Folk Theater - Re-enactment of the Passion of Christ

San Vicente IS Series
Folk Theater - Re-enactment of the Passion of Christ

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

Dedicated to my townmates, particularly to the players of the Good Friday passion play on "abong-abong" or makeshift stage. These shots were taken with a palm size digital camera with 7.2 Mega pixels, photos are unedited. - avr

Golgotha where the seven last words of Christ reverberated throughout the world - the most revered moment of His life that made Christianity the world's biggest religion ever: 2.3 to 2.4 billion followers two thousand years after - and still growing.

Images of the living icons who are natives of the town of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur - carpenters, farmers, students, fisherfolk and a host of natural artists, who know too well about the kind of life they portray for and on behalf of the fallen Christ.  

 

The game cock enthusiast offers his hobby and trade; the tippler knows just how sober it is to lose oneself that he may enter into the world of spirituality - an apostle worthy of  partaking in Christ's last supper. 

 

Young centurions dreaming of bringing peace and order in a troubled world, reversing the biblical role into honor and heroism. The re-incarnated Pontius Pilate, allegory of power abuse among today's leaders, softens in the heart of a young boy whose innocence shall grow into the idealism of new young leaders.  

 

Judas Iscariot hanging on a tree, believed to be the haunting strangler's fig or balete, likewise haunts those who turn their back against Christ. The player broke the omen, indeed a most difficult role in the stage play, by asceticism, an old principle of perseverance with meaning. The difference of a repentant Judas who took his own life with that of a neo-Judas today is that there is redemption in the latter in Christ's own way of human salvation - which is the essence of His coming as the Messiah.   

In memory of the late Francisco"Boy" Peralta, local artisan, sculptor, and advocate of the yearly re-enactment of the Passion of Christ, as well as other projects. Article of same title has been published in Philippine Literature Today (textbook) by AV Rotor and K Molina-Doria 2015 C&E Publishing Inc.