Sa Huling Pahina: A Unique Way of Admiring One of Rizal’s Masterpiece

December 7, 2012 (Friday)

This is the day I am waiting for. My sister’s part of a club in her school- Adamson University Speech and Theater Arts Club- and they’re going to have a play that somehow involves Noli Me Tangere. I’m a junior student and it will kind of help me if I see this play.

I personally want to see this thing. Because 1. My sister is in it, 2. It’s Noli Me Tangere, 3. It’s going to be epic (I know, I saw last year’s show), 4. My mom wants me to and 5. It’s interesting.

“Sa Huling Pahina” (On the Last Page) is a play about, well, the last page of Rizal’s novel, Noli Me Tangere. And what would happen if the three secondary characters – Kapitan Tiyago, Donya Victorina and Donya Consolacion – would come out of the book and tell the writer their problems. This idea alone is epic.

When I get in the theater, there’s this huge thing on the stage that looks like an open book. And two boxes with punctuation marks on them. When it begin, I am kind of nervous; the sounds are amazing. Pedre Damaso came out at one side of the stage with the townspeople. Blah, blah, blah, my sister’s part (made me tear a little), blah, blah, blah, kissing scenes, blah, blah, blah, last chapter (kabanata). The prologue is epic!!! They rounded up 63 chapters in less than an hour!! A+mazing!

On that part, Sisa (mah sis xD) died, Crisostomo Ibarra is now Simuon, the weird girl (Maria Clara) that screamed “Kamatayaaaan!” or something like that. Everything turned black, when the lights are on, there is nothing you can see but the open book and the word “Wakas”.

A guy in a barong tagalog came out from the book. As in, from the book; the book was made out of spandex, that’s why. (Creative thinking, by the way) He introduces himself as Kapitan Tiago. He states his problems and waited. As he listens to the silence, another person came out. A girl in a beautiful gown with a fan that has feathers in its edges, Donya Victorina.

At first, she lies about the reason why she’s in the last page of the book. But of course, Kapitan don’t have to hear the reason why; he already know. Donya Vicorina is there with the same reason as his. I remembered the funny line that goes like this:

KT: Ahhh, alam ko na kung bakit ka nandito. Hindi mo na kailangang sabihin.

DV: Ano ang iyong ibig-sabihin?

KT: Ang ibig-sabihin ko ay hindi mo  na kailangang sabihin ang dapat mong sabihin.

Yea, you probably didn’t get that. But as the jokes run between the two, another person came out. A girl with thick eyebrows, a big mole beside the nose and a cracking voice. Guess who? Donya Consolacion. A brutal girl with her whip and sword, made the audience laugh harder than Mr. Bean. And like Donya Victorina, she also lies about the reason why she’s there. But then again, “Hindi na niya kailangang sabihin ang dapat niyang sabihin.”

As the story goes, their problems, dreams and personalities are shown. Jokes are thrown very well. They are really amazing actors. In the end, they never got to see the writer. They realize that they are just as important as the main characters and went back inside the book.

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All in all, the play’s epic. Laughs are hard from here and there, applause are given each scenes and awes are spilled the entire time. The production is really amazing. Everything!

• Actors – Fresh talents, even though their kids, they could sure give one hell of a show!
• Set and costumes – One word: Realistic
• Lights – Perfect timing, especially in the end. When they’re speaking about the last page. (Walang mga punong matataas, at mga malalaking batong maaaring pagtaguan ng mga naka-takas na bilanggo)
• Sounds – Perfect. It’s a big factor in adding the mood to the scene and the playlist is really, perfect.
• Story – Good one. I have never though of an idea like this one. Really funny, relate-able and touching.

I am really looking forward to see another play, not only by STA but by these students who managed to conduct a play like this. Oh and I almost forgot, the adviser’s hot. (I just had to get that out, lewls) At the end of the day, I can only summarize the play in three things:

Adamson STA. Sa Huling Pahina. Bravo!