The History of

Philippine Theatre
21st Century Literature
Philippine Theatre
Theater in the Philippines is as varied as the
cultural traditions and the historical influences
that shaped it through the centuries. The dramatic
forms that flourished and continue to flourish
among the different peoples of the archipelago
include: the indigenous theater, mainly Malay in
character, which is seen in rituals, mimetic dances,
and mimetic customs; the plays with Spanish
influence, among which are the komedya, the
sinakulo, the playlets, the sarswela, and the drama.
The Indigenous Theater
The rituals, dances, and customs which are
still performed by the different cultural
communities that comprise about 5% percent
of the country’s population performed on the
occasions of a person’s birth, baptism,
circumcision, initial menstruation, courtship,
wedding, sickness, and death; or for the
celebration of tribal activities, like hunting,
fishing, rice planting and harvesting, and
going to war.
The Indigenous Theater
In most rituals, a native priest/priestess, variously
called mandadawak, catalonan, bayok, or
babaylan, goes into a trance as the spirit he/she is
calling upon possesses him/her. While entranced,
the shaman partakes of the sacrificial offering,
which may be a chicken, a pig, a carabao
(depending on the gravity of the spirit’s anger) or
simply rice uncooked or in cakes, rice wine, and
betel nut.
Indigenous Rituals
in the Philippines
•Pagdiwata of Tagbanua in
Palawan
•Atang – Atang Ritual of
Ibanag in Isabela
Pagdiwata of Tagbanua
in Palawan
Crowns a series of activities addressed to
the spirits of ancestors, held after the rice
harvest on the last three days of the last
moon, to ask the supreme deity
Mangindusa, the other gods, and the
spirits of ancestors for a bountiful harvest
and for the well-being of the supplicants.
Atang – Atang Ritual
of Ibanag in Isabela
Features a gaily decorated small bamboo raft
with offerings of rice, oil, eggs, cigarettes, rice
cakes, and a little chick representing the soul
of the sick person. Around this raft situated
on the ground, two women dance, drink, and
chant Christian prayers to cure the sick. Later,
the women take oil from the raft and rub it on
the face, legs or hands of the sick.
Aside from rituals, tribal
dances which may also be
considered as proto-dramas. A
majority of these dances, which
mark important events like
baptism, courtship, marriage
and even death, depict
important tribal activities.
Tribal Dances in
the Philippines
The tribes of the Cordillera have dances that
reenact the hunt and the killing of a boar, as
well as the practice and ways of headtaking; the
Aeta of Zambales perform dances which show
the techniques of gathering wild honey in the
forest as well as hunting for fish; the Tausug of
Sulu boast of dances that represent how oranges
are picked or how not to catch a mudfish.
The most important dance,
however, among most Philippine
tribes is the war dance. The war
dance of the Mansaka of Davao
del Norte imitates the movements
of model warriors called Bagani,
as the latter fight with spears,
bolo, and shields.
In the courtship customs,
the most common is the
debate between a male
and a female, which may
employ verse, song, and
dance.
The Maranao’s “Panonoroon” has a boy
and a girl chanting metaphorical verses
to each other, with the boy offering his
love to the girl and the latter warding
off his verbal advances. The Cebuano’s
Balitaw features antiphonal songs
performed by male and female, which
talks not only of love, but of the
problems of married couples and rural
workers.
Among the Tagalog, the debate in
song and dance becomes an
exchange of spoken verses in the
duplo, where poets called bilyako
use proverbs, riddles to advance
their suits to the bilyaka of their
choice. In the 1920s, the duplo
became a formal debate on an issue,
and was called the balagtasan.
As a whole, indigenous dramas are well
integrated into the lives of tribal Filipinos. These
rituals, dances, and customs express their very
beliefs and depict their activities and material
culture. Furthermore, they help fulfill the basic
needs of the tribe for a good harvest and victory
in war, as well as the physical and spiritual well-
being of the sick, the newly born, the youth, and
the newly wed members of the tribe. Finally,
these plays bind the members of the tribe in a
stronger bond for the common good.
 Rituals of baptism, circumcision, marriage, as
well as the dances that instruct children on
the techniques of looking for honey or fishing
or fighting in war, clearly work for the
collective good. A good harvest and plentiful
honey and fish obviously benefit the tribe,
while the display of war dances teaches the
young boys the primary duty of manhood,
namely, fighting to ensure survival of the
tribe against all aggressors.
 Similarly, the customs associated
with courtship, marriage, and
death provide a way of expressing
personal emotions in a socially
accepted way, and of informing all
of bonds that will have to be
respected by everyone, so that
harmony may reign in society.
The Spanish Colonial Tradition
In the three centuries of Spanish rule from
1565 to 1898, the Spanish colonizers,
specifically the friars, showed a keen
awareness of the power of theater both as a
tool for the Christianization of the natives and
as a magnet to attract the latter to the pueblo
or town which constituted the foundation of
Spain’s empire in the archipelago.
The Spanish Colonial Tradition
Consequently, the Spanish regime
gave rise to and popularized the
various types of secular and religious
plays, the former usually staged to
celebrate town fiestas, and the latter, to
highlight important Catholic liturgical
feasts or seasons like Christmas, Lent,
or Easter.
Many of these plays and playlets continue
to be popular among the Christianized
folk who live in the rural areas and
compose the majority of the total
population.Of the plays, the most
important is the komedya, also known as
moro-moro,linambay, arakyo, which is a
play in verse introduced into the country
from Spain in the 16th century and
institutionalized in the 19th century.
This theatrical spectacle takes from
3 to 15 hours and several sessions to
perform. It has two principal types:
the secular, which concentrates on
epic stories of love and vengeance;
and the religious, which narrates the
lives of patron saints.
Not as entertaining as the secular komedya, the
religious komedya called komedya de santo, hardly
survives to our day.
• The Comedia de San Miguel (Play of San Miguel)
- this komedya tells the story of how Lusbel rebelled
against God, and how God, through the Seraphim,
ordered San Miguel Arcangel (Iligan City’s patron
saint) to quell the heavenly revolts and drive Lusbel,
his cohorts and the Seven Capital Sins represented by
a huge sevenheaded monster, to hell where they are
punished forever for their pride and rebelliousness.
• sinakulo — also known as the pasion y muerte.
In Tambo, Buhi, Camarines Sur, the passion play
known as tanggal is a folk interpretation of events of
the passion that is distinguished both by its charm as
by its faith and fervor. For almost three whole days
and with financial support from the barrio, older
members of an itinerant group of tanggalista chant
the Bicol pasyon and other episodes from the
Creation of the World to the Search for the Holy
Cross by Elena and Constantino, while the younger
members of the group dramatize the actions narrated
by the chant.
Most popular are the following:
• doleful scenes like Christ saying farewell to his
mother before he goes to his martyrdom;
• comic scenes featuring the antics of Judas Iscariot,
the great comedian in any passion play;
• scenes of spectacle like the storm at sea where the
Apostles take a little boat ride on Lake Buhi ;
• colorful scenes like the descent of the Holy Spirit
on Mary and the Apostles;
• and finally, dramatic scenes like the Assumption
and Coronation of the Virgin in heaven.
In urbanized towns like Cainta, Rizal,
the sinakulo has reached heights of
technical sophistication in terms of
sets which are more “realistic,”
costumes which are more historically
accurate, dialogue which approaches
colloquial prose, and lighting which
produces effects of night and day,
darkness and lightning.
As popular but more numerous than the komedya
and sinakulo are the playlets, which attest to the
importance placed by the Spanish friars and the
local priests after them on teaching Catholicism.
Many religious playlets in the Philippines merely
embellish the Catholic liturgy or dramatize more
fully the feasts narrated by that liturgy, especially
the events of Christ’s birth, passion, death, and
resurrection. Others are performed to honor saints
on their feast days. Some of the most important
playlets are associated with the Christmas season.
•The Tagalog panunuluyan
(seeking entry) and Bicol
kagharong (going from house to
house) dramatize through a street
procession the search by the
Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph for
a place in Bethlehem on
Christmas eve.
The pastores (shepherds) is a
playlet depicting the journey
of the shepherds, their
encounter with Satan, and
their adoration of the Christ
Child, as may be seen in Cebu
and Leyte.
The niños inocentes found in
the Tagalog areas, may be a
short play showing the
beheading of babies below
two years of age as ordered
by Herod, as was the custom
in some towns of Rizal.
The tatlong hari (three kings) may be
a simple procession highlighting
three males costumed as kings, as in
Floridablanca, Pampanga, and
Mabitac, Laguna, or a short play
reenacting episodes in the search for
and adoration of the Infant Jesus by
the Three Kings, in Gasan,
Marinduque
The Lenten season, specifically the
Holy Week, has many more playlets
associated with it.
•The osana (hosanna) found in
almost all Christian areas, features
the blessing of the palms and
reenacts Christ’s triumphal entry
into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
•The via crucis (way of the cross),
observed in most Catholic
parishes, is a procession of the
image of the Nazareno or Christ
carrying the cross, which
meditates at 14 altars where the
Stations of the Cross are
enshrined.
• The paghuhugas (washing), dramatizes the washing of
the feet of the Apostles by Jesus on Maundy
Thursday.
• The huling hapunan or ultima cena (last
supper),reenacts the Last Supper in an actual dinner
eaten by the priest and 12 men playing the apostles.
• The siete palabras (seven words) features a lifesize
image of Christ hanging on the cross, which moves
its head each time one of the seven last words is
spoken (with accompanying “thunder and
lightning”) during the three hours before Christ’s
death at 3 P.M. on Good Friday.
The secular and religious plays and
playlets are drastically different in
content and function from the indigenous
plays. While the latter depict the life and
activities of the tribe, the dramas with
Spanish narrate the life and sufferings of
Jesus Christ and the saints of the Catholic
Church, which were introduced into the
country by the Spanish friars.
It is not difficult to see how these plays contributed to
the shaping of the native Filipino as colonial during
the Spanish period and how they continue to
discourage the development of persons and citizens in
contemporary Philippine society. Introduced into the
country by Spanish artists in 1878 or 1879, the sarswela
had its heyday from 1900 to 1940 in Manila and the
provinces. Original sarswela were created in Tagalog
by writers like Severino Reyes, Hermogenes Ilagan,
Patricio Mariano, Julian Cruz Balmaseda, Servando de
los Angeles, and composers like Fulgencio Tolentino,
Juan S. Hernandez, Leon Ignacio, Alejo Carluen, and
Bonifacio Abdon.
The sarswela focuses on a love story
between members of the upper classes,
which is spiced up with comic love episodes
between servants, and made more relevant
with satirical attacks on corrupt politicians,
oppressive landlords, lazy husbands whose
husbandry is wasted on cockfighting and
other vices and, lately, students hooked on
drugs and “Saudi” recruiters who take
advantage of naive workers.
One of the most popular
sarswela of all time is Dalagang
Bukid(Country Maiden), 1919,
which tells of the love between a
pretty young flower girl,
Angelita, and a young handsome
law student, Cipriano.
During its golden age from 1900 to 1940, the
drama was performed in a series of three-
in-one performance, or by itself before a
sarswela. Like the sarswela, it could be
presented commercially or as a community
activity, on a proscenium stage in a teatro or
on an open-air rural entablado, using telon
(theater curtain or backdrop) and
appropriate props to denote setting.
Although the drama is hardly
ever staged today, it still enjoys
immense popularity on radio,
television or film, either as tear-
jerking, sala-set melodrama
popularly known as soap opera,
or as comedies with a lot of
humor.
The Philippine Forms
of Drama
•melodrama
•comedy
•drama simboliko
Melodrama
The pre World War II melodrama
which aims to make people cry is
typified by Veronidia, 1919, by Cirio
H. Panganiban, which depicts the
tragic death of a divorcee who only
wants to visit her dying (first)
husband.
Comedy
The comedy which entertains with laughter is
exemplified by Julian Cruz Balmaseda’s Sino Ba
Kayo? (Who AreYou?), 1943, which weaves its
hilarious situations around the mistaken
identities of the main characters—a widower and
his pretty daughter, a widow (the widower’s new
wife) and her handsome son (who turns out to be
the boyfriend of the widower’s daughter), the
male and female servants.
The drama simboliko
The drama simboliko (allegorical
drama), popular in Manila and
environs from 1898 to 1910 as a
vehicle of political protest, is
exemplified by Juan Abad ’s
Tanikalang Guinto (Golden Chain),
1902,