Supporting Local Theater I watched Taong Grasa at the UP Auditorium last night. The lead (and lone character) was played by Prof. Alfredo Diaz, a man of many talents and a prominent theater personality this side of Western Visayas. There were perhaps 150 people in the audience. The stage measuring some 10x4 meters was placed in the middle of the room. It was bare save for the old metal chairs turned installation art that adorned the circumference of the elevated platform. Taong Grasa indeed. The acting was sharp and intense. The lines were a forceful stream of consciousness, thoughts sprouting in all directions. I thought of real life taong grasa that I had encountered in the city streets: most were reticent, but some mumbled to themselves and interacted with their surroundings, animate and inanimate. For some reason, I thought of Imelda Marcos. As I listened closely, his jumbled narrative took the form of a loosely-arranged social critique. I imagined that his metaphors took aim at our institutions and our collective social habits. The taong grasa spoke of being looked at, insulted, having caused disgust, excluded, ignored. Here we see society from the point of view of the least of her members, from the perspective of the insane for whom there was no separation between the inner and outer worlds, between the rumbling in his belly and its conversation with a piece of chicken resurrected from the garbage bin, and finally, one for whom there was no gap between what one thought and what one said. And this gave me cause to ask again: who is truly insane? I was surprised however, that the character failed to arouse my sympathy for his condition. Whether this is a failure in the delivery of the material or simply a weakness of the material itself, I could not say. After the performance, the playwright and director, Anton Juan would share that Taong Grasa had been translated and performed in different languages including Japanese, English and French. I would love to see it in the original Filipino. That the playwright himself took time to interact with the audience after the play had concluded was a welcome surprise. Anton spoke of the nuances in the relationship between director and actor, between the the playwright and his material, as well as lead semi-philosophical discussions about many many things under the sun. When these encounters--between the audience on the one hand, and the playwright and the rest of her team on the other--happen, the whole community benefits. Perhaps that is a slight exaggeration. But my point is this: the presence of theater in a city, without a doubt, benefits the city itself. While only a minority may have access to it, those who do may become carriers of the perspectives that only theater can magically share. Theater is an artistic laboratory of ideas. In many cases, its backstage is a home to the avant-garde. From an economic lens, the presence of theater (alongside fine dining, quality public spaces, regular cultural performances) helps attract top minds to take up residence in a city, and greatly deepens its talent pool. And urban theorists like Ed Glaeser are quick to point out that the long term growth of a city is largely dependent on its ability to attract top talent to its shores. This has been a long-winded argument whose main thesis is simply this: Watch Taong Grasa, support local theater productions. Its last staging is at 3pm and 7pm today!
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 04:57:44 +0000
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