Dolly de Leon’s lacerating solitude in ‘Request sa Radyo’

What would we learn if we shut up and just watched people? Observed them? It’s said that language is what separates people from all other animals. And by that, they meant verbal language: words, spoken or written.

And so the idea of a wordless play may strike some as absurd. Risky, for sure.

Request sa Radyo is a Filipino adaptation of the 1973 play Request Concert by the German playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz. It deals with loneliness, and what could be lonelier than not having words – neither the energy to produce them nor a companion to hear them?

It’s a voyeuristic experience. The staging is in-the-round, an intimate, 400-seater arena where the audience stares down at a studio apartment, apparently in New York or someplace similar, if we take the cue from the souvenir mug the play’s sole character drinks her salabat from, and the rumble of the subway that opens the play’s single act (i.e. no intermission).

The presentation is completely realistic – no symbolism or allegory, nothing left to the imagination. A woman comes home from work and goes through her evening routine and prepares for bed. That’s it.

There lies this play’s active ingredient. What do the humdrum things we do say about us? The way we open doors, walk into rooms, prepare and eat our food, practice hygiene. What forms of entertainment we choose, the clothes we put on, what we do to pass the time.

Our actions may, indeed, speak louder than words.

This woman, played alternately by Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee Dolly de Leon, and Tony and Olivier award winner Lea Salonga, walks into the scene in purple scrubs under a black puffer jacket and a beanie. She goes through the door and takes off the winter clothing and hangs them on the coatrack. She then lays her grocery shopping on the counter, checks the leftover rice in the rice cooker – certainly absent from the German version – and starts to prepare dinner.

So begins the plot of this play played out in mundane actions that, depending on the actor’s skill, may or may not convey the harrowing subtext (which I shall not reveal because we all hate a spoiler).

The one pivotal point in the plot of humdrum activities is the radio program she listens to (hence the title). Its coming on sets off the rising action, and a powerful effect is delivered when it ends and leaves the character – an OFW named Ms. Reyes, according to the synopsis – in total silence.

Total silence can be soothing or unnerving, depending on one’s state of mind.

The absence of the radio’s sound characterizes the final, suspenseful movement. It underscores the solitude of the character’s ultimate decision – that the moment of choosing is ultimately solitary.

Public solitude

That Dolly de Leon (I caught her performance on preview night) communicates solitude to the magnitude that she does in Request sa Radyo is the production’s sharp edge and the perfect showcase of her chops.

By simply simulating an ordinary evening in an ordinary woman’s life, De Leon pulls the audience in and gets them to emotionally invest in this person they know next to nothing about, except that her job requires her to wear scrubs, that she takes the subway to get home, that she lives alone, and that she likes to rock to Bamboo’s “Hallelujah”.

Because there is no text to convey the story, everything about Request sa Radyo hinges on whether the sole actor is believable. Very few plays out there are as dependent on its actors’ believability as this one, and this has only one actor. No foil or ensemble to fall back on or bounce energy with.

Musicals can be tided over by great voices or choreography. A bad staging of Shakespeare will have value as a delivery of the Bard’s time-honored text. A play like Request sa Radyo could slay or suck on just the acting.

To be believable, I learned in an acting masterclass with Roselyn Perez, an actor must achieve what’s called “public solitude”. They must behave as their character would, without influence from the knowledge that they’re being watched by an audience. The human audience picks up on anything contrived or unnatural – an action too quick, too big, inauthentic – and the illusion is ruined.

Yet as an actor strives to act as though in solitude, there is, in fact, that audience to service – any movement, any nuance must register with the audience, or else it’s for naught. That, right there, is the actor’s balancing act.

It’s especially difficult or at least challenging in Request sa Radyo because it’s a realistic play, i.e. it’s supposed to feel more like voyeurism than performance. It would be too easy to lose authenticity in the effort to project to the people on the last row.

“That’s where the real challenge is – to be able to reach the people at the back without overplaying it for the people in front,” De Leon said in an episode of Rappler Talk.

“Ang hirap! (It’s hard!)” De Leon admits.

In the play, De Leon conveys right away that her character is troubled and going through something – may pinagdaraanan – without overstating it. She builds tension even as she visibly just goes through routine stuff like watering plants and brushing her teeth.

As Ms. Reyes, De Leon said her objective was to show how, in the pit of despair, “mundane tasks can become daunting for someone. It can become overwhelming sometimes.”

De Leon’s Ms. Reyes stares out the window or waits for the microwave to finish – the ping startles her and snaps her out of deep thought – and we become troubled by her absolute solitude.

She viscerally physicalizes Ms. Reyes’ agony and turmoil, such that the dark truth beneath her tiny innocuous actions cuts through.

Time for some silence

The hope behind this production is increased attention to the real peril that is isolation. People need to know, or perhaps be reminded, that human connection is vital, and the absence of it can be fatal.

The play, De Leon said, would “hopefully open people’s eyes to it and allow people who are suffering from it to feel that it’s OK to talk about it, it’s OK to admit that you’re going through some kind of loneliness or depression, or you’re going through a down time in your life.”

And if not resonance, then the show’s creators hope the effect would be empathy. The OFW phenomenon means nearly every Filipino knows someone who is living or has lived alone in a foreign country, if not themself. Everyone has experienced or encountered some degree of loneliness.

“It’s normal and you’re not alone,” De Leon said.

The absence of words allows the subject matter to fully inhabit the performance. It drives the point.

“If you think about it, words are overrated eh, di ba? Words are just things we say because we think that’s what people want to hear,” said De Leon.

“But in this case, Ms. Reyes – she’s all alone, in her room, without anyone there to observe her. So she’s completely herself.”

In a separate interview with reporters, Salonga said the play’s wordlessness may make it a good entry point for people not used to watching theater.

“Sometimes, the words become an obstacle. But with the silence, there’s a direct line to what is happening,” Salonga said.

“It’s not highfalutin theater. It’s incredibly relatable. It’s kind of frightening how relatable it is.”

Request sa Radyo is produced by Tony nominee Bobby Garcia, Tony winner Clint Ramos, and Samsung Performing Arts managing director Chris Mohnani. Garcia directs, and Ramos designed the production. Performances run from October 10 to 20, 2024, at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater at Ayala Malls Circuit in Makati. Tickets are available here.

There are two performances on every show date, one each by De Leon and Salonga. Both actors said they approach and perform the play so differently, it’s almost like two different shows.

De Leon invites members of the audience to savor the show’s silence.

“It’s a necessary play, and the way that it’s staged is even more necessary, because the world is so noisy already, enough as it is. Too much noise. So I think it’s time for some silence and some introspection.” – Rappler.com