Tags: Performing Arts, Theater
By Marjorie Gorospe
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA— “Ang Unang Aswang” is not an ordinary stage play about a mythical beast but is about how love is capable of transforming an innocent person into a monster.
Unlike fairy tales, “Ang Unang Aswang” is a tale of an innocent girl in the woods who had fallen in love with a stranger. The stranger used lies to give her all the “first” experiences in life including intimacy. However, the stranger turned out to be married man with a pregnant wife.
Having stayed in the woods all her life, the innocent girl was not aware of the cruelty of most humans until she experienced being denied by her only love. Her great frustration and anger upon learning the betrayal led to the awakening of her monster side or her dugong aswang.
Now surrounded by anguish and broken heart, she swore to kill everyone except the man who betrayed him, whom she still eternally loves.
Written by Rody Vera, the play was recently performed by the Far Eastern University-Theater Guild and was directed by Dudz Teraña for the school’s 78th Theater Season offering.
According to Teraña, he personally chose the piece primarily because of the story plot and the challenge it brings to every director to interpret the piece in a way that the young set of audience could appreciate.
“It was a bit difficult. I used symbolisms from props, choreography, lights, and settings. It may have a simple plot but executing it into a play is really challenging through the eyes of a director,” Teraña says.
The setting of the play was somewhere in the early colonial era which is why the characters somehow used old Tagalog words. “My aim is also to re-orient the youth on the proper use of the native language because I always see students having a hard time using Tagalog even by simply updating their status update on social networking sites,” Teraña adds.
The director also says this is another way to convince younger viewers to appreciate the native tongue through the play.
Teraña says that despite the lies and betrayal, love is still the dominant emotion in the story. He also lets the audience judge in the end how love can make one live in misery or in happiness.
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