"Don't go too far or too near" echoes the theme of Mas Mabigat ang Liwanag Sa Kalungkutan or Light Falls Heavier than Sorrow. I didn't have to go too far yet too near. If one watches the play and doesn't cry, he must have no heart. This is the play that provides a narrative on Mindanao-centric and Manila-centric discourse.
One of the nice things about the play was that the the actors didn't seem to be acting. They must have deeply understood the story, which was delivered in a mix of Maguindanaoan and Tagalog, as well as few English. Indeed the UP Repertory Company actors did deliver the message smoothly they showed the colonialists’ policy of coercion in facing resistance from Muslims.
The play demonstrates that Muslims have the potential to accept modernity with their capability to change. They can accommodate as long as their self identification is not altered or integrated into the colonial identity. Their ancestors fought for it, even if they were not totally aware.
It also portrays the post-colonial state, like Philippines tend to press out Muslims are still in the primitive past. Ignoring their cultural belongingness to their past as a relic of their current cause to their self identification. The playwright narrated resistance and embraced attempts of neo-colonial state at a social and an ethnological construction to produce a negotiated and provide a discourse to the understanding collective colonial identity.
The play also narrates continues colonial project in Mindanao and Sulu archipelago. It is a story of distinctive nations, cultures, traditions and local history even it is still under the same neo-colonial state. Rogelio Braga’s discourse among two groups of nations are both used a colonially imposed names, who exist as civilized people before colonialism comes to their shores.
The discourse of colonial name superseded the cause for a desired identity based from the geographical territory among Mindanaoans and Sulus as a whole. A transcending narrative from a historical account of desired identity to a political imposed identifications. I am looking at the angle, if the play might have narrated a discourse between and among Muslims themselves in Mindanao and Sulu when imagined identity is being used to call them collectively.
I only observed how the story was told. How the story was delivered. The play had it's tearful moments. That I must say that. I would've love to see the identity of the Maguindanao and Sulu be tackled separately.
One of the nice things about the play was that the the actors didn't seem to be acting. They must have deeply understood the story, which was delivered in a mix of Maguindanaoan and Tagalog, as well as few English. Indeed the UP Repertory Company actors did deliver the message smoothly they showed the colonialists’ policy of coercion in facing resistance from Muslims.
The play demonstrates that Muslims have the potential to accept modernity with their capability to change. They can accommodate as long as their self identification is not altered or integrated into the colonial identity. Their ancestors fought for it, even if they were not totally aware.
It also portrays the post-colonial state, like Philippines tend to press out Muslims are still in the primitive past. Ignoring their cultural belongingness to their past as a relic of their current cause to their self identification. The playwright narrated resistance and embraced attempts of neo-colonial state at a social and an ethnological construction to produce a negotiated and provide a discourse to the understanding collective colonial identity.
The play also narrates continues colonial project in Mindanao and Sulu archipelago. It is a story of distinctive nations, cultures, traditions and local history even it is still under the same neo-colonial state. Rogelio Braga’s discourse among two groups of nations are both used a colonially imposed names, who exist as civilized people before colonialism comes to their shores.
The discourse of colonial name superseded the cause for a desired identity based from the geographical territory among Mindanaoans and Sulus as a whole. A transcending narrative from a historical account of desired identity to a political imposed identifications. I am looking at the angle, if the play might have narrated a discourse between and among Muslims themselves in Mindanao and Sulu when imagined identity is being used to call them collectively.
I only observed how the story was told. How the story was delivered. The play had it's tearful moments. That I must say that. I would've love to see the identity of the Maguindanao and Sulu be tackled separately.
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