Holding up a mirror to our times

Watching the superb “A Game of Trolls” last week, I was reminded of the refrain of a Bob Dylan song: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”

I marveled again at the Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) doing what it does best: holding up a mirror to our times and urging us to look at it. We leave gifted with painful but saving self-knowledge. (How well John Nery achieves the same end in his column, “Dutertismo: New Filipino, or anti-Filipino?” Opinion, 9/5/17.)

One might describe the play (“…with which to catch the
conscience of the King”) as a conversation among millennials, on and off the stage. Somehow during the exchange,
hope manages to slip in despite the abominations of Marcos’ martial law.

“It’s not dark yet…” because of hope, although the refrain carries in it a note of resignation not to be found in the recent “Violation of humanity should not be new reality” (Letters, 9/5/17). The spirit of the valiant six who authored it seems closer to the other Dylan (Thomas) often remembered for: “Do not go gentle into that good night… Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

I commend their capacity to take the long view, to prepare for the long haul, something rarely found among those whose future stretches before them. Youth will not be deprived of their brave new world, that’s a hope. They have seen formidable fears conquered, and know that politicians have but brief appearances on stage.

VIRGINIA CALPOTURA, RSCJ, strvirginia@yahoo.com.ph