The Brechtian demonstrations of Tanghalang Pilipino's Madonna Brava

• Main Author: Cruz, Maria Fatima L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Play; Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2379
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study revolves around the Philippine rendition of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children entitled Madonna Brava ng Mindanao, written by Don Pagusara and directed by Nestor Horfilla. In this thesis, I examine how Madonna Brava is Filipinianized as well as how the play adheres to Brechtian principles that aim to alienate and educate its audience. First of all, I study how Mother Courage is transformed into Madonna Brava. Secondly, by examining the portrayals of actors and actresses, their dialogues, songs and gestures as well as the scenes, I study how the play instructs. Lastly, I analyze theatrical devices that the playwright and, particularly, the director, employs in staging the play that produces the alienation effects that should stimulate the dialectic processes in the minds of its audience. The theatre turns into a lecture hall. The play reveals arguments that challenge the audience. It presents its position regarding the war as it also teaches about life, morality and politics that arouse the audience's capacity for action. But none of these are conveyed overtly in the play. Indeed, to arrive at the meanings require intellectual--and not emotional--involvement.