Reaction Paper

Purposive Communication

A Tale of a Prince
Characters:

JV Cruz as Chakri

Ina Salonga as Malee

Neil Pedrosa as Regent

Julio Laforteza as A-wut

MC Dela Cruz as Sunan

Settings:

The Ancient Town of Siam

 Marketplace
 The Royal Family’s Palace
 Lantern Festival

The stage play that we watch is the “A Tale of a Prince” directed by PJ Rebullida and written by
Em Mendez. The story is about man named Chakri who does know his past and came searching for
answers in the town of Siam. At that time, the town was in a middle of a crisis due to the royal family
being murdered and the prince missing, leaving no possible heir to the throne. To pose as the missing
prince, two noblemen, Sunan and A-wut, along with Chakri were chosen to go through Somchai’s triad to
impersonate the long lost prince; all while Chakri met a beautiful maiden named Malee, a servant in the
palace, and wooed her. Chakri passed all the trials and was named the fitting impersonator of the long
lost prince. But when the regent handed the amulet that belonged to the former queen, Chakri
remembered everything and revealed that the regent is the one responsible for the murder of the royal
family. After they capture of the regent, the town of Siam has their rightful heir to the throne and they
lived happily ever after.
 My initial reaction to the play was a feel good story about being held liable on the things that we
have done in the past. As the play progressed, it became cliché for me because the story arch is quite
predictable and my initial thoughts were correct, being that Chakri was the missing prince. I enjoyed the
songs and it sets the mood every scene, as well as the lighting although the disco ball was quite
unnecessary. The ending was rushed and, dare I say, unfinished. I wanted to see more interactions with
the regent and the Chakri, because in my opinion, the regent is the best actor in the whole play. More
emphasis on the discovery of Chakri’s realization that he’s the true prince should be necessary because it
is the biggest plot reveal in the play. But then I realized that we were running on a schedule for the entire
schools of OLFU, I understand their executive decision to cut the play’s ending short.

Overall, the execution of the play is fantastic. The lighting, the songs and the feel of the stage
play is executed well. It felt short on the props, story and time. I recommend watching this play if you
have spare time or happen to be in Camp Aguinaldo and have nothing to do after your errands, but
otherwise, it’s something I wouldn’t watch on a special day.