THEATRE

Dekada ‘70: The Musical

Adapted from the well-known book by Lualhati Bautista, Dekada ‘70 is about a middle-class family whose life took a tumultuous turn when it got exposed to the political violence that swept the country during Martial Law. The story also discusses how the female lead, Amanda Bartolome, a mother of five boys, strived to assert her identity against a husband who would constantly say, “It’s a man’s world.” The musical showcased themes of abuse of power and the struggle to gain one’s personal freedom.

Buwan at Baril sa Eb Major

This play has five acts, each with narrating stories that mirrored real-life events that happened during Marcos Sr.’s military rule. It presented characters from different socioeconomic backgrounds — a farmer and a laborer, an urban poor, a socialite, a wife, and a student — all victimized by the horrors of Martial Law.

The list above is only the tip of the trove of materials on Martial Law that we must try to dig up and appreciate before it’s too late. Surely, these expressions of history will show that the Marcos era was far from the “golden age” portrayed by the current president and his supporters. We don’t have to be there — we have a rich source of materials to take us to when and where it happened, to know now what is real and fake and to be able to say with conviction — never again! No to distortion of facts! We must safeguard our archives, the writings and performances that are in danger of being revised, if not completely erased. That’s

BY ATHENA AP-APID, PARIS BEREBER, LANCE LIBATIQUE, DAVIS MAGPANTAY, BENJAMIN JACOB, AND BEA PANOPIO

Geneticist bags Physiology Nobel for discovery on Neanderthals

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo [s-VAHNteh PEH-boh] was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology for discoveries about the origins and uniqueness of the modern human species.

Pääbo’s expertise, along with the development of DNA technology, helped established his goal of studying the DNA of Neanderthals. This has been widely considered a difficult task, as over time, DNA goes through degradation and modification and is put at risk of contamination.

Pääbo, however, managed to extract the genetic sequence of a Neanderthal from its mi-