Lui CarungayOn its last weekend run, Manila Notes captivates its audiences once again with the cast’s stellar acting and relatable storyline
This grand staging of a play that the audiences could easily relate to for its use of quiet moments and minimal to no stage effects, such as lighting and musical scoring brought a fresh and delightful take to the local theater scene. What’s even more delightful is how it was localized and translated to make it relatable to the Filipino audiences. With the help of playwright and Palanca Award winner, Rody Vera, who, for Manila Notes have worked with the original writer of Tokyo Notes, Mr. Oriza Hirata, the famed play was able to take on a local feel.
Our Present Society and Camera Obscura
Set in an art gallery which features the paintings of Vermeer, a painter in Europe, whose paintings were distributed all over the world due to the ongoing hostile war between European countries, snippets of the characters’ lives were shown through their interpretations of Vermeer’s paintings and through their passing, vague, and ambiguous conversations. A character of Vermeer’s paintings that the characters talked about was how the people in his paintings were always looking out the window showing nothing but the person and the window in a ray of sunlight, while casting everything else in pitch black. This style was called camera obscura and can be related to our present society as the act of ‘filtering’.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Basically, in camera obscura, you only see what you choose to see, which is also wise since reacting and minding everything now a days can easily land you some stress and unwarranted problems. When asked for her take on this, Manila Notes’ main actress, Meann Espinosa playing Evelyn said:
“ ..personally if I let everything that’s happening around me affect me, I think it’s gonna drive me mad…in order for us to survive, it is also essential to learn how to filter things that you’re going to focus on. Still, if given the chance to also do something for the society, go, but I don’t think it’s healthy for us to dwell on anything that’s negative. Siguro magandang you know, you’re aware up to what point you’re going to filter things and up to what point na hindi, I have to do something.”
[..personally if I let everything that’s happening around me affect me, I think it’s gonna drive me mad…in order for us to survive, it is also essential to learn how to filter things that you’re going to focus on. Still, if given the chance to also do something for the society, go, but I don’t think it’s healthy for us to dwell on anything that’s negative. Maybe it’s better that you know, you’re aware up to what point you’re going to filter things and up to what point where you’d realize that no, I have to do something]
The phrase ‘out of sight, out of mind’, may seem a bit selfish, but at times, it is better to choose your own battles than to just run head on to every battle you’d encounter, even the ones you know nothing about. Sometimes, leaving things as they are can actually be the best choice to make for that particular situation.
