May Pakpak Ang Oras

There is a general frustration when your professor requires you to watch a play, especially if you're someone who has minimal passion for theatre. I was actually expecting something boring or something I would have to strain my ear to understand as it would be in Tagalog, but how wrong I was!

The first story was of two mayflies, Mae and Horace, learning about their fate— that their lifespan lasts only twenty-four hours. They are then thrown into a flurry of denial, anger and desperation.

This poses the first “what if”— what if you only had twenty four hours to live? Will you resign yourself to your end or will you strive for life, strive to live? The ending for this story is quite apparent: the two lovers decide to fly to Paris. There is added meaning to this since they don’t actually know what or where Paris is, meaning they actually went off to see the world, without direction or purpose.

The second story was probably the silliest, as supplied by Cannaphlit and Gorph, but also the most symbolic. They were two blue collar workers who have been tasked by a harsh corporate representative to build the Tower of Babel. One notable line was when the corporate representative emphasized that the investors wanted a tower that would reach God. The concept of a higher being then comes into play. When left alone, the two begin to think about the execution of their task. They determine that in order to reach God, they would have to have endless width, endless height and endless amount of resources. They then play with the idea that God is below instead of above (which may give one the idea of Satanism), but determine that that is impossible also, as they will be endlessly digging. They reach a conclusion that God is everywhere. After explaining this to the representative, their problem is solved.

This story actually made use of some serious wordplay. The actors humorously made use of gibberish in reference to the story of the Tower of Babel, which is the story of have numerous languages came to be. Aside from that, in a more philosophical manner, gibberish was also used to represent an idea and that language itself is an idea. In other words, people give names to certain ideas, whose meaning may not be apparent to the one listening, although the one listening understands that the idea exists.

The third story proved to be the most entertaining, although the one I personally think has the least significance. Bill and Betty, both strangers to one another, meet at a restaurant. We areplaced in the setting of typical guy-trying-to-pick-up-a-girl. The twist in this story is that they can both turn back time to amend the mistakes they make (but in this case, mistakes made only within the conversation).

This poses the second “what if”— what if you could go back in time and do things over? In the end, the pair meet an ironic ending. They tried to make everything perfect in the beginning, hiding behind safety lines and masking themselves so that in the end, they are still an imperfect couple, awkward and afraid to make mistakes. The message behind this is that mistakes are a part of us and make us who we are.

The last story is about a couple, Rob and Laura. It is set within their home, but the story takes off when Laura begins to notice that Rob’s thoughts and desires are manipulating the television channels so that he is forced to stay and watch it for a longer period of time. After the realization that the television is alive, this is followed by a twist: that it was the television that was the one who was manipulating Rob (not the other way around) and that it was actually after Laura. The story then takes a confusing turn wherein Laura and Rob switch places with the two television actors. They become trapped within it and the television actors go free to live their lives.

Upon watching this, I had assumed that this addressed the issue of people being obsessed with television. Nowadays, people are addicted to watching the telly instead of doing something productive; what’s more is that they are heavily influenced by media. In some way, we are being manipulated and controlled by television, as in the story.

I would have to say that this was one of the few plays that I sincerely enjoyed. The costumes were decent, the musical scoring was wonderful, the lights were well prepared, the acting was magnificent as well as the synchronization of actions. However, I do think that the props and stage setting could have used more work; it is understandable though, as the props needed to be flexible to cater to all four stories.

Needless to say, May Pakpak Ang Oras has opened my eyes (and heart) to the wonder of theatre!