Cabesang Tales

Synopsis:

Paul Dumol's Cabesang Tales is a full-length play in 26 scenes based on the story of Cabesang Tales in Rizal's El Filibusterismo. Focusing on the family of Cabesang Tales, the play dramatizes the suffering of a peasant family caught in the injustices of friar and colonial rule. After Tales clears and cultivates land owned by a friar order through years of hard work, it is taken from him when he refuses to pay rent that has been unfairly increased. He fights back through the courts, but ends up in a struggle marked by abuse, loss, and helplessness. As the family's situation worsens, each member is drawn into the growing tragedy. Through a series of brief but powerful scenes, the play traces Tales's transformation from a hardworking farmer into a figure of resistance. The play brings a key moment in Philippine colonial history to the stage with emotional force and social insight.

Dumol changed the ending of the play in a later version:

In 1975, Dumol wrote a second version of Cabesang Tales with minor corrections to the historical context. The main difference from the earlier version is its ending. The play closes with Tales stuffing the mouths of the friar administrator and the new lessor of his land with soil. He then eats sugarcane from the field and spits it at the two.

The later version was premiered by Tanghalang Pilipino.

Theatre Productions:

First produced in 1975 at the Dulaang Raha Sulayman, Fort Santiago, Intramuros, by PETA.

Director: Nonon Padilla

Between 1976 and 1982 (exact year not specified), Cebu City.

Director: Joy Mocon

Year unknown. Davao City.

Director: Nestor Horfilla

Awards:

This play won First Honorable Mention in the CCP Playwriting Contest in 1971.

Published Version:

Dumol, Paul Arvisu. "Kabesang Tales." Sagisag, vol. I, no. 3, July 1975, pp. 19–38.

References:

1. Fernandez, D. G. (1983). "Contemporary Philippine Drama: The Liveliest Voice." Philippine Studies, 31(1), 5–36.

2. Lumbera, B. (1987). "Philippine Theater, 1972–79: A Chronicle of Growth Under Constraint." 大阪外国語大学学報, 74(1–2), 97–120.

3. Del Rosario Castrillo, P. (1994). Philippine Political Theater: 1946–1985. Philippine Studies, 42(4), 528–538.