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Monday, September 05, 2005
Cuizon: The faces of Eve
By Erma Cuizon
Bird by Bird
THINGS become difficult with a woman in politics of this country. She’s on contentious grounds, either holding back the storm or rocking the boat—whether in election protests (Loren), or politicized local moviedom (Susan), or in replays of the Edsa I memory (Cory), or the split dream of a congresswoman (Clavel), or the fight for integrity of the province (Gwen), or the fears in Gloria’s watch.
The woman is in the news; the news is crashing in from everywhere. People react, or over-react, to her.
We thought of the woman when we went to see Sacred Heart Parish’s musical, Children of Eden, directed by Daisy Baad of Out of the Box Theater Company. It’s the old story of Adam, Eve and Noah—the characters were portrayed as the actors believed they could have been if those times were now in this age, lifestyle and circumstances.
Eve in the production struck me to be cheeky, almost a villain, against Adam’s deferential person.
Perhaps, this is the way the author of the play, Stephen Schwartz, sees Eve or, as he could imagine, how Eve would have been in our time. Or more closely, this is the way Out of the Box interprets it.
But like Mary, Eve would be Eve to whoever writes about her or whichever director brings out the substance of the woman who is said to live thousands of years ago when the world was a vast vacant land, except in Paradise. On the other hand, the Church has a surer hand in putting together the profile of Mary on the basis of ancient history and religious belief. The story of creation, where audacious Eve is portrayed, is a story of faith. You can’t check it against a book of history or from existing relics. Eve might as well be only in our head or heart.
She insists on eating the Apple of knowledge, and then she “sees what the Father sees.” She is defiant and daring.
But even Mary in the movie Passion of the Christ is different from our general idea of Mary learned from school. In Passion, she is very sturdy, surviving the terrible odds in that moment of her life. In the movie, she’s not the kindly, frail human who faints at the sight of blood. I would think she was quiet but mighty in her own way.
I would also think that the women in the Bible were strong, like Eve and Mary; also the women of Jerusalem whom Jesus spoke to. I remember Ruth of the land of the Moab in Jordan, which was conquered by Israelites. Unlike her forebears, she believed in Judah and went out of her way to live up to her new faith.
The biblical Book of Ruth traces King David’s lineage to a Moabite woman. You can still hear her say to her mother-in-law, “wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people; and your God my God.”
(September 5, 2005 issue)
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