ABSTRACT
IN 1907, THE THEATRE, a short-lived Sydney newspaper, reported on ‘Seditious Drama’ in the Philippines. It noted that the Filipinos, governed at that time by the United States, had ‘turned their stage to a seditious purpose, though the authorities [had] not seen fit to censor it, except for the more daring of the dramas intended to stir up the native spirit’ (1907:17). As a common device to thwart American propaganda, the Filipinos used politicised costumes:
[They are] so coloured and draped that at a given signal or cue the actors and actresses rush together, apparently without design, and stand swaying in the centre of the stage, close to the footlights, their combination forming a living, moving, stirring picture of the Filipino flag. Only an instant or so does the phantom last, but that one instant is enough to bring the entire house to its feet with yells and cries that are blood-curdling in their ferocious delight, while the less quick-witted Americans in the audience are wondering what the row is about.
