Nancy Cudis

A woman sighs in helplessness, another slumps in guilt, and a high-pitched verbal exchange ensues. Someone enters the room, a small woman, and tries to tower over the volume of the cross-fire happening in the small space. Behind their turmoil are several plastic chairs and a table, but these things are unnecessary. The three women, with their distinct intonations, their tensed wild gestures, their calculated movements, their apt facial expressions, have brought life to the limited geography they are given. Their stage throbbed with reality. In a packed gathering at Ayala Center Cebu, the three actors successfully performed the characters of Linda, Corina, and Leah in Lukas 10:41, a one-act play by Msgr. Agustin “Ting” V. Ancajas. This is just one of the many plays that he wrote in the course of 25 years of being engaged and committed to theater. He made an impalpable impact in this field, which he considers as “a potent medium for the strengthening of the Catholic faith through deepened…

Faith, Love, Time, and Dr. Lazaro by Gregorio C. Brillantes is the second short story I have read that is written by the author. Its elements indeed contain faith, love, and time, subjects that the main character, Dr. Lazaro, in his advanced age, always deal with in his quiet corners made for introspection. He is a small town doctor whom the villagers rely on to treat their physical miseries, including babies dying bluish with tetanus. The story is set in the old Philippines at a time when medicines and vaccines are difficult to acquire, especially in the rural areas. Surrounding Lazaro, the systematic and skilled doctor, is an undeveloped landscape where residents turn to religion first before medicine to comfort anyone at the start to the peak of his illness. When the doctor is called in to treat a sick person, he is sometimes called too late and, consequently, he sometimes fails to diagnose and treat him on time. This frustrates Lazaro but he is powerless to fight the strong religio…