INSPIRED by the comic strip drawn by our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, Ang Pagong at ang Matsing has been made into a children’s play by multi-Palanca winner J. Dennis Teodosio, with music composed by award-winning musical director Jesse Lucas, and directed by Gantimpala Theater’s Tony S. Espejo.

          The original story of Ang Pagong at ang Matsing is about a gentle turtle and a wily monkey who plant halves of a banana tree. Thinking that the upper part with leaves will bear fruit faster, the greedy monkey cheats the turtle out of the better part, but the tree withers. The turtle, on the other hand, gets the ugly-looking stump with the roots, which soon flourishes and soon is laden with fruit.

          Since the turtle cannot climb the tree to get the bananas, the monkey volunteers. However, he eats all the bananas while he is up on the tree, throwing the skin down at the turtle. Angry, the turtle plants some pointed snails around the banana trunk and hides under a coconut shell. When the monkey clambers down, he gets his just desserts.

          Wounded, he looks for the turtle to try and exact his revenge. But the monkey gives the turtle two choices: to be pounded with a mortar or be thrown in water. How the turtle eventually outwits his wily counterpart becomes part of the fun of the play that director Espejo turns into a spectacular musical.

          Michael King Urieta (Pagong), Francis Ong (Matsing), Meldea Flor Formacil (Suso, the turtle’s best friend), and Anthony Cruz (Tarsier, the monkey’s sidekick), Rommel Ponseca (Mango), Ronald Concepcion (Acacia), John Paolo Garcia (Mangrove), Rene Nisperos and Rommel Aratan (as the banana tree) star in the musical.

          In addition to the spectacle, kids and adults will warm to gentle lessons in friendship, fairness, forgiveness, sharing and love for the environment.