What is there to crow about a rooster with a gender-identity problem?

When I first heard of National Artist for Literature Dr. Alejandro Roces’ prize-winning book being transformed into a play by his former protégé and executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, my reaction was one of sheer delight though tinged with a bit of cynicism. Wouldn’t it be a suicidal exercise to transfer the masterpiece to an entirely different genre and not lose something in transit? And to a musical genre at that?

My cynicism was confounded by the fact that Manila’s recent history of the performing arts scene, particularly the musical genre, has not always deserved praise and encouragement. I saw a recent production on a titanic historical figure, backed up by high-caliber singers whose resonance sadly failed to go beyond the cavernous walls of its high-end venue. Despite its much-touted funding, the whole shebang simply fizzled out.

But it was such a delight to see that maverick souls from Cecile’s first batch of students at PETA joined her in the creative venture of transforming Dr. Roces’ opus into "Something to Crow About," a modern zarzuela for the "love of art." Never mind that the perennial problem of lack of funding grants to hire the country’s expensive and highly bankable classical artists continues to hound the industry.

Under Cecile’s concept and direction, the collaborative effort had its world premiere at the 31st UNESCO International Theater World Congress and Theater Olympics of the Nations at the Emilio Aguinaldo College Auditorium. Presented before UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsura, the show left a deep impression in the hearts and minds of both local and international audiences.

Cecile’s successful handling of the musical from an original material on cockfighting would dispel the mistaken notion from some sectors that this cancer survivor, who founded the country’s first nationalist theater Philippine Educational Theater Association or PETA, is not doing theater anymore. On the contrary, she is not about to give up her passion for theater yet. Proof of this is her Artists for Peace Award, her most recent recognition, which UNESCO bestowed on behalf of her marginalized group of performing artists, the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble.

It was most interesting to note that Roces and Cecile’s collaboration was able to harness not-so-well-known but very talented actors who gave moving performances. Worth noting are the lyrical works from Ana Feleo and Lionel Guico. Second leads Liesl Batucan and Joel Trinidad, as lovers against the world, were able to raise the level of what could have been a banal love story into a feel-good and heart-thumping, modern-day zarzuela. The show was fun and witty. The insightful humor ran along the concept of a re-channeling of long-held and highly-esteemed social and family values into unique and modern moods of artistic expression, which was also the theme of the World Congress.

Also noteworthy was the performance of the Liturgikon Chorale under the direction of Eugene de los Santos and the UST Conservatory Student Orchestra under the baton of Hermie Rañera. Giving color and needed ambience were the sets and costumes of Len Santos, the lighting by Joey Nombres, and the film clips by Byron Bryant. The choreographers, Enrico Labayen and Gigi Velarde David, got a bonus reprise from the cockfighting dance originally created by National Artist for Dance Leonor Orosa-Goquingco.

Trust Cecile to come up with a fresh work and achieve brilliant results despite the limitations. The "steal, beg, and borrow" syndrome and the accompanying shoestring budget notwithstanding, the zarzuela showed high aesthetic value and relevant social themes delivered to capacity audiences at her legendary turf at the Rajah Sulayman Theater in Fort Santiago. To recall, she followed this same strategy with the performing group PETALS, which she organized, composed of Filipino and other ethnic immigrants based off-Broadway, such as Ellen Stewart’s La Mama Theater, in New York, when she and her husband, former Senator Heherson Alvarez, went on a 13-year exile to denounce the Marcos dictatorship.

In effect, the adapted version of "Something To Crow About" was, to some degree, a microcosm of the country’s search for equanimity amid political chaos and instability. In one clever line, the poor man, as protagonist, after elevating his case to the Supreme Court and winning over his deceitful and highly connected politicians, announced to all and sundry that not all justices in the country are negotiable and on the take. I just couldn’t help chuckling at such line with a lump in my throat. Bravo!

To stretch the metaphor further, the play showed Dr. Roces as a humorist of the first order. It made prominent his psychology of the average: however embattled the underprivileged Pinoy is, he is able to laugh at himself and his situation in seeking redress for his problems in the most socially-approved way possible – less resentful, more forgiving and with his head high above his shoulder, looking forward to a new day with a smile, laughter and sense of humor tucked in his heart and mind.

The modern zarzuela demonstrated how the poor Filipino is able to get by with his day-to-day mundane follies and obligations to himself, his family and the community. It also presented the Filipino’s serious problems, which are sometimes of his own making and oftentimes brought by the milieu with which he finds himself in, indirectly becoming the beneficiary of the ill intentions of greedy, greasy politicians.

The question whether the rooster was a hen or an "in-between," which was the crux of the matter in the play, pointed at how politicians – the so-called balimbings – could change color in a second for personal expediency. The story was buttressed by the moral conviction of the poor owner, who believed that his rooster was not a hen or a "henny," according to cockfighting rules, who stood his ground in winning and losing for his chicken, whose sexual identity was hotly contested by the justices.

In all, it was a poignant rendering of the overwrought value of simplicity, honesty, perseverance and the "lightness of being" in the heart of every Filipino’s desire to make a dignified and meaningful beginning and ending of his day-to-day concerns, away from the tainted faces of the deceitful politician that his enemies in the story represented. This then was not just a slice of life but life itself captured from the genius of the humorist Roces’ writings and transported live into the realm of the exquisite zarzuela onstage.

"Something to Crow About" was a realization of a dream. It started from a radio version aired over Cecile’s program on Radyo Balintataw, which she produces and hosts until today for radio station DZRH. Then came the agonizing stage of endless production workshops, sleepless writing and rewrites, test runs and reruns ad infinitum. And having done that, there is no other way for the modern zarzuela but to move on and set its sights on breaking new grounds and territories befitting a work of art better appreciated and shared by a multitude of audiences from across cultures and continents.

The play will be performed during the Centennial of Hawaii celebration, and will also be seen off-Broadway at the La Mama Theater and Buffalo University, New York. Bon voyage!