Sining Banwa 

TATLONG LIBONG BAYANI NG IBALONG

 

“Tatlong  Libo” originates from  a strong framework of research, community immersion and extension, and forum theater, which end-objective is to gather three thousand and more heroes in the province and beyond.

 

This is a bold contrast to the Ibalong epic which tells us of only three Bikol heroes Baltog, Handyong and Bantong. The project wants to multiply these heroes, making everyone a hero himself. Its goal is for all of us, most specially the young ones, to imagine and find, in our own little ways, the hero within ourselves and become real catalysts of change and progress.

 

We imagined Legazpi City and the whole of Bikol in 2060's – hungry, cold and collapsing. We let the three ancient heroes travel forth to that decade and witness the city on the verge of disintegration and chaos.

 

The parallelism is clear: The villains in the Ibalong epic became social monsters of the future.

 

Wild boar Tandayag becomes the Kapitan who orders prohibiting of art in the city and sends people to an iron factory run by Oryol, the former devious woman-serpent in the epic. 2,500 years ago, the Bikol natives’ lives were haunted by make-believe characters and events; in 2060, they are real. And the monsters have to be liquidated if the people really wanted to be free.