Three rats by Wilfrido Maria Guerrero

Gonzalo the husband was betrayed by her unfaithful wife Nita and his best friend Adrain
for having an affair. Because of that Gonzalo envenomed his best friend by cyanide.

There are three characters:

Gonzalo
Nita Gonzalos Wife.
Adrian Gonzalos best friend.

Biography
Wilfrido Maria Guerrero (January 22, 1911 - April 28, 1995) was a Filipino playwright,
director, teacher and theater artist. Guerrero wrote well over 100 plays, 41 of which
have been published. His unpublished plays have either been broadcast over the
radio or staged in various parts of the Philippines.

His plays can be found in various anthologies: 13 Plays (first published in 1947), 8
Other Plays (1952), 7 More Plays (1962), 12 New Plays (1975), My Favorite 11 Plays
(1976), 4 Latest Plays (1980), and Retribution and eight other selected plays (1990).
Guerrero also published a family memoir, The Guerreros of Ermita (1988). Guerrero
taught and trained many notable figures in the Philippine Performing Arts: Behn
Cervantes, Celia Diaz-Laurel, Joy Virata, and Joonee Gamboa.
Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero was born in Ermita, Manila. He wrote his first play at the age
of 14 in Spanish, entitled, "No Todo Es Risa." This play was produced at the Ateneo
de Manila University when he was 15.

Guerrero worked as a reporter and proofreader for La Vanguardia, a Spanish

newspaper, and as a drama critic for the Manila Tribune. He also worked for some
time in the Philippine film industry as a scriptwriter. He served as director of the
Filipino Players from 1941-1947. In 1947 he was appointed as Director of the
Dramatic Club at the University of the Philippines despite not having a degree, and
he held that position for sixteen years.

In 1962, he organized and directed the U.P. Mobile Theater, which travels around
the Philippines to give performances.

Several of Guerrero's plays have been translated into and produced in Chinese,
Italian, Spanish, Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano and Waray. Six of his plays have been
produced abroad: "Half an Hour in a Convent" at the Pasadena Playhouse,
California; "Three Rats" at the University of Kansas; "Condemned" in Oahu, Hawaii;
"One, Two, Three" (premiere performance) at the University of Washington, Seattle;
"Wanted: A Chaperon" at the University of Hawaii; and "Conflict" in Sydney,
Australia.

He is the first Filipino to have a theater named after him within his lifetime: The
Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater of the University of the Philippines.

His Life as a Child

Guerrero grew up in an affluent family. His father, Manuel Severino Guerrero, was
renowned for having a clinical eye which could diagnose illness just by studying a
persons outside appearance. His father's clientele included some of Manilas richest
denizens: Brias Roxas, the Ayalas, Pardo de Taveras, the Zobels, the Roceses, the
Osmeas, the Alberts, et al. As a result, the young Wilfrido enjoyed a comfortable
upbringing along with his brothers Renato, Edmundo, Lorenzo, and Manuel. As
indicative of their social status, the Guerrero children were forbidden to eat with
their hands (custom in certain households) and to converse in Tagalog.

Guerrero was nearly seven when his father died. His father bequeathed the family
their home at Plaza Ferguson, two cars (which his mother sold), and a Php10,000
life insurance payout. Five months after the funeral, the surviving family rented the
first floor of the house belonging to his cousins, the Mossesgelds, for Php50.00. His
mother in turn rented the Plaza Ferguson home to an American family to generate
income.

Guerrero and his brothers attended high school at the Ateneo in Intramuros. They
became choristers to receive free tuition, but this required their presence at Mass
every day. Even with their tuition exempt (Php60.00 per semester), they still needed
money to purchase their textbooks.

Guerrero completed his first play, the one-act "No Todo Es Risa," during his second
year of high school. He showed it to the late Father Juan Trinidad, S.J. (who at that
time was translating the Bible into Tagalog), who decided to stage it for their Father
Rectors (Fr. OBrien) birthday.

By Wilfrido's third year at the Ateneo, he purportedly had his fill of hearing daily
Mass. This emboldened him to approach Don Alejandro Roces, Sr., a patient of his
father and husband of a close friend of his mother. Having heard Guerrero's
proposal in his office at the Manila Tribune, Don Alejandro readily agreed, thereby
paying Guerrero's tuition for his last two years in high school and ostensibly freeing
him from daily Mass.

Summary:
In summary, Wilfrido Maria Guerreros The Three Rats talk about revenge as its
central theme. This theme is reinforced with its conflict as its dominant element.
This might have been affected with the literary milieu when Guerrero wrote the play.
Extreme Filipinism is manifested in the play that is idiosyncratic in the Republican
era. Having the dialogue, characterization, theme, conflict, scenery and its stage
ability, the piece is play in prose depicting social realism.

Moral Lesson:
Love is a game in which one always cheats. It is better to be told a hurtful truth than
to be told a comforting lie. In the end, the truth will make its way out and will hurt
much more than it ever had to.

Wilfrido Maria Guerrero

Paz Marquez Benitez

Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez