Sanchez, Brian Russel M.

C36
DuLa Salle 2K14: JuanDay Reaction Paper

The play was set in the Philippines decades after, wherein the nature has been closely
destroyed and there has been a change in the ways of living.

The first part of the play was entitled “Paglilitis”. In this play, a woman named Terra was
being accused of bringing strong winds and destruction in the land. I can see through the main
character the realness of her emotion, the hurt that she was feeling. Witnesses have been ordered
to speak that heightens up the mood of the play. Basically, as far as I know, “terra” means land
or the earth, given the prefix in the word terrestrial. This simply means that the earth is being
abused and it came to the point that it revenged which is of course is in the form of a natural
calamity. This is great starter for the play.

The play continues with “Chatroom,” which is about Cleo and Abel, a couple who
celebrates their 5th anniversary thru Skype. This story points out the possibility of an extremely
cold snow in the Philippines that could lead to death. I like the modern touches in the play
because it made the audience connect to them. The part goes on with Cleo’s longing for Abel and
finally persuading him to go meet with her. The play ended with the couple doing a countdown
while getting out of their house, and the lights slowly dimming. What I deduced is that the
couple didn’t survive because of the extremely strong climate.

The third part for me is the climax of the whole play. The Cabin, my personal favorite, is
like a raffle show wherein a cruise ship picked three winners who would get a chance to stay in
their cabin and enjoy the amenities of the ship. The play started with a lively performance from
the wide-eyed stewardesses of the ship with their nonstop smiles. I can see that their eyes have a
sense of longing. There was this one stewardess who was ordered to stay in the ship to serve the
winners of the raffle. The winners go about commanding the stewardess over and over again and
the former kept saying, “Mayroon naman po tayong hangin, tubig, at tulugan, sapat na po ito
para kayo ay mabuhay.” The scene goes repetitively and this one caught my attention. I realized
that we always ask for so many things in this world when in fact, we can live by just water, air
and shelter. The stewardess’s emotion was so real, too, that I can totally feel her pain. Obviously
this is also a metaphor to the earth.

The last one ends the play with a cliffhanger. Gaia Disposal Agency is so complex yet
good that it left me hanging after watching the play. In the story, a mother/nurse was asked to
surrender her baby if she would not opt to modify it through the hospital that she was working
for. All characters were also wearing a cannula in their nose so that they could breathe fresh air,
which was explained by one of the head nurses. This part of the play shows it would be so hard
for a human to live on Earth if the continual destruction of the nature isn’t prevented.

All in all, I really liked the play. It isn’t a cliché one wherein they would tell us that we
should clean, or they would criticize those persons that destruct the nature. It has so many
metaphors that was really a great way to emphasize the need for environmental awareness.