Last Thursday, two friends and I went to watch Cyrano: Isang Sarswela starring one of our high school friends as the lead Roxanne. It was a thesis theater production and the show we watched was the first run so there were glitches. But I appreciated it nonetheless. The tale of Christian, Cyrano and Roxanne is a tale of prose, wit, music, love, ideals, history, poems and songs.
The final scene where Cyrano was dying touched me and my tears could not be stopped. My friends saw me, but I didn’t think I could explain to them then and there why I was so moved. Probably because it’s been so long since I heard such beautiful prose in Tagalog delivered with so much relevance not only to the circumstances within the story but in the present real-life as well.
Further, Cyrano’s final battle against the ghosts of the usurpers who violated his principles should’ve not been a battle he fought alone. It was a battle for the sarswela, the tradition and the music and the words that got them through the happiest and hardest of times. It was a battle fought and lost for the woman that he loved all his life. It was a battle for his ideals thwarted by forces powerful than he was. And when Cyrano gave in, I felt like, with him, I lost something precious, too.
I wish I could get a copy of the play’s script. The spoken lines and the songs were so moving and beautiful.
"Sa buwan~"
