Tanghalang Pilipino
presents
“MGA AMA, MGA ANAK”
By Nick Joaquin
Director – Joel Lamangan
Translated into Pilipino by National Artists Pete Lacaba and
Virgilio Almario
Lighting Designer – Monino Duque
Production Designer – Tuxqs Rutaquio
Sound Designer – TJ Ramos
Artistic Director (Tanghalang Pilipino) Nanding Josef
February 21-March 9, 2014
(Friday) February 21, 28 and March 7 / 8pm
(Saturday) February 22, March 1 and 8 / 3pm and 8pm
(Sunday) February 23, March 2 and 9 / 3pm
Mga Ama, Mga Anak (Fathers and Sons) is a stage drama in
three-acts written by Nick Joaquin in 1976, based on his short story “Three
Generations.” The story revolves around former town illustrado and Calesa king
Zacarias Monzon, his fall from power and wealth, and his gnawing conflicts with
his son, amid dementia and unresolved issues. Cruelty, hedonism, disloyalty,
pain and suffering marred his family's past, and now, so close to death, his
son, grandson, a mistress and other family members fervent;ly struggle to make
sense of it all.
CAST:
ROBERT AREVALO (Zacarias)
SPANKY MANIKAN (Zacarias)
NANDING JOSEF (Celo)
MARCO VIAÑA (Chitong)
CRIS VILLONCO (Bessie/Pokpok)
JACKIELOU BLANCO (Sofia)
CELESTE LEGASPI (Sofia)
PEEWEE O’HARA (Mrs. Paulo)
BANAUE MICLAT (Nena)
MADELEINE NICOLAS (Nena)
And Tanghalang Pilipino's ACTORS COMPANY
VENUE:
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theatre)
Cultural Center of the Philippines
TICKETS:
Regular: Php800; Student: Php400
20% discount on the regular price for senior citizens,
government employees, military employees & PWDs. (Please
present valid ID)
Inquiries: (02)
832 3661
On "FATHERS AND SONS" --
Excerpts from the article Tropical Gothic: Nick Joaquin
Revisited by Joseph Galdon.
“Nick Joaquin’s stories reflect the theology of culture, but
the theological levels are folk levels than dogma.”
“National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera called Nick Joaquin our
‘most stimulating’ lay theologian in 1968.”
“In December of 1975, Joaquin published Fathers and Sons. A
melodrama in three reels, which is a dramatization of his earlier story, Three
Generations. The play emphasizes freedom and choice. The theological speeches
of (seminarian) Chitong (the youngest among the three generations of the
Fathers and Sons), make Joaquin’s intentions obvious. Speaking to his father,
Celo, Chitong said,
‘Father, will you hear me? I just want to point out one
thing. Father, listen to me ! Character is not something we inherit. It is
something we create. If we cannot blame our fathers for what we are, neither
should we blame ourselves for what they were. Each of us is a new person; and
only we, are responsible for that new person. Oh, yes, there are fathers and
grandfathers, and who knows what ancestors crowding within us-but all of them
are just ghosts, Father -impotent, powerless, ghosts, unless we allow them to
create us in their image. That was a primitive age that said the sins of the
fathers would be visited on their children unto the third and fourth
generation. Charity began when God said…when God Himself said, ‘No more shall
anyone say that because the fathers ate sour grapes, the children’s teeth are
set on edge.’
“In Fathers and Sons, Joaquin, the theologian and moralist
is speaking out more clearly than he did 25 years ago.”
