Pagkaawit ng Adarna

(The song of the Adarna bird)

A documentary play.

Synopsis:

A one-act play. The play is an existentialist version of the nineteenth-century Philippine metrical romance Ibong Adarna.

The play is a series of vignettes falling into three categories: (1) the main character talking to his comatose father, who is dying; (2) memories in which the main character talks to friends about his problem with his father; and (3) dreams based on the corrido Ibong Adarna, in which the boy Juan is the character from the corrido, while the real Juan suffers from delirium as he recovers from pneumonia. He contracts pneumonia after standing in the rain, finally understanding his relationship with his father.

Theatre Productions:

First produced in 1973 in the End Room of the Museum of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Awards:

Written as part of the Thirteen Artists Program of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Not published. A manuscript is available in the Ateneo de Manila Rizal Library Special Collections.

References:

Lumbera, Bienvenido. (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.