March 28, 2025
Playwright: Joshua Lim So
Director: José Estrella
Angered by the destruction caused by miners, a powerful deity with ten heads Dadanhayan Ha Sugay (Jasper John) commanded the rain, lightning and thunder to punish them. The torrential rainfall from this strong storm caused a major landslide on a mountainside. A tamaraw named Tanya was trapped in the heavy mud. Another deity dressed in red Abunnawas (Tristan Bite) tried to pull the poor animal out, but he could not do it himself.
The point of this hour-long play seemed simple enough. Mother Nature and its indigenous gods cannot save the creatures of the world from the destruction inflicted by greedy, uncaring humans. They need other responsible humans to step up and act, in order to get the healing process up and running. Unfortunately, I felt there were too many supernatural characters in the mix that made the play feel unnecessarily long and complex. Unfamiliarity with the multi-regional mythologies Lim So used made the story hard to follow at first.
Devised from the play "Scenes from the Climate Era" by David Finnigan
Directors: Issa Manalo Lopez, Tess Jamias
This play was a energetic series of vignettes about various aspects of climate change and how this phenomenon affected ordinary people all over the world. The directors and the cast devised the play "Scenes from the Climate Era" by Australian playwright David Finnigan and made its situations more relatable to a Filipino audience. Through its runtime of a little over one hour, the episodes ranged from comical slapstick to dead serious, and thought-provoking all throughout.
The four versatile main actors -- Delphine Buencamino, Bong Cabrera, Herbie Go and Ethan King -- played various characters, doing anything from roller-blading to speaking Mandarin. There were scenes about the impact of having children on the environment, the hidden dangers of using plastic vs. paper bags, and seeming futility of composting and recycling. They talked about losing a sense of the future because they felt that everything they did would hurt the planet, using terms like "eco-anxiety" or "climate distress."
They educate us about important events in the history of the climate change issue, from the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 to the fate of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 under Clinton. They discuss the bad consequences of eating takeout, online shopping or polyester fashion. They enumerate animals which had recently gone extinct. The most alarming scenes were those that describe how the rising heat can adversely affect air travel and current geography.
Adding a uniquely Filipino touch to the play was presence of the local mythical character of Mebuyan (MJ Briones). In Bagobo culture, she was a goddess with multiple breasts to provide milk to dead babies. In the context of this play, Mebuyan represented Mother Earth herself, whose body is already wrapped up in trash bags. She acted as conscience and Greek chorus in this play, singing about how Philippine politicians targeted environmental activists.
We are currently in a climate era, and it is only just beginning. There may be renewable sources of energy now, but with current attitudes, they may not be sustainable for long. The ending sequence was a powerful and disturbing montage of futuristic disasters around the world brought about by the critical global warming. Optimism and hope are among the stages of dealing with climate change, but definitive action is urgently needed now.
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"Mga Anak ng Unos" runs at the IBG-KAL Theater, University of the Philippines Diliman, from March 28 to April 13, 2025. There are 7;30 pm shows every Friday and Saturday. 2:30 pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays, and 10:30 am shows every Sunday. The show runs for a total of 2-1/2 hours, with a 15 minute intermission between to the two short plays. You can buy your tickets via this LINK. Tickets cost P1000 for regular, and P650 for UP students.
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