Theater Review: ‘Request sa Radyo’ and the weight of silence

Being “in between” creates a gaping hole in the soul. It’s a different kind of depression than that of the poor, who are too busy surviving to feel lonely, or the rich, who have the luxury of extravagance.

Request sa Radyo, adapted from Franz Xaver Kroetz’s Wunschkonzert (Request Concert), delves into the searing loneliness of the ordinary middle class. It examines those who have enough to get by but lack the financial freedom to escape the chains of routine.

This one-woman play, featuring Lea Salonga and Dolly de Leon in alternating performances, follows a nameless middle-aged, middle-class woman living alone in a tiny apartment. Wordless, the play mirrors her life of silence as she returns home to face the deafening stillness of her surroundings.

Kroetz’s choice to center the narrative on a woman in her pre-menopausal years amplifies her isolation. She exists in limbo — a mechanical existence characterized by the excruciating loneliness of routine and a lack of social connection, whether by choice or circumstance.

Directed by Bobby Garcia, this Philippine adaptation makes minimal changes to the original material. While Kroetz’s woman knits as a hobby and Yana Ross’s U.S. version features a gamer, the Pinay in this adaptation paints. Portraying her as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) nurse on the East Coast adds a layer of homesickness, emphasizing her isolation further exacerbated by her lack of social community or support system both abroad and back home.

The Samsung Performing Arts Theater creates an intimate black-box experience, with the audience surrounding the woman’s small apartment like voyeurs peering into her life. We witness her mundane routines: cooking rice, reheating food, and perusing the mail — catalogs, with no letters from friends or family.

The theater layout limits our view of the character’s face, obscuring her facial expression at times. Thus, this silent, one-hour-and-twelve-minute play relies heavily on the actor’s performance, underscoring the necessity of emotional connection. The success of this play hinges on the actor’s ability to humanize the character through movement and expression. We seek to experience, through silence, the painful mundanity of her existence.

Can you elicit laughter without words? When preparing a meal with your back to the audience, can your body convey struggle — whether slicing tomatoes or stubbornly washing dishes? Is there frustration in your movements? Does existential despair seep into your gestures? Can you transmit the palpable emptiness of doing menial tasks?

So it’s an understandable choice for the production to cast Tony Award winner Salonga and BAFTA/Golden Globe nominee de Leon in this challenging role, given their impressive credentials.

Salonga’s performance on 9 October, during a special preview before the public opening on 10 October, is intriguing. It is marked by rigidity and careful calculation, her movements like clockwork, as if she’s following an unyielding script.

Was her portrayal a deliberate choice to depict a reserved woman? Were her robotic movements meant to illustrate the character’s dull personality? Salonga erases the essence of theater, reducing the character to her saddest, stiffest state — an insignificant dot in the universe, a random medical worker who could vanish unnoticed. Her performance brings to mind the sterile detachment of a Sims character.

In our age of instant digital connectivity, the woman feels increasingly detached. Even her art, reminiscent of a meditative coloring book, lacks the passionate strokes of a true artist channeling vibrant inner life. Her existence feels void — externally and internally — a sentiment Garcia captures beautifully.

Her only connection is a podcast titled Request sa Radyo, where fellow OFWs call in to request OPM songs, amplifying her desperate need for connection.

Loneliness is a relatable, powerful emotion — whether one is single or surrounded. Garcia’s “Request sa Radyo” achieves Kroetz’s vision, prompting audiences to reflect on their own lives as they witness the slow unraveling of a character lost in oblivion. Ultimately, however, the play will resonate with audiences only if the solo actor’s portrayal is effectively humanized and compelling.

The show runs until 20 October 2024 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Makati City, with tickets ranging between P8,000+ and P9,000+.