All the City's a Stage 

Theatrical performance formed an important part
of Cebuano life in the early 20th century.

On August 16, 1921, Cebu’s leaders tangled over what now seems a rather innocuous subject: a theatrical performance.

The controversy was triggered by complaints over the staging of a moro play, entitled Gonzalo de Cordoba, in the San Nicholas churchyard as part of the district’s fiesta celebration. (The moro-moro, also called linambay, is a long, elaborate, serial costume play, popular in Cebu since the nineteenth century, which dealt with themes of love and adventure in exotic, quasi-European settings.)

Saying that the moro-moro is in bad taste and contrary to “good customs”, those who opposed it raised the matter before the comite de censura of the Cebu Municipal Council. This triggered a debate that pitted newspapers and local political factions (Nacionalistas versus Democratas) against each other over the social and moral value of traditional practices like the linambay.

The result of all these was that the Cebu Municipal Council passed an ordinance limiting the duration of linambay performances (which usually lasted nine nights) to five nights.

The case of the moro-moro in 1921 was not a simple display of concern over morals. It involved other issues and motives as well: political factionalism, the protest of local movie houses operators over loss of revenues, and pretensions to “virtue” and “modernity”.

This was the time when local leaders were quick to express concern over what they perceived to be threats to the morals of the city – be it the proliferation of cabarets (salones de baile), the introduction of “barbaric” forms of entertainment (such as boxing), or the persistence of “backward” cultural practices (such as the linambay). In most cases, however, the display of moral indignation was mere posturing.

Source: Ybarra