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HUMANITIES

REACTION PAPER

Yancha, Ma. Daphne Joyce C.

AR 508

Adviser: Professor Joshua Tayco

In an inventive and imaginative way, I never knew Id fall for a musical play after

watching such after how many years. Juan Luna, the famous painter of The Spoliarium

was the main character of Obra ni Juan and the PhilStagers executed his life so well in

such a creative way. They showed Philippine Revolution from the point of view of a

respected heroic protagonist, Juan Luna. The first part of the play was shown by Juan

having introduced to his friend at a cruise.

In my own perspective, I also thought it was just Juan Lunas friend only to find out

on the latter part that it was not, it was his other self. It was the only time I realized that

he was suffering from some serious condition of having a split personality which is

Dissociative identity disorder, formerly referred to as multiple personality disorder, is a

condition wherein a person's identity is fragmented into two or more distinct personality

states.

People with this rare condition are often victims of severe abuse. The next exciting

part of the play was Luna being put into the spotlight of being famous because of his

paintings, there it showed again the disturbed psyche of Juan Luna as he was arguing

with himself while doing the paintings and they executed how he has two sides of a story
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for each painting in both celebratory and tragic way. In that part, I was still confused about

the story that it was his other self but the approach of the play made me gain a unique

understanding of the artist and his state of mind. Atty. Tanada, played the other self of

Juan Luna and also the director, was able to create an inventive manner of expressing

what could have been a boring and lame history lesson.

Patrick Libao as Juan Luna 1 also played a good acting on the play as he executed

everything on point. The next part of the play was when he was with his friends, as I think,

wouldnt be complete without them in it. Namely, Marcelo Del Pilar, Jose Rizal, Trinidad

Pardo de Tavera and of course his brother. Antonio Luna.

They showed a kind of brotherhood that existed during Spanish colonization. I think

it was also amazing on how they played well to thrill the audience in a humorous and witty

way. Jose Rizal also captured my attention since the play also showed his involvement

to different girls namely Leonor and Nellie Boustead and how he was in a love triangle

with General Antonio Luna. This side story also added a spice to the main Juan Luna

thread. It is telling that a girl, Nellie Boustead, which came between their friendship that

could not thrive to how important brotherhood is and to accept who Nellie wants to be

together with. I think the Actress projected so well that even the audience would fall over

her projecting so well that expresses how the two heroes are crazy about her.

The next part of the play was one of my favorite scenes, it was their own execution

of how Juan Luna murdered his wife Paz and his mother-in-law, Juliana. Atty. Tanada as

the director stages the scene through a doorway prop between them. The creepy and

loud music in this scene gave the audience and me as being one of the audience to have

a heart-pounding air of tension and violence.

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It was then the part of the play where Juan Luna decides to fix himself and help

his country for real and through his own way. Together with General Luna and Jose Rizal

he gets back to his own country. However, it saddened me that Marcelo Del Pilar was not

able to die in his own country from suffering tuberculosis. This part where Juan Luna

together with (KKK) Andres Bonifacio was a part of the climax. It was an open minding

play that showed how our heroes fought, grieved, sacrificed their loved ones, for the hope

of freeing the country.

At the end of the Play, it was only then that I knew that the Attorney written on the

ticket as the Director was also a part of the play who executed Juan Luna 2. It was a

shocking moment since he has garnered a number of awards and yet he has a good

profession/title at the same time.

Through his speech, it was then that I realized what the play was trying to say.

They were trying to express the untold stories of the past that were never taught at the

four sides of the classroom. That more than just a play, they were showing the untold

story of a Filipino hero namely Juan Luna. They wanted to show what Juan Luna really

wanted to show through his paintings. He stated at the end the true meaning and value

of the The Parisian Life as not just a lady sitting in a caf but rather holding a message

that he wants to convey to the Filipino.

He used this impressionist painting as a gun, that it was about the lady-shaped

through an inverted shape of Philippines and that the two people were Jose Rizal and

General Luna talking and that there was a foreigner listening to their plans.
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He also stated the meaning of the Spoliarium as not just a death scene of the

Roman people but a portrait of how foreigners were dragging the Philippines and how

they want to benefit from it. These kind of plays are the ones Filipinos should watch more

since there are so many revisions from different historians, so watching a play like this

depicts the real story of our different Filipino heroes.