Batang Rizal: A Critique

Rizal as a national hero has been portrayed in many ways. He has been placed on a pedestal both figuratively and literally with the amount of statues and monuments erected on his behalf all over the world. What happens when one of those statues accidentally got broken? What would you do?

That was the premise of the play Batang Rizal written by Christine Bellen and directed by director Duds Terana for the opening of the 40th season of the Philippine Educational Theater Association last July 2007.

The protagonist of the play Pepito, a student, played by Joseph Keith Anicoche, found his way with the use of a magical book back to the time of Jose “Pepe” Rizal after his problem with accidentally breaking the Jose Rizal statue donated to the school by Mayor Rapcu, portrayed by Jose Vicente Katipunan. He was troubled by this accident because this could cause his own and his siblings’ expulsion from their school.

The play took the audience into Pepito’s story but more importantly it was a walk down memory lane into the childhood of the hero Jose Rizal.

The setting took place during the Buwan Ng Wika which is celebrated in August. The Rizal Elementary School was busily preparing for activities usually associated with Buwan Ng Wika. This was the time that Pepito got into trouble because of Manuel, Raffy, and Ella, played by Carlon John Matobato, Norberto Portales III, and Joan Marie Bugcat respectively, who kept bullying him. They blamed Pepito as the cause of the accident with the statue.

As Pepe and Pepito walk through the life of the man we now know as Jose Rizal, the struggle between wanting to do the right thing or running away from responsibility was portrayed in Pepe’s shock when he found out he was to die a tragic yet heroic death.

These two characters represent two definitions of being a hero. One is a portrayal of the greatness of someone who can help an entire country and influence it long after his death and the other is the greatness of an ordinary citizen who through hard work was able to influence people around him to become better even in just a short period of time.

According to PETA's artistic director Maribel Legarda, it was a challenge to write the script since Rizal was such a national icon, which made it hard for her to portray the hero in his younger years.

But this aspect of Rizal’s life is important as the play showed an extraordinary man in his ordinary childhood, one that was filled with hardship and joy like the lives of the children during that time even up until now.

The way this story was told could bring the audience back to their childhoods because of the corny jokes, teasing, and the simplicity of the situations.

The simple dialogue gave the story a feel of realism despite the whole travelling and breaking through space and time continuum as one can feel the weight of the innocent words these children said throughout the play.

Pepe had doubts of returning to his time when he knew that his return would lead to his death. Moreover, he saw that nothing had changed in the society since his death. He pointed out that there were no differences in the way people lived. There were still those few people who held power over the poor majority. He felt there was no reason for him to return since his death seems to no impact on the modern society.

He didn’t get the consequences of his actions if he decided to stay in the present time. The whole Philippine history would’ve been rewritten and we could still be under the occupation of some country if Pepe decided not to go back to his time.

This gaves the play that moralizing touch for it instills in its audience the impression of how important their actions are because as living creatures everyone is connected one way or the other. But it avoided sounding or feeling preachy because of how the lines were written and how they were delivered by the actors.

The characters were easily portrayed by the actors and actresses who brought them to life. There might have been moments when the three bullies played by Matobato, Portales, and Bugcat seem to dominate the scene they were in because of their quick and witty lines but the overall feel of the acting came across as natural and entertaining.

The style of PETA of having only the minimal, important props on stage proved useful for the running around occurring during the play. It became easier to see what was happening around the stage without having to worry about props getting in the way. The only problem was during the story telling about the firefly and the monkey and turtle, as aside from the shadow puppets, there seemed to be a lot of activity happening on stage that made it hard for the audience to focus on a particular person.

The story did not seem to drag on and despite knowing the story of Rizal’s childhood this somehow gave an entertaining and refreshing way to look at his life. - JOANNA NICOLE BATAC

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