FOR LONGER THAN ANYONE remembers, the town fiesta is the most exciting time of the year. Roving ban as of musicians, processions, fairs, games at the plaza, fireworks and stage shows are all part of the fiesta.
Long ago a really grand fiesta almost always had the moro-moro, or comedia. A very exciting drama, the comedia had swordfights, music, bright costumes, kings, queens and princesses. The drama was staged at the town plaza by actors who traveled from fiesta to fiesta.
Today, only a few town fiestas include the comedia, which has become dressed-up theater. Instead of just playing on a crude stage in the town plaza, the comedia is now presented in big theaters. Several times the comedia has been presented at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and it will again be.
The story of a comedia is always about the conflict between Christians and infidels, based on history. Centuries ago the Spaniards were constantly fighting the Moors who had come to invade Spain. When final victory was theirs, the Spaniards considered it a triumph of Christianity. For this reason, the Spanish storytellers never grew tired of telling the story in all ways possible, especially in songs and heroic poems. When the Spaniards came to the Philippines, they brought with them the stories of their battles with the Moors. In time someone thought of telling the same stories by dramatization.
The first comedia was presented in Manila in 1637. The author of the play was a priest who gave it a very long title: Gran comedia de la toma de/ pueblo de corralat y conquista de Cerro. The audience enjoyed it immensely. From then on the people wanted more and more comedia. Authors were kept busy adapting plays from the famous long poems and verses called corridos.
The story of the comedia is the same every time. There is a Christian princess and there is an infidel princess. Their fathers, who are rich and powerful kings, want them to marry only the bravest of men.
Tournaments are held to single them out. At some point a Christian prince joins the infidels and an infidel joins the Christian ranks. Almost always the princesses fall in love with the “wrong” princes.
Great conflicts erupt. Fights and battles rage. Magnificent swordfights occur. The best actors of the comedia are flamboyant swordsmen, parrying and thrusting with great grace of body. As few as three swordfights, as many as six take place within a single comedia. The audience awaits the swordfights eagerly, watching with bated breath although it knows that in the end, strewing the bodies of infidels all around him, the Christian prince always emerges victorious.
As the Christian prince makes his triumphant speech, the very heavens open to reward his noble zeal not only with the hand of the proper princess but with visible celestial approval.
A rush of sound is heard. Marvelously, the trees part to reveal an angel borne on majestic wings and dressed in flowing robes of white. The angel approaches the prince and takes his hand to lead him in promenade among the loyal believers and the departed infidels.
Soon the notes of the triumphant march rise into the notes of the national anthem. The people jump to their feet in respect, and too soon another stirring evening is over.
The favorite character in a comedia is the clown called huenchehuenche. He is a little black man who prances about and says the most unexpected things. When the author of the play wants to criticize or make a wry comment, he lets the clown say it.
The conversations in a comedia are always in verse, as faithful as possible to the original poems. The cornedia also has very interesting music, so catchy that very soon, the people are humming the tunes and tapping their feet. The actors never just walk from here to there; they march, they prance, they dance.
The children of ancient times loved the comedia. For many of them, it was the only time they were allowed to stay out far into the night at the town plaza to see the play to the very end.
When the comedia was over, the children told and retold the story among themselves. The boys played the swordfights over and over again. Many times, with the help of their parents, the children staged their own comedia in a quieter, much more modest version called carillo, or shadow play. Using stick and cardboard figures held against a lamp so that their shadows fell on a white sheet, they repeated the story of the warring princes. It is said that when Jose Rizal was a young boy, he made up marvelous stories for the shadow plays.
Delightful as it is, the comedia is not really a Filipino ritual. Neither prayer nor promise, neither the marking of an event in the lives of people nor a celebration, the comedia is simply entertainment. If it seems firmly established as ritual, that only goes to show how easily a delightful thing becomes a part of life and memory.
The Divine Comedy of Dante was translated into Tagalog as Ang Bathalang Dula by Rosendo Ignacio.
KAHULUGAN SA TAGALOG
móro-móro / komedya: isang popular na tawag sa anyo ng komedya karaniwang nagtatampok sa labanang Muslim at Kristiyano
