Staging Rizal’s Revolutionary Novels

Theater

Nov 12

Dulaang UP’s 49th Theatre Season questions how a society remembers its past.

Words Art+ Magazine Team
Photos courtesy of Dulaang UP
November 12, 2026

Dulaang Unibersidad Pilipinas’ 49th Theatre Season takes its cue from Dr. José Rizal’s call for interventionist action, asking: “Paano Umalala nang may Pag-alaga?” At a time when historical amnesia continues to take hold, this question feels more urgent than ever.

Marking the 130th anniversary of Rizal’s death, Dulaang UP brings to the stage two of his most enduring works, Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo, in back-to-back productions. Two of the country's leading theatre directors take on these foundational texts, carrying forward the vision of Dulaang UP’s founding Artistic Director, National Artist for Theatre Tony Mabesa, who believed in bringing timeless works into conversation with the realities of the present.

This season also considers what it means to keep history alive. By staging Rizal’s novels side by side, Dulaang UP turns the theatre into a living archive—one where history is not simply recalled or studied, but embodied, questioned, and experienced. The stage becomes a meeting place for artists, students, and audiences to engage with our shared past and consider what it asks of us today.

More than a century after their publication, Rizal’s novels continue to speak to the conditions of the Filipino nation. Corruption, abuse of power, political opportunism, and civic apathy remain familiar realities. From Doña Victorina to the corrupt friars, Rizal’s characters expose the greed and self-interest that allow oppressive systems to endure. The figures of power may have changed—from colonial authorities to political dynasties and local elites—but many of the conditions that shaped the lives of Filipinos in the 19th century persist. These novels remind us that the struggle for justice is far from over.

The season opens with Fiestas y Muertos, an adaptation of Noli Me Tángere directed by José Estrella and written by Andrew Estacio, based on the Filipino translation by National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario. The production approaches Rizal’s novel through two contrasting worlds: the frenzied spectacle of public fiestas and the quieter, unsettling presence of death and social decay.

In colonial San Diego, grand religious celebrations offer the ruling class a convenient spectacle behind which poverty, corruption, and human suffering remain hidden. Through this staging, the familiar world of Noli Me Tángere takes on a different dimension. The fiesta and the muertos become recurring images of a society caught between celebration and collapse, life and death, appearance and truth. At its heart is Elias’s haunting warning of a people who may perish in darkness without ever seeing the dawn.

The season continues with Nitrogliserina, a new play by Guelan Varela-Luarca, directed by Dexter M. Santos and based on and inspired by El Filibusterismo. Taking a different narrative path, the play explores the revolutionary possibilities left open by Rizal’s final novel. It begins with a provocative question: What if the story we inherited was not the one we needed?

Nitrogliserina revisits the limits of reform and the violence that sustains established power. It also confronts the complicated hopes and contradictions surrounding liberation and revolution in the Filipino imagination. As old structures give way and new possibilities emerge, the play asks what it takes to remake a nation—and what such a transformation demands of its people.

Fiestas y Muertos runs from October 23 to November 15, 2026, while Nitrogliserina is scheduled for February to March 2027. Both productions will be staged at the IBG-KAL Theatre, UP Diliman.

For early ticket inquiries, contact the Dulaang UP Marketing Team at [email protected] or follow Dulaang UP’s official social media pages for updates.

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