Philippine subject matterand to a pro-Filipino orientation ineducation. Artists looked for matterand styles that would express or"catch" the "Filipino soul".

In the last endeavour, urbanizedFilipino playwrights necessarily firstattempted to utilize the literary stylesor tendencies they imbibed fromwesternized schools - mainly realismand expressionism. As they learnedmore and more about the theatricaltradition of their country and of Asia,they also began to experiment withtraditional Filipino dramatic forms(sarsuwelas, komedyas, sinakulos)and with ancient Asian styles (non,kyogen).

Encouraged by playwritingcontests and, more important, res-ponding to the need for plays ofsemi-professional groups andnumerous community theatre groups,the contemporary modern Filipino

"Cyrano de Bergerac" written by Edmond Rostand, translated and performed bythe Tanghalang Pilipino.

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play was born as a distinct reality inthe decade of the '60s.

Western realism, which seeks tomove an audience through empathywith three-dimensional characters,has been adopted by Filipino play-wrights, and now follow two tenden-cies: the psychological, which focuseson the problems of individuals; andthe social, which situates and rootsindividual problems within the largerframework of a class society.

Outstanding psychological studiesof character are first found in someEnglish plays of the '40s and '50s,such as Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero's"The Forsaken House" (1940), whichdramatizes the tragedy of a middle-class father, whose cruel andconservative authoritarianism driveshis seven children to hate him, leavehome, and destroy themselves, andNick Joaquin's "A Portrait of theArtists as Filipino" (1952), whichdepicts the tragedy of two old maidsisters in the Spanish city of Intra-muros, who are slowly being devouredby the new, growing commercialismand pragmatism under America, butwho stubbornly cling to the genteelalbeit impractical world of Hispa-nized culture.

Plays of social realism, on theother hand, present contemporaryFilipino characters and situations.Raul Aguila's "In Dis Körner" (1977)dramatizes an episode in the life ofa professional boxer, who comes backto the ring to save enough money toopen a little store for his wife, butturns his buck on victory to open a little store for his wife, but turns hisback on victory to buck the system of"fixing" which exploits boxers likehim. Nonilon Queano's "Alipato"(1975), on the other hand, tells of thetragedy of Bino, who, in his desire tolead his family out of the web ofpoverty and frustrations that is

"Sa North Diversion Road" written bv Tony Perez and performed by theTanghalang Pilipino.

Tondo, joins a gang of holduppersand is subsequently pursued andkilled by the law. Finally, ReneVillanueva's "Entresuwelo" (1977)paints a portrait of the urban poor,whose dreams of a better life aredashed by the hard realities of con-struction work, prostitution, andelectric water pumps of the rich.

Not all plays, however, couldc epict urban realities in such a straight-forward fashion. Since social condi-tions in the Marcos years inhibiteddirect expression of protest, playwrightswith social messages had to look forsubject matters in historical charactersand episodes, in order to comment onthe present. Domingo Landicho's"Unang Alay" (1975) dramatizes thedecision made by Andres Bonifacioand his wife, to sacrifice personalinterest (as symbolized by their firstchild) to the greater good of the 1896Revolution; Jose Dalisay's "SagatangLawin" (1978) tells of a real dilemma --of commitment of non-involvementfaced by a youth during the Japaneseoccupation.

Becoming even more popularthan realism today are exprcssionisticstyles which directly discuss socialideals, consciously destroying theillusion of theatrical reality, andemploying mime, dance, songs, sym-bols, stylized sets, costumes andprops, and almost anything thatwould clarify and intensify these ideasfor its audience.

Probably because of the toweringinfluence of Bertolt Brecht, the ex-pressionistic play of the last decadederived most of its subject matterfrom folklore. One of the most power-ful plays of the decade, "Maranatha"(1974), by Rudolfo Galenzoga con-temporizes an old Lanao legend,about a stranger that saved the peopleof the lake kingdom from a predatoryblack bird, and about the slippers hethrew into the lake before his depar-ture which according to him were theonly things that could save the peoplefrom the oppression of military forcesthat would plague the kingdom afterhis departure.

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As in Brecht and because ofcensorship under the Marcos Regime,history likewise provides expressionismwith problems and situations whichilluminate the present. Lito Tiongson's"Walang-Kamatayang Buhay ni Juande la Cruz Alyas.." (1976) significantlytalks about the American impositionof martial law, curfew, zoning, recon-centration and torture of the Filipino"insurrectos" in 1902.

Sometimes, expressionistic playsdiscuss historical personages in a documentary style (complete withnarration and slides of actual peopleand events). Al Santos' "Mayo 21"(1977) traces the life of Valentin de losSantos through three periods ofstruggle against colonial rule, in orderto explain why Tatang was obsessedwith freedom, and why he foundedthe Lapiang Malaya.

The branch of expressionismcalled absurdism, on the other hand,was used by a few young playwrights.Al Santos' "Ang Sistema ni PropesorTuko" (1980), pokes fun at the authori-tarian rule of a fascist professor, tocomment on contemporary Philippinesociety.

Typical of the new inexpensive,portable and short plays called dula-tula (drama-poem), which were evolvedfor symposia or rallies are JoseLacaba's "Ang Mga Kagilagilalas naPakikipagsapalaran ni Juan de LaCruz" (1975), which narrates one dayin the life of an ordinary Filipino,who realizes that wherever he may go,he has no real rights; and RizalinaValencia's "Iskolar ng Bayan" (1975),which explains the issue of academicfreedom and other local and nationalissues to the studentry of the Univer-sity of the Philippines.

Finally, expressionistic plays asmusical is represented by the rockmusical. Featuring a band of rocksingers and musicians on a separate

platform, and a group of dancer-actor-mimic-singers onstage, Al San-tos-Joey Ayala's "Nuklevar!" (1983)features a series of songs, dances andslides that explain nuclear reaction,exposes the horrors unleased by thebombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,depicts the present nuclear arms racebetween the U.S. and Russia, andfinally attacks the establishment ofthe nuclear plant in the Philippines.

Some plays, however, combineboth styles. A classic of contemporaryPhilippine dramaturgy, "Juan Tamban"(1979), focuses on an upper middle-class social worker, who gets politi-cized while studying her thesis subject,the street urchin Juan Tamban. In thisplay, Marilou Jacob uses a chorus asnarrator and commentator, to stringtogether a series of highly realisticand moving episodes.

With the recent realizationamong theatre scholars and criticsthat traditional forms of drama, stillpopular among the masses, shouldnot only be studied but imbued aswell with positive, contemporarymessages, urban playwrights haveused the traditional style for contem-porary mass content and orientation.

The modern "Sinakulo" (1977)had the Virgin Mary as Inangbayan,and Christ as Indio, being judged byAnas (Spanish colonialism), Caipas(American imperialism), Herodes(Japanese imperialism) and Pilato(the local elite which served as puppetsof these colonizers). Unlike the tradi-tional Christ, however, the modernChrist takes up arms against and winsover his oppressors.

Similarly, the sarsuwela hasbeen successfully updated by AmeliaLapcna-Bonifacio in her "AngBundok" (1976), which shows theharassment of the Igorots by foreignspeculators who wanted the gold inthe Cordilleras, and the unitv the

mountain men forged to fight theiroppressors.

The "seditions", dramas ofnationalist playwright Aurelio V.Tolentino, "Kahapon Ngayon atBukas" (1903) and "Bagong Kristo"(1907) were revived and reinterpreted(1976 and 1977 respectively) to high-light the contemporary suppression ofurban workers and the continuingdominance of American imperialism.A novel treatment of these "seditious"drama is seen in Rody Vera's "IsangRihersal" (1982), which shows twoschools of thought regarding therevival of these nationalist playstoday - one that would treat them asmuseum pieces to avoid politicalcomplications, and another thatwould reinterpret them completely inrelation to urgent economic andpolitical problems of today (even if itmeans political reprisal).

Finally, the oldest of all tradi-tional dramas, the mass, was givennew meaning in one of the mostperformed plays of the decade. "Pag-sambang Bayan" (1977) by BonifacioIlagan, reinterprets Christ's sacrifice,the parables of the New Testament, and the priesthood according to theproblems of the peasants and workersin our time.

Finally, because of the growingawareness among Filipino playwrightsof other Asian theatre traditions, a few of them have experimented withAsian forms. Amelia Lapena Boni-facio's "Ang Paglalakbay ni Sisa"(1976) calls back from the dead themad poor woman in Rizal's "NoliMe Tangere", who narrates in theancient incantatory style of theJapanese Noh, the travails she under-went in life; while her "Ang Madyikna Sombrero"takes a picaresqueFilipino character for a kyogen-stylefarce. Bonifacio had likewise pio-neered in the use of various Asian

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"Tonyo, Pepe at Pule" written by Jacob and performed by the TanghalangFilipino.

puppet traditions for her children'splays.

Today, Philippine theatre displaysa vitality and urgency that surprisestheatre enthusiasts of whatever persua-sion. For one, it is undeniable that thiskind of theatre has finally come intoits own, at least as far as subjectmatter is concerned. An amazingrange of characters, all painstakinglyportrayed as individuals of types --from salesgirls, peasants, factoryworkers to landed gentry and Ateneobasketball stars, from boxers andslum dwellers to social workers andtheatre artists, from Andres Bonifacioto Balentin de los Santos --all moveand speak in situations that alwaysring true. Urgent too are many of theissues that these plays speak about —the danger of nuclear warfare, theexploitation of farmers by landlords,the desperation of salesgirls who turntheir back on life to ensure a salarythey can live on, the enlightenment ofstudents and social workers about theworld outside the academe, the mas-sacre of nationalist organizations.Philippine theatre has finally come tofulfill the most basic expectation ofa national theatre — the faithfuldepiction of native'reality.

As in Europe, many of thesecontemporary modern plays in thecountry today are written primarily asvehicles for the individual artist'spersonal expression of his unique,sometimes peculiar, view of reality.Using the various techniques of realismand expressionism, most contemporaryplaywrights fall under the banner ofart-for-art's-sake. There are a few,however, who go beyond individualself-expression, who see theatre as theplaywright's response to needs felt bythe masses. These socially-committedwriters create plays of social realismor expressionism to enlighten theiraudiences about the issues that concernthe majority, and to move them

towards concerted action.The faithful exposition of Phi-

lippine society effected by the con-temporary realistic or expressionisticplay goes a long way in creating a scientific view of society that can onlyredound to the benefit of the generalFilipino audience. If such a scientificmentality does spread among themasses, it becomes a potent tool foranalysis and weapon for change forthe uneducated majority.

All told, plays of the contem-porary period have already succeededin faithfully portraying the myriadfaces of Filipino life today, throughthe creative use of local and foreigntraditions of theatre. When thattheatre shall also have succeeded inadvancing the interests of Filipinoeconomic and political independence,then shall it have grown a little closerto the ideal of a Filipino nationaltheatre. S