The Tempest

This weekend the free video on Stratford Festival's Youtube channel is The Tempest. I have started to follow this channel for its wonderful offerings of The Bard's plays. Alongside SF, I also follow The National Theatre, after being awed by its performance of Frankenstein. NT's free video this weekend is A Streetcar Named Desire, which I have often heard of, but at present, I would want to immerse myself in the classics. I have already found wonderful gems in Youtube, confining myself not only to England's Shakespeare, but also to other Western European countries whose history boasts of excellent theater pieces, notably Spain and France.

The Tempest features a powerful mage named Prospero who rules an island and lives together with her teenage daughter Miranda, the spirit Ariel, and an adopted monster Caliban whose mother Sycorax is killed by Prospero. In SF's version, Propero is a woman, by the way. Her backstory, told in between dialogues, is that she was the duchess of Milan but her brother Antonio usurped the dukedom and she is cast out to the sea together with her daughter twelve years before the current play timeline. It is only fortunate that Gonzalo packed among her things a book that bestowed upon her the magic she will find useful in ruling the island and in controlling an airy spirit and a monster. At the beginning of the play, she creates a tempest causing a shipwreck. On board the ship are King of Naples Alonso, his son Ferdinand and his brother Sebastian, Prospero's brother Antonio, the goood councilor Gonzalo, a jester Trinculo, a drunken butler Stephano, among others. Three groups are formed from this company, as willed by Prospero: Ferdinand is to meet Miranda, Trinculo and Stephano will eventually meet Caliban in a ridiculously comedic fashion, and the rest are to be with each other in a test of loyalty as Sebastian when everyone is put to sleep by Ariel save for him and Antonio who plot to kill King Alonso so Sebastian can become king. The murder plan is thwarted when Ariel intervenes and causes Gonzalo and King Alonso to wake up.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love with each other and Ferdinand passes Propero's test. they are advised not to have sex prior to their official marriage lest the relationship turn sour and the marriage be cursed. A masque is organized by Prospero and the goddesses Juno, Ceres, and Iris grace the event. Propero suddenly remembers the plot against her life, a coup planned by Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo so they can rule the island after killing the mage. In his first time to taste wine which is given to him by Stephano, he offers to lick the latter's feet and boots, treating Stephano as his lord. This reminds me of how Hernan Cortes was welcomed by the Mayans and treated as a god, unknowingly bringing their own destruction. Propero lays a trap for the three conspirators and true enough as soon as Stephano and Trinculo see the line of beautiful clothes, they put them the clothes on, delaying their mission as Caliban helplessly reminds them that they should act swiftly. The three are chased away by hounds.

Propero reveals herself to group three and reclaims her dukedom. She forgives her brother and blackmails Antonio and Sebastian for plotting against the king's life. King Alonso and Ferdinand are only too happy to find the other alive and well, when each though the other dead. Stephano and Trinculo are sent away. Everbody leaves the island save for Caliban, and Ariel is set free. Naples and Milan are united with the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda.

Riven Rock

On the second month of ECQ, I am seeing its positive side as I am able to accomplish much this May. I was able to clean our bedrooom, rearrange stuff to make room for my other stuff which I would be getting later on, and which I just did last week. I am thankful to my sister for going with me to get my things and thank God the parents agreed for me to use the car. Aside from these, I am finally back to being a bookworm and have finished tonight my second non-acads related book: T. C. Boyle's Riven Rock.

I bought this book a decade ago from Booksale, and I can't believe I got a masterpiece for only PHP35!

Riven Rock is a a novel set around the early 1900s about a power couple. Stanley Robert McCormick is an heir to the McCormick fortune built from the patriarch Cyrus' reaper company. His wife Katherine Dexter- McCormick is MIT's first woman graduate from the sciences program, and herself coming from a prominent family. What started as a sweet romantic affair becomes chaotically depressing as Stanley's mental illness manifests gradually leading to his incarceration in his family's estate named Riven Rock. While occupying himself with the estate for his sister Mary Virginia who was the first one to be confined in the property due to her mental illness, Stanley saw a slab of sandstone that was split in two, and thus gave the place its name. In 1912, he himself will be confined in the same place where he would meet his death.

"It was he very stuff of the earth's bones, solid rock, impenetrable, impermeable, the symbol of everything that endures, and here it was split in two, riven like a yard of cheap cloth, and by a thing so small and insidious as an acorn..." (p. 124)

Stanley is joined by his personal nurse Eddie O'Kane, among others, whose own story is interwoven with those of the McCormick couple. I cannot help but compare the two men. Shy, awkward, mild-mannered Stanley who is diagnosed  with dementia praecox (read: sex maniac) is slowly regarded to be a danger to society after he exhibited violent behaviors. In one outing, he almost drowned a fisherman. He took a German teacher against the latter's will to Katherine's house when he is advised to study the German language to calm his nerves. He displays rude behavior when he calls his kindhearted, soft-spoken mother-in-law "a stupid old woman" inside her own home. He tries to hurt Katherine because of his paranoia that his wife is cheating on him with Butler Ames, a former suitor, when Katherine is busy with her plans in the academe. Prior to his diagnosis, Stanley is shown to be critical of capitalism, himself converting a portion of his business to a socialist venture. He is proud of such achievement and Katherine becomes attracted to him because of that.

On the other hand, O'Kane is a womanizer. For certain he is a competent man in his profession, and I can say that in his presence Stanley can be controlled for he is treated not as an employee but as a friend and confidant. I despise his character though for treating women as mere sex objects. He marries Rosaleen when she becomes pregnant with his child. And while in Riven Rock away from his wife, he seduces Giovanella who later on bears his son but is married to an old shoemaker because O'Kane is revealed to be an adulterer and therefore they cannot marry. The shoemaker dies eventually during the Spanish Flu pandemic, and later on Giovanella marries O'Kane when things become more peaceful between them. And I have to add that O'Kane physically hurt these two women, and yet he is considered to be a normal person. Maybe this is one theme of the book, of how society's standards weigh and how this distorts our views of what is right and just.

I am also amused at how Katherine will do anything to get Stanley back, even hiring psychiatrists who are obvious quacks. Then again, the field of psychiatry is just at a developing stage at the onset of the 20th century so I refrain from making further comments on Katherine's decisions. But I will definitely point out how these doctors hold Stanley hostage so they can get money and in the case of Dr. Hamilton, decent funding and resources for his study of ape sexuality and who, in Freudian fashion, theorizes that sex is the root and cause of human activity. And this whole ape study thing mirrors exactly our main character who himself is seen to be dangerous to women as demonstrated in the first few chapters while he and company are traveling on a train and suddenly Stanley attacks a young woman intent on sexually violating her.

Katherine's disappointment in men

Katherine herself is a formidable character who possesses quite an intellect reserved for educated women such as she during that time. She has her own share of injustices, being quite talented at chess that boys are beaten and eventually the group was disbanded when her male teacher "discovered an obscure prohibition against board games". How very apt and witty of Boyle to incorporate chess in this story of male incarceration and feminine energy that continues to fight for rights and love. Boyle writes: "(...) never mind that the queen was the power behind the throne and the king a poor-crippled one-hop-at-a-time beggar hardly more fit or able than a pawn, he was the object of the game and they all knew it." (p. 72)

And I have to really say how uncannily timely it is that at this time of Covid-19 pandemic, I am consuming this story as I did with Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and its globe-trotting main character Switters, while I was on a very long vacation in Spain. With Riven Rock, I feel so much claustrophobia just imagining being locked up for the rest of your life, even though you have people who attend to your needs. Money cannot buy freedom. And yet, here we are still under lockdown with the same feeling that money cannot buy health. And did I say that the Spanish flu also featured in the novel? So just imagine how I am taken aback by all these coincidences when all I wanted was to just read a book to make good use of time. Or maybe it's the priestess in me working...

To end this post, I will have to say that while I was around 50 pages shy of finishing Riven Rock, I looked up T.C. Boyle in the Internet to answer one simple question: is he a misogynist? (I got that idea because he is one heck of a writer who really makes characters come alive and I am thinking maybe he is like O'Kane.) Only I am surprised to find that he looks like a balding Ironman, witty and charming, and is a really really cool guy, based on the interviews I have watched on Youtube. I even told Q about this book last night when he chatted me up and I asked his views on locking up mentally ill people who may become a menace to society. Always the liberal, he avoids a clear yes/no answer and even suggests that those who cannot control their urges "should be given proper care and support so that they might one day survive in the real world."  Did I say that the novel also reeks of privilege and that while reading I cannot help but think what could have been the story development if we have a poor couple instead of a power couple?

Macbeth

I notice that more and more Youtube channels are offering full theatrical performances for a limited period of time. It might just be the silver lining during this pandemic, but then it is so only for those with interest in the performance arts. The average person is more concerned with their livelihood since many are unemployed at the moment. I don't need to check the news to know that we are experiencing a great economic slump. I just feel a bit lucky that at the very least, I still earn money during this time. The pandemic lockdown has given me great discomforts, me being accustomed to staying away from my toxic family but now forced to stay in with them. It's a wonder I am still alive after two full months of fully living with them. My super self-centered father has constantly made my blood boil that nowadays the mere knowledge that he is at home is enough to cause me anxieties and high level of stress. He takes pleasure in being outside because he has been accustomed to parties with his friends, and comes home with a long litany of complaints and fears that he might be a Covid-19 carrier. I have lost count of the number of times I rolled my eyes since this lockdown occurred. As for my mother, she is being her usual self who will stupidly do whatever it takes to please the useless males in the household, even when it means causing us girls to bear the burden. So never blame me for not celebrating mother's day. I lost a mother when the Light passed away five years ago. The monkey is being his asshole self, on his computer 24/7, and setting the fans all to him, later complaining of coughs and being feverish, and surprises of surprises! He still have the audacity to eat my sister's chocolates! Stupid males who appear on this earth to only be walking hotdogs.

The lockdown has forced us all to live together but nobody dares to confront. Our highly dysfunctional family, owing to people unfit to become parents, is a big shame. I envy my friends who have great relationships with their family members. I have been struggling for as long as I can remember and the old hag is nowhere near to admitting her faults, it is her fault that we have unreliable males in the household for she tolerates it.

It is no wonder that I look forward to weekend freebies to somehow escape from this very bleak domestic life. Today after watching Cats, I made good with a promise I made to myself. I searched for full shows of Shakespeare's plays and found Stratford Festival's (SF) channel which has one of the Bard's famous plays---- Macbeth. The SF version is very dark, literally. The whole play from beginning to end reminds me of chiaroscuro paintings and it was quite a challenge for me to watch since I don't like darkly lit scenes where I see almost nothing. However, that very technique is apt to suit the story's very dark and sinister plot of murders arising from lust of power. I am also very thankful because the actors and actresses spoke audibly and well that I wasn't as lost as when I watched DUP's Measure for Measure because audio was bad and couple that with hard-to-grasp Shakespearean English, I cannot say that I enjoyed myself fully. 

Macbeth is a classic tale of a power-hungry man who will commit murders to become king and remain in power. Far from being realistic, this play incorporates magic as the Three Witches' prophecy is the reason for Macbeth's corruption. His wife, Lady Macbeth, is an accomplice but is also the serpent to encourages her husband to murder King Duncan. My favorite part in the play comes immediately after the king's death, wherein the porter has his own scene which for me is the coolest. The porter scene can very well be the origins of the Knock Knock jokes. I am not ashamed to say that I replayed the scene many times because I just found it so humorous and so witty. And needless to say, I needed that comic relief since the whole play is too dark. Another comic relief is the scene wherein Lady Macduff converses with her witty son before they were slaughtered by Macbeth's men, but it is so short and the murder is too quick to happen. Another favorite part is  Macbeth's madness during the feast because of Banquo and the late King Duncan's apparitions. I just love seeing criminals cowering in fear when their conscience starts to attack. But this only further plunges our anti-hero to a deeper madness that will eventually cause him his and his wife's lives.

My favorite lines in the play:

Macbeth: "Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires"

(This is during the time when King Duncan and his company are discussing the punishment for the erstwhile Thane of Cawdor for his treason and Macbeth offers his loyalty to the throne and to the king, but the King pronounces his son Malcolm as Prince of Cumberland.)

Lady Macbeth: "You should look like an innocent flower, but be the serpent under it."

Macbeth: "False face must hide what the false heart doth know."

(This is during one of those scenes when Lady Macbeth chides her husband for being cowardly and for thinking of backing out from their evil plan.)

Lady MacDuff: "I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world; where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas, do I put up that womanly defense, To say I have done no harm?"

(This resonates with me because of my many complaints of how weird this world is, that good men are punished, and evil men are rewarded. This is Lady Macduff's reaction when she is tipped of her impending murder.)

Macduff: "Bleed, bleed, poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, for goodness dare not check thee."

(This is during Macduff and Malcolm's lengthy conversation wherein the latter is being persuaded to rise up to take back what is rightfully his but then he hesitates and tests Macduff's loyalty by saying that he might be a worse king than Macbeth himself. And this is a timeless quote because in every age in history, mankind is met with oppression and the rule of evil has never ended.)

Macduff: "My voice is in my sword."

(Delivered during the final confrontation with Macbeth after Malcolm is injured from fighting against Macbeth. And curiously, Macbeth does not make sure he leaves Malcolm dead before fleeing.)

And so I wonder why I have always been afraid to engage in Shakespeare works when it seems they are not as bad as many say. I should really really believe in myself and remember my highschool self who was so enamored with proving and algebra and trigonometry while everyone around me hated these math topics. I look forward to watching The Tempest next week.

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Update (23 May 2020)
After watching SF's The Tempest, I found Shakespeare's Globe's version of Macbeth. The characters wear contemporary clothes, and the porter scene, which is the one thing I greatly anticipate, is remarkably made shorter, but the porter did deliver a cool knock-knock joke with the audience who after asking "who's there?" got porter's response "Toby". The crowd asks "Toby who?" And witty porter answers, "To be or not to be, that is the question." LOL. Now I wonder how other performances recreates this comedic part.

Cats the Musical

So once again, thanks to the Youtube Channel The Shows Must Go On, I am now able to watch the popular Cats, a musical based on the poetry of T.S. Eliot. I first encountered the poet via his nightmarish epic poem The Waste Land, a critique of modernity.  The cool thing about the poem is how Eliot used different languages in some lines, which I am a bit unhappy about because somebod beat me to it. But then, given the richness of cultures and languages in Asia and Africa, for certain many obscure poets have done it before, too.

Cats had a movie version in 2019 and was shown in Philippine cinemas early this year. The day before my brother's wedding, I was locked up in our hotel room, trying to watch a highschool play version but I ended up just sleeping the afternoon away, seeing that there is little plot. One also does not expect much from the production but then again, considering that it a HS play, it's already achieved quite a lot in terms of aesthetics.

Cats is about cats of different types and different personalities. Old Grizzabella who is shunned by the other cats. There's this other old cat whose name is Deuteronomy, who selects a cat who will be sent to Heaviside Layer. The cats gather is a Jellicle ball and that is where the selection will take place. For the most part in the beginning, I was rather bored because of the many dances and songs with very little progress in story-telling. The dance choreography are good, but then for someone not into dancing, it's not something I am super interested in.

If there is some merit to this musical, it's got some of the best catchy songs. My favorite aside from Memory, is Mr. Mistoffelees, performed by John Partridge as the curious cat Rum Tum Tugger. (Yes, I really searched for the actor's name because he is so damn good!) The singer-actor playing this character is super awesome. I also enjoyed his namesake's song in Act 1. It's something that you'd definitely want to sing along to, or to have some buddy to sing along with. And of course, who doesn't love a black magical cat, like the famed Luna from the massively popular shoujo series Sailormoon? Without this very important character, the selection will never happen; it was Mr. Mistoffelees who brings back Old Deuteronomy after the latter was abducted by the mischievous and mysterious Macavity. And then just as quickly he himself disappears! If there is any motivation for me to see this musical performed live, it is to see for myself how they make Mr. Mistoffelees suddenly disappear after bringing back the old cat leader.

And so, the old glamour cat Grizzabella is chosen to be reborn. Before that, she sings another round of Memory. And while she sings, our favorite magic cat can be seen at the back. He must have found it worthwhile to stay for the Jellicle Choice! In the end, she is seen together with Old Deuteronomy on a rising tire, old D delivering her to the golden stairs as the other cats look on.

It seems that after this, "Jellicles can and Jellicles do" will probably play nonstop inside my head for at least a week. 

Oh! Well I never! Was there ever a play so clever as magical Cats the Musical!

Ang Huling El Bimbo, The Hit Musical (Youtube)

My fifth musical this lockdown is AHEB which I wanted to watch since it was first shown in Resorts World two years ago. I never did, and even failed to catch the 2019 remake because the venue is just so far from us. It's just lucky that it was picked to be available online in ABS-CBN Entertainment's Youtube channel as part of its fund-raising program Pantawid ng Pag-ibig. Donations will go to families whose livelihood is affected by the Covid-19 lockdown. Just a few days ago, the local TV giant said its farewell after its franchise was not renewed, thereby putting around 11,000 employees in further jeopardy. I wonder if a portion of the PnP will go to employees who need financial assistance. 

The people behind AHEB are familiar names: Floy Quintos and Dexter Santos are credited for most acclaimed DUP productions, my most favorite being Collections. I have great expectations especially since it was the rave and because of the hype created around it years back. Story-wise, it does not disappoint. The message is so powerful, a reflection of reality that bites. As for the incorporation of the iconic band Eraserhead's songs, I feel like most are unnecessary and that the songs awkwardly fail to connect to the scenes. Of course, it's a different story with the song "Ang Huling El Bimbo" as the musical successfully mirrored the bliss of innocence and the subsequent tragedy. 

But it's not just all romance, the play's strength derives from its accurate portrayal, despite common stereotypes, of personalities in the Philippine society. For instance, there are the three UP students, iskos who are so idealistic and who are full of talk about patriotism and changing the world. On that tragic night when their friend Joy was raped, they prove to be mere cowards, who for all their supposed brilliance being able to enter and exit UP successfully and for having achieved their career objectives, are shown to be apathetic and lacking in human compassion. Act 2 is so heart-breaking, seeing Joy struggle for herself as she is forced into prostitution and drug-dealing by her "protector" Banlaoi who in turn, became a councilor and used that power to further drive poor Joy's life to hell, figuratively and literally. What makes it even more sad is seeing her still believing in her friends who abandoned her after the rape. The three men are all cowards for doing so, for refusing to report to the police, for leaving Joy at a time when she is most in need of support. She even attended their graduation rites with flowers for each of them but they all excused themselves and acted like they do not know her. This, even though Joy helped them through a lot, provided moral support and uplifted their spirits when they were down and doubting themselves. 

Despite her namesake, Joy is a victim of a duplicitous society, one that takes advantage of the poor and became pawn without full agency. Feminists will be enraged to find her unable to unchain herself from her circumstances. In many instances, she expressly pins her hopes for the future upon others, willingly believing her three friends when they all promise her reunions and never-ending friendship. But the ugly thing is, people will always get caught up in the tangled web of modern life wherein relationships hold value insofar as it helps propel one's career. Real, authentic relationships are but a part of the nostalgic past. It would have been okay if both parties move on with the same feeling to abandon friendship but in life, there are those who never grow up and who clings to ideals of friendship and relationships that they are left hanging.

On another note, the theater piece is full of political overtones, especially an explicit critique of Duterte's war on drugs, especially in the character of the corrupt Banlaoi who achieves high office and whose campaign money comes from drug-trafficking. But it likewise criticizes the liberals who lead these tirades against Duterte's drug war, the liberals who are privileged who cannot be bothered to really help the poor and the oppressed, these liberals who are only talk and do nothing. Joy is always shown with the color yellow (yellow top, and later on, yellow bag), perhaps as allusion to her bright and cheerful personality, and at the same time, politically connected to the Liberal Party. Thus the musical sends the message also of how the Liberal Party has promoted all these liberal ideas that, while pleasant to the ears, have done little to alleviate poverty. Joy's character is testament to how believing in the promises of liberalism will end in tragedy.  

National Theatre's Frankenstein

Again, thanks to a friend's Facebook post, I came to know about a theatre play version of my fave story Frankenstein. I've always been a fan of the novel and even love the gargoyle-based film I, Frankenstein. It is one of the first classic novels I read alongside Mark Twain and Charles Dickens' works and I remember being overly pensive afterwards, feeling profound pity for a creature that never asked to be born into this world and yet abandoned and maltreated by humans. Or maybe I found myself relating to Frankenstein's Monster, me being hated and maltreated for being different. Tonight I can very well relate to the lines delivered by the Monster.

Dialogue between Viktor and the Monster.

Viktor: I am your master, you should show respect.

Monster: Master has duties. You left me to die. I am not a slave, I am free!

The dialogue above is reminiscent of Confucian values and the prescribed relationship between father and son wherein the first cares for the latter and the latter obeys and respects the first, in order to establish a harmonious relationship. However, the Monster was abandoned at the time when he was revived as an experiment of Viktor. Viktor toyed with the idea of playing God, and never mind his brilliant mind as he is sadly lacking in emotional intelligence. I know someone very well who acts like God and treats others including his own wife and children as slaves. And of course, I can very well relate to the Monster who justifies his anger because his creator is a useless egocentric person with no care for others. 

Other memorable lines in the play:

Monster talking to Elizabeth: I did not ask to be born, but once born, I will fight to live. All life is precious, even mine.

Monster to Viktor: What is the matter? Are you cold? Do you feel forsaken? (...) You wanted power. Look at you. Immortality, look at you.

Monster: I am different. I know I am different. I have tried to be the same, but I am different. Why can I not be who I am?

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I watched the one wherein Benedict Cumberbatch of Dr. Strange fame played the role of the Monster. At the start of the play, we see him writhing and rolling helplessly on the ground after being given life. I was like, wow, he's super awesome to be able to move like that. I can pretty much imagine how difficult it must have been to move like an oversized baby learning how to walk. Such an impressive actor. I also love how there are funny moments and witty retorts all throughout which certainly gave lighthearted moments to this otherwise dark and depressing story. As always, I sympathize with the Monster rather than the proud Viktor. Never liked people who are too full of themselves when they cannot even function normally without others. But oh well, defense mechanism of weak people. As always, I believe that the truly strong are those who are kind (but not pushover/ doormat kind), just, compassionate, and courageous.

Special thanks to National Theatre for making this gem available online. 

Rama, Hari (Ballet Philippines on Youtube)

Earlier this week, I chanced upon a Facebook post announcing that Rama, Hari will be on Youtube live today at 3PM. I watched the 2PM show in 2012, but for some reason, I was not able to blog about it. I remember falling in love with the music, especially the drums, not caring much for ballet although the performers were all really good. Stage props were not given much effort but I loved the costumes.

This afternoon, I was trying to focus on studying Business Mandarin but the sweltering heat is too much that I fell asleep, waking up shortly to check out FB and found that Rama, Hari had already started. Good thing I saw that post, or I would have totally forgotten about this free Youtube offering.

I chose to watch on my laptop and was disappointed that the video is not on HD, the sounds were equally bad. I wonder why CCP did not opt to make this more worth it for viewers at this time of Covid-19 lockdown. No wonder the performance arts in the Philippines are not popular and the average Filipino will choose low quality entertainment which does not enrich one's intellectual experience. While I am grateful to CCP for relieving memories of this excellent collaboration among our five National Artists, I will have to say that there is much work to be done to promote the arts among the people. I envy my parents' time when everybody seems cultured (yet maybe in the wrong way because they are too flooded with American stuff) that my parents at least know musicals. In my generation, I have few friends who are into theater. In our family as always, I am the only one among us siblings who is into these kinds of things.

I cannot help but compare this to UK's The Show Must Go On! Youtube channel. Weeks prior, they made The Phantom of the Opera and its sequel Love Never Dies available for everyone for 48 hours in order to gather donations for The Actors Fund. So HD version is uploaded and memories of utter awe came back to me. I wonder if Filipino performance artists are also being cared for in the same manner. But I guess they are left to fend for themselves. This country has been made poor by corrupt government officials especially by political dynasties for so many decades now and nothing has changed. Truth be told, although I worry about people having financial issues during this time, I cannot bring myself to donate to organizations because the money will eventually be controlled by politicians who will just pocket most of it, leaving very little to those truly in need. 

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On another note, I remember the paper I wrote together with other Southeast Asian students on Ramayana. Last year I chanced upon a Mashable article on the Ramayana versions in SEA which is like an article version of our group's paper. I don't know who the writer is, but it does not even acknowledge its source which I suspect is our paper because that exactly is our paper topic. I suspect that it being a group paper and it being submitted to the program organizers, the paper must have fallen into the hands of an intellectually deficient academician-wannabe in search of an easy paper to write. Of course I find it insulting because I headed that group paper and contributed the most to it, spending sleepless night poring over sources and revising the paper to make it coherent and consistent given that there were six or seven of us with our own assigned parts, each with his/ her own writing style. 

So anyway, since I remember our paper, I will share a bit of information about Ramayana and the Philippines. The Maranao people have their own version and the title is Maharadia Lawana. Curiously, the title name focuses on Lawana, the indigenized version of Ravana. And watching Rama, Hari now makes me wonder how come CCP or Ballet Philippines do not use this material instead for the performances to inform the audience that we receive many Indian influences which the average Filipino does not even know of. As always, it is the elites who keep these things to themselves and those "intellectuals" who reside in their ivory towers.