Name: Jeryll Jones Jamero

Course: BS Accountancy
The Bitter gets Better
Bitter gourd. Does it ring something in your ears? This is something most of us
detest, a vegetable, wrinkled and has the bitterest taste of all. Yes, its the famous
Ampalaya Im talking about. The well-known wrinkled vegetable that has this inner
wickedness inside just waiting for the right timing to unleash its wrath of bitterness to the
tongues of health-conscious folks and lets not forget, there are also those who have
just been forced to eat this devilyeah, theres no helping it, we all have been subject
to that torturous-like event and it was deafening.
Nothings lovely about this vegetable, I totally hate and dont want to eat any part
of it. Dont get me wrong, it does look innocuous, but the taste? I agree that it has a lot
of vitamins lurking inside its wrinkly petite green muscles but the taste is its hamartia.
When I heard of the news, it did ring few rounds of curiosity deep inside my mind.
Ampalaya turned into a musical? Thats a bit hilarious as I may say. But, I dont really
want to judge things by merely their looks, its just not fair and equitable on their side.
Moreover, the show was a requirement so I had to go there whether its of my
agreement or not and I was eager on how this musical would turn out, a boon or bane?
Nineteenth of September it all happened inside the magnanimous Luce
Auditorium. Ampalaya the Musical, thats a simple bittersweet title for a musical. I have
never witnessed a real time formal musical in all of my years, well, Ive seen musicals
but they were amateur shows, totally way off from the grandeur of a true professional
musical Ive seen on TVs.
The program started with an Overture which as far as my knowledge goes is a
summary of the whole musical. Only the band was playing, no actors yet, pure music in
harmony coming from all the instruments used. The feel was not western, it was from
our country, modern but with a splice of traditional music. I noticed the lights changing
as the music of the band changed moods which added a more indulging ambience to
the whole of the Auditorium. Then after, the characters positioned themselves around
the stage and the whole musical officially started with the Balladeers Song. The first I
noticed were the costumes. John Carlo Pagunaling, the costume designer did a
benevolent job of turning each one of the characters into what they should be, they
were deep into their characters and you can easily point out what kind of vegetable they
are. Their performance helped me reminisce my past childhood in which I always play
patintero, tumba lata, tagu-taguan and many more.
I was enchanted with the whole set of the play. There were a lot of paraphernalia
on the stage, it was more like of a forest but it was meant to be a garden though. The
vegetables were happy playing around but then Ampalaya came and stole their
happiness by being uncouth and despicable to all of them. They were all scared of
Ampalaya cause she was the strongest and she could just wipe them out of sight with a
single whip of her hands.
Going back to the costume, I forgot to mention that I was a bit confused on the
outfit of Ampalaya. Why was it white? I mean, an Ampalaya was supposed to be green
right? But then, afterwards the play gave me the answer to the question bugging me for
a while. Going with the flow of the story, it was on one night she stole each unique
characteristic of the vegetables because she was jealousgreed devoured her. The
vegetables took console from Ubodman sa Sagin which was supposed to be the
Ombudsman of their place. I dont know if they just put it that way for humor proposes or
not but I really found it very amusing. She was all white and like a fairy queen to all of
them but calling her Ubodman sa Saging? Come on!
The judgement was to let ampalaya keep what she stole but the consequences
turned her from the white fair skinned beautiful Ampalaya into a wrinkled ugly
Ampalaya. And that answered my question as to the outfit. She was beautiful at first but
then because of insatiability, she transformed into what we see now as Ampalaya. She
regretted it and all vegetables came accepting her apology. The musical ended with all
of them playing around happy and gay.
The musical was well-prepared and thought of. The stage was perfect, the
costumes were just wow, the performers were amazing and the musical had a lot of
lessons for the audience. It was a jammed-packed Luce that night and the musical
ended with glamor and prestige. It was simply beautiful, simply light-hearted and
colorful. Because of this musical, the clich thoughts of mine about Ampalaya were
rewritten. Ampalaya tastes bitter, and we cant change that fact. But besides this
hamartia is the nutrients hidden deep inside. Never do judge a book by its cover
because it may surprise you.
Without a doubt, the musical proves that we can still find the best in the worst,
taste the sweet inside the bitter and change the bitter to be better.