PINILI, Ilocos Norte—Komedia, for scores the high point of many town fiestas in Northern Philippines, has lost its sound and colors with the last sound of the wind instruments accompanying the staged battle between the brightly robed notch performers.
Komedia had been undoubtedly the greatest and most popular theater during the last 100 years—1798-1898—of the Spanish rule, which began in 1521.
That was the year Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan discovered the islands—later to be called Las Islas Filipinas in honor of King Philip II—for Europe, 141 years after an Arab sheikh established the first Muslim mosque in the country’s far southern island of Simunul in the province of Tawi-Tawi.
Also known among Ilocanos as the Moro-moro, a common Spanish identification for Muslim, the stage drama had reference to Moros who once invaded Spain.
Abruptly interrupted during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in the 1940s, komedia resurfaced in the 1950s and used to be staged at the center of each largely agricultural town.
Hundreds, even thousands, trooped to the improvised theater soon before sundown so they would not miss a line from the performers from the time the curtains were raised.
There they waited for the stage prompter and his performing artists, all garbed in colorful costumes.
Near the performance site, the well-heeled and better-dressed members of the town’s social class, many returning students from the metropolis, attend formal programs at the amphitheater or open air auditorium.
For three or four nights in those bubble gum years, young Ilocanos—and surprisingly even adults and those in their senior years—enjoyed listening to the stories that usually revolved around tales of love and conquest between Christians and Muslims during the medieval period in Europe.
The ear of listeners in those years could compete with the tympanic membrane of today’s patrons of telenovelas, mostly imported from overseas.
For nights on end during the town fiesta, the “Muslims” at the performance site were always beaten and ended up embracing the Christian faith.
Unlike in better off towns of the archipelago, the duels between the two sides were not choreographed.
But the lighting—from a 350-candle power Coleman or Petromax gas lamps at the time—was sufficient to sustain the enthusiasm and energy of the crowd who preferred the theater to the plaza or the ferris wheels nearby.
The dialogues—thanks to the indefatigable prompter who hid very discreetly behind the plywood wall near the hat wearing-musicians—were delivered in rhyming verses.
That, while the participants leisurely strutted across the elevated stage as though digging their brains for an appropriate line of response.
It is not clear when the first komedia was staged in the different towns of northern Philippines. Debate has been going on as regards the first such performance in the country.
But many historians agreed that the first komedia script was written by Jesuit Geronimo Perez which was staged in Manila on July 15, 1637.
It was obviously ushered in to mark the triumphant campaigns of Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera against Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat, better known as Sultan Kudarat, who ruled the sultanate of Maguindanao from 1619 to 1671.
At the time of his death in 1671, he was, by historical accounts, probably between 80 and 90 years old.
Earlier in 1598, or 77 years after the arrival of Magellan and his fleet, Jesuit students performed komedia in Cebu, now described in picture cards as the Queen City of the South.
While the debate breathes every now and then on the exact place where the komedia was first staged, which is beyond the ear-split range of the Ilocanos of the country’s far north, what is clear is that the komedia was for decades a favorite show among different generations.
It used to mark religious festivals or cap an agro-industrial fair and town fiesta. Ilocanos celebrated their fiesta in April or May in honor of their patron saint San Isidro Labrador.
It is enough to soften the impact of the scorching summer sun in any northern town, caressed by the warm sun of northern Philippines during summer.
HBC, who teaches management of communication development and journalism subjects in the undergraduate and graduate levels, is president of the alumni association of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication.