Back to back plays bring to life class culture and the spirit of Gat Amado
The staging of the back to back plays Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas (Fly in a Glass of Milk) and Panata ng Isang Lider (A Leader's Vow) proves that revolutionary art and literature continue to advance.
Led by the Amado V. Hernandez Resource Center (AVHRC) and the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), the back to back plays began presentation in September 2003 in schools, government offices and worker and peasant communities. The presentations form part of a series of activities until September 2004 to commemorate the birth centennial of Gat Amado.
The two plays were based on two short stories written by Gat Amado. Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas was first published in 1970. Using the nom de plume "Amante Ernani," Gat Amado came out with Panata ng Isang Lider in Liwayway magazine on January 18, 1960.
Multi-awarded and militant writer-director Bonifacio Ilagan spearheaded the presentation of the plays and directed them.
Although set in the mid-1900s, the plays' themes revolve around the intense class contradictions that continue to exist in our society.
Panata ng Isang Lider
The play Panata ng Isang Lider is about the life of Noel, an ordinary worker and union leader. In the play, his wife Marta narrates Noel's suffering and struggles as well as their family's sacrifices and hardships due to Noel's imprisonment.
Noel was imprisoned because management accused him of starting a fire in the office while his union was on strike.
While he was in prison, Noel's family fully grasped the importance of struggle and the hardship and sacrifice that come with it. Marta learned to stand on her own feet and face up to her fears. It was also here that Noel further witnessed the rottenness of the social system.
Upon Noel's release, he once more unstintingly devoted his full time to political action. He proudly told his wife and child, "Each parent must be a model for his or her children. What example can we bequeath our children if we shirk the call of duty? It is better for parents to sacrifice rather than for them to pass on to their children the terror of a grim future."
The play showed that even in the midst of the suffering endured by Noel's family, problems were merely likened to "rust removed from steel."
Marta took her husband's challenge with full courage and said smiling, "We must open ourselves. Our personal plans will change time and again."
Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas
The play Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas, on the other hand, portrayed the story of the couple Bandong and Ana and their three children. They lived serenely and farmed a hectare of land inherited from their forebears.
One day, trucks suddenly came carrying workers that would construct the Royal Lanes subdivision in the adjacent meadow. At first, the couple admired the rapid development of the meadow which, according to Bandong, was "previously overgrown with coarse grass and burry lovegrass� and was now a small city of homes that were everyone's envy."
Later, however, such awe gave way to loathing when the subdivision developer took an interest even in their land. In cahoots with the treasurer's agents and the police, the administrator of Royal Lanes drove the family off the land because "in the eyes of the corporation, your being neighbors with Royal Lanes is like having a fly descend on a glass of milk."
The family came to be conscious of the fact that it was necessary to fight for the rights trampled on by society's ruling class. | The staging of the back to back plays Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas (Fly in a Glass of Milk) and Panata ng Isang Lider (A Leader's Vow) proves that revolutionary art and literature continue to advance. |
AUDIENCES greet the plays with rounds of hearty applause. Despite some technical problems as well as difficulties related to the rudimentary equipment available in some places where the plays were staged, it is quite striking how audiences enthusiastically take to them and sustain their viewing.
Because the managers, director, actors and others involved in the productions know full well that their work is an important contribution to the effort to arouse and organize the masses, they tirelessly stage the plays in more and more areas and ceaselessly improve and develop each presentation.
They continue to resolve and overcome difficulties and other issues related to the plays' staging. These patriotic and militant cultural workers draw inspiration from Gat Amado's art and literature to further serve the Filipino people.
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