Masks and Mirrors

About the Book
From epic novelist and short story writer Azucena Grajo Uranza comes this new literary offering of eight compelling plays (three prizewinning) marking peaks of her creativity starting in the late forties.

Her first play “Versions of the Dawn,” with four introspective scenes depicting the last hours of Jose Rizal in Fort Santiago, won the first prize in the Palanca Literary Contest in drama in 1958 in a period of intense nationalism. Four visitors visit Rizal in his cell before he meets his fate in Bagumbayan-his mother, a pupil of his in Dapitan, his young “novia extranjera”, and the hardened Spanish guard. Two plays about the middle-class, “Go, Rider!” (second prize Palanca winner) and The Deserters”, produced during martial law, reflect the nihilism and despair of the period. Again, the ghosts of martial law haunt a present day middle-class fanily in “Solomon’s Choice,” recalling military brutality as well as the sacrifice of young activists… “Paglipas ng Tag-araw” starts with a pastoral scene and ends with inexorable denouement of a curse. On the other hand, despite its title, “Isang Saglit sa Karimlan” (special Palanca prize winner for the full-length play), set in legendary Panay, does not have the noir quality of the other plays…

Masks and Mirrors attests to the still growing oeuvre of a distinguished author. A valuable addition to our literary canon.
— Elmer A. Ordonez

Description: 273 pages ; 22.8 x 15.2 cm

Language: English

ISBN: 978-971-678-026-0