Luha (A Play Critique)

“Having someone to live abroad doesn’t guarantee a happy life.”
Luha is a stage presentation about a once ideal family which fell apart after the pillar of their home lost his job.
Fred, the husband, couldn’t find a job to sustain for the needs of his family so the wife, Lucia, decided to take actions. She planned to go abroad to seek for a greener pasture for her family. The husband went ballistic, and his ego was struck. He felt that he no longer has a say in the family because he could not find a living to sustain for it.
Lucia worked hard abroad. She sometimes works for three days straight without eating from dusk till dawn.
Her employees were a couple of a Filipino wife, Ana, who married a foreigner Although Ana was a Filipina, she is the one who made Lucia’s life a hell abroad. She maltreated Lucia in every meaning of the word. Her husband, on the other hand was a soft-spoken, affectionate, hot-blooded maniac who lusts for Lucia’s body.
While Lucia was working herself out, she didn’t know that her family was falling apart. Her eldest daughter, Margareth, who was once sweet, loving, and timid, rebelled. Her husband became a drunkard and her elder son, Alex, ran away from home. The youngest Ramil, had a Autism.
Her family was made to believe by a letter that their mom has forsaken them and had left them for another man abroad.
Lucia’s condition abroad went from bad to worst. Her male employee attempted to rape her and in the struggle to survive, she accidentally killed him.
Lucia, having experienced longing, hunger, and pain went insane.
The one who portrayed the role of Margareth, although a promising actress, failed to give justice to the character, having put out all the emotions in her screams.
Ramil, who played the Autistic role is no doubt, a promising performer.
Lucia managed to touch the lives of the audience with her convincing performance.
The stage play Luha might have been similar to the movie Anak in many ways or it could be judged a common story of an OFW working abroad, but it would undoubtly touch the hearts of the Overseas Filipino Workers who went abroad for the sake of their family.


October 7, 2008