“Awit Kay Ana” is an adaptation of a William Somerset Maugham short story set in France amidst the death and destruction brought about by World War II. “Awit Kay Ana”, the setting shifts to the Philippines wherein a family’s idyllic existence is disrupted when the country found itself caught in the war set off by Japanese occupation.
Originally entitled “Digmaan!” (War), the play won for its playwright, Diosdado Sa. Anzures, the prestigious Palanca Award in the 70s. In its original title, the play had been successfully staged in Metro Manila and key cities around the country, with more than 100 performances to date. Aside from the Filipinization of the characters, the playwright has added other scenes and characters to further enrich the local color and underline the actual Filipino experience in the Japan’s failed attempt for imperialist expansion all over Asia.
plays ANA in the award-winning play "Awit kay Ana"
“Awit Kay Ana” is an adaptation of a William Somerset Maugham short story set in France amidst the death and destruction brought about by World War II. “Awit Kay Ana”, the setting shifts to the Philippines wherein a family’s idyllic existence is disrupted when the country found itself caught in the war set off by Japanese occupation.
Originally entitled “Digmaan!” (War), the play won for its playwright, Diosdado Sa. Anzures, the prestigious Palanca Award in the 70s. In its original title, the play had been successfully staged in Metro Manila, with more than 100 performances to date. Aside from the Filipinization of the characters, the playwright has added other scenes and characters to further enrich the local color and underline the actual Filipino experience in the Japan’s failed attempt for imperialist expansion all over Asia.
Ana, the lead character, is raped by a drunken Japanese officer and consequently gets pregnant. The story takes a sudden turn when the Japanese officer finds himself falling in love with his victim and proposes to marry her. He woos her parents and eventually wins their consent. Nevertheless, Ana’s hatred of his attacker lingered and her conviction never to accept the man who caused her dishonor remained unyielding. The play ends at Ana’s exacting vengeance to her oppressor.
A sequence-long argument between Ana and the Japanese officer Tomo delves into the historical background why the Japanese, through its imperial army, had to invade the Philippines. Ana’s teenage brother Berting, an added character, very well represents the young Filipinos of the period who were suddenly and forcibly shoved to adulthood after having been castrated by Japanese soldiers.
Ana’s mother Tinay is a mirror image of Filipinos who have opted to collaborate with foreign invaders with an eye for personal gains, and so is Ana’s father Horacio who vacillates at first but eventually capitulates to the wishes of his alien masters for practical reasons.
The rape of Ana could be a metaphor to the pillaging of the Philippines during the Japanese invasion and, taking it to the personal level, Ana’s dilemma poses a greater question in that she is a teacher by profession. Would she keep the baby inside her womb? How would her townsfolk take it? How would her students react to it? How would she create self-reinvention vis-à-vis the moral and cultural background of the times?
Armed with nothing but hatred for an enemy, Ana had remained steadfast with her conviction, until she came across an idea of the most painful vengeance she can exact against her aggressor: killing the child. The thought put her in another juncture of painful decision, juxtaposed to social morality standards already ravaged by the horrors of war.
