Tulauk

ON SATURDAY, April 13 at 7 p.m. the Kapampangan musical on the passion of Christ will be staged at Nepo Park.

I cannot instantly think of a more fitting start for the observance of the Holy Week than being there, not only to watch but be touched, be inspired, and be blessed.

Here is my take of its staging four years ago in the City of San Fernando, serving more as a personal testimony than a review.

Call to repentance   

TULAUK. IT cannot be any simpler as title of an original Kapampangan Lenten sarswela, taken though to dizzying religious high by its bill as “Greatest Story of Humanity, the Redeeming Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Written by Andy Alviz of Miss Saigon fame and Rev. Fr. Deo Kerr Galang, president of Teatru Kapampangan, with Randy del Rosario providing additional materials, Tulauk takes off from Matthew 26:34, to wit: “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” Aye, the Kapampangan term translates directly to the cock’s crow.

For all that sublimity in its blurb, the play, staged at the parking lot of Robinsons Starmills Saturday evening did not disappoint. In fact, it inspired.

The 20 original Kapampangan songs did, to still use a much-abused cliché, feed the soul. With most putting their biblical setting in current context. Or is it biblical context in current setting? Whichever, the lyrics and music simply seared the spirit, finding manifest in the deafening ovation that erupted at the end of each scene.

The cast led by the Rev. Fr. Ric Luzung in the role of Christ, Rev. Fr. Ted Valencia as Simon Peter, Rev. Fr. Homer Policarpio as John the Beloved, Rev. Fr. Jon Bartolome as James and Rev. Fr. Aris Maniago as Judas, along with the talents of ArtiSta.Rita and Teatru Kapampangan vivified characters that in many other productions, in both film and stage, have been reduced to wooden acting, to cartooned caricatures.

A revelation is co-worker in the Lapid Capitol and dear friend Cindy Lapid in her very first stage appearance in the role of Mary Magdalene.

Even as comparisons are said to be always odious and therefore unkind to indulge in them, I cannot help but think of another Magdalene key roler, Yvonne Elliman in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

Where Elliman’s I don’t know how to love him up-played Christ’s humanity, suggesting even romantic love in their relationship, Cindy’s rendition of the Magdalene purely sprang from remorse and repentance, recognition of the salvific essence of her Lord, and ultimate redemption. Indeed, a reaffirmation of our catechetical knowledge of this public-sinner-turned-saint. Truly, a negation of Dan Brown’s perversion of her.

Here we transcend the medium for the message. At least the message of Tulauk that most impacted my being.

While the cock’s crow is identified with Simon Peter, the rooster – along with crossed keys, throne and the triregnum or triple tiara – being an integral part of his representative image in religious art, Tulauk went beyond the Petrine perspective and reached out to the Iscariot issue.

Judas

Yes, Judas, the betrayer of Christ, figured as prominently as, if not more than Peter in this presentation. The pangs of a stricken conscience over his betrayal highlighted in a song immediately preceding his suicide.

And in the last scene, just before Christ’s ascension, it was Judas that was at the center of the dialog. To the forgiven Peter’s query of what had happened to Judas, the Lord replying that had the remorseful Judas sought forgiveness, he would have received His mercy.

Unlike Peter, alas, Judas had no cock to crow to remind him of his betrayal of his Lord. As indeed in Mark 14:72: “Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.”           

For the Iscariot, only the desperate cry: “My mind... is in darkness! My God... God, I'm sick! I've been used! And you knew! You knew all the time! God, I will never know why you chose me for your crime! Your foul, bloody crime! My God, you have murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered...” No passage from any of the four canonical gospels nor from the gnostic Gospel of Judas there but lines from Webber-Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

Remote from his rock opera persona, the biblical Judas was no blamer but even remorseful, as in Matthew 27:3-5: “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.’ And they said, ‘What is that to us? See thou to that.’ And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

A deal – Judas delivering Jesus to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver on the condition that he would not be harmed – gone sour when Jesus was lashed, scourged and crowned with thorns. Judas wanting out of the deal, thus returning the payment. The chief priests not biting. So went the reflection of some retreat master in my seminary past, seeding our young minds with a gentler, kinder consideration of the Damned One.

Which, verily the closing scene of Tulauk also imparted. To me.

Indeed, of Judas, who are we to judge?

Had he the same privilege as Peter’s with the cock, would he not have sought forgiveness from his Lord, remorseful as he already was over his betrayal of Him?

As it turned out, no mere reminder for Peter was the cock’s crow but a call for repentance and reconciliation. With the Lord’s forgiveness, mercy and compassion open to all who heed the call.   

Yes, as the good Apu Ceto said in his closing message last Saturday, Tulauk offered us one enriching spiritual encounter.