Twelfth Night

I can say that it is unfortunate that I failed to watch this play sponsored by the ABEO playhouse. But judging from the comments and remarks that I have heard from my friends and classmates, I can really tell that the play is a good one. Nevertheless, I never regretted missing such event because for me, my faith’s custom matters more. Regardless, I still congratulated my batch mate April Al Ian for a job well done, according to my friends’ perspectives. Because even though I want to come and see the play, duty for my God and for my beliefs comes first in my priorities.

My religion’s customs are similar to the Jews in all aspect. From rules and observance about proper foods down to our day of rest, all of them are so alike. For us, our complete day is not marked by the twelve o’clock followed by the rest of the other religions. Our day is marked when the sun rises until the sun sets. It does not matter if the hours vary from sunset to sunset, as long as we observed them at the right time. That is the custom that prevented my attendance.

The play was featured and conducted at the last day of the weekdays: Friday. Sad to say that the schedule also happened to take place at the hour long after the sunset: 6pm which is already past my curfew. I know some may ask: why not just fail your observance for a day? After all, this play is only for an hour or so? I can do no such things because I believed that if I do that, I know that God knows and that is a grave mistake in my part especially since I would be transgressing his fourth commandment. I hope that someone will understand me; after all we respected each of our belief.  

I just want to say my words of congratulations to Ian for being such a wonderful performer. I am proud to say that he is my batch mate and that it is such an honor to have a representative for our year level in the play when all the members are exclusively fourth years. I salute you Ian! 

The Grave Diggers

How low, how very low can a man go down?

When I first entered the mini theatre, I don’t know what to expect about the play. The setting had somewhat surprised me. The play was already started when I entered the theatre, that’s why I was not able to understand why the characters are digging and what event really initiated their actions. I asked some of my classmates what really happened to the characters before they started digging and was disappointed to know that they themselves do not know and that, they said, they do not understand anything either. I can just agree with them in that department.

The dialogues by the actors are incomprehensible to the extent that instead of catching up to the plot, my confusion just only escalated. I do not criticize the actors for their acting skills, just that an audience’s lack of understanding to their conversations ruined the effects of the setting, not to mention, the lessons that was supposedly conveyed in the play was lost. Thankfully, one of my friends sitting beside me had enlightened me about the predicament of one of the characters and that there is a reason why they are digging.

As what my friend told me, one of the main characters had a wife who was ill and needed medical attention. To meet the medical demands, he and his brother-in-law were digging in a grave in order to obtain some treasures. It seems that as the play went on, an argument broke between the main character and his brother-in-law that made the former abandon the job. The play ended just like that.

I may not be able to understand the play, at least for most parts, but I did get some bits about the lesson. As my classmate Ma. Faith Wasquin said in her blog “The play reminds us the value of respect,” it did show that it was so low of the characters to disturb those who already passed away. But it also shows that man can go to great lengths in order to save the people they care about the most even if they would sink as low as digging graves.