Tovic Salvador

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<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1754559934137Copy of _DSC3548.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>A scene from Teatro Meron&#x27;s &#x27;Sopranong Kalbo.&#x27; Handout</div>Have you ever found yourself listening to conversations so inane, so absurd in their “non-stories,” that you’d rather get a root canal? &quot;Sopranong Kalbo&quot; will remind you of that — and more.Before heading to the TDR of &quot;Sopranong Kalbo,&quot; I was in bed, coincidentally deep in an existential crisis, ruminating on life’s routinary hell. I knew nothing about the play, but as I sat inside the tiny Rizal Mini Theater at Ateneo, I realized, with slight disbelief, that my feelings were unfolding right in front of me.The opening already had me laughing — not because of what the characters were saying, but because of why they were talking this way. A married couple, the Santoses, in old-fashioned clothes, are in the living room. Ginang Santos, played delightfully by Miren Alvarez-Fabregas, talks about the dinner (soup, fish, ensalada, etc.) they just had, with such detail and animated delight that it’s hilariously sad. Here is a middle-class domestic wife with no life in Manila. So desperate to fill a void, her evening meal becomes the highlight of her otherwise empty night. Because there’s nothing else to talk about in her lifeless routine.As the play unfolds, more characters enter: another couple, the Martins (Joseph Dela Cruz and Pickles Leonidas), a maid (Gold Soon), and the fire chief (Yan Yuzon). All of them comfortably dull suburbanites—non-intellectual, unremarkable. Everyday people trapped in a drama-less routine, clinging to language and idle talk as their only way to fill the days. Desperate for stimulation, desperate for connection. Sometimes they argue at length over whether a doorbell actually signals a visitor.A clock chimes from time to time, sometimes distorted, sometimes arbitrary — a reminder that time is slipping, wasted, circling in a meaningless loop. Life all the more feels mechanical.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1754560031157Copy of _DSC3458.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>A scene from Teatro Meron&#x27;s &#x27;Sopranong Kalbo.&#x27; Handout</div>Their banal conversations gradually evolve into absurdity — almost compulsive — and shift between mumbo jumbo and truisms until they are just noise. Because they are noise. And, as an audience, you experience the suffocating familiarity of insignificant chatter. Constant talk with no real connection. Semantic voids, linguistic fillers, repetition. And underneath all that is a quiet ache for drama, gossip, entertainment — anything to avoid loneliness.Performed in Filipino, through National Artist Rolando Tinio’s translation of French-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco’s&quot;La Cantatrice Chauve&quot; (The Bald Soprano), a Theater of the Absurd. The text is rooted in Filipino middle-class speech patterns and evokes the hollow rituals of communication in our culture.Imagine the feat for the cast ensemble to memorize such lines — not because of length, but because of the content. Messy, disjointed, yet precise in their humor and provocation.But after about an hour, when all the cast take turns in absurdist storytelling (the fire chief has the best lines), it begins to feel a little stretched. You already get the gist. The babble and clichés start to surface more than the subtext, and it borders on gags, complete with audience participation. The material now feels more comic than darkly humorous and profound.The cult hit &quot;The Bald Soprano (La Cantatrice Chauve)&quot; is the longest-running theatrical production at the Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris. It premiered in February 1957 and, still playing five days a week in the same venue, remains deeply universal. It reflects the human need for distraction, mental stimulation, amusement, and commentary on inanities.Director Ron Capinding’s stripped-down direction never strays from the play’s focus, and his cast of competent actors elevate the material. This is the debut play of Teatro Meron, committed to bringing world classics to Filipino audiences in an intimate setting — a refreshing alternative to commercial, mainstream theater. Both hilarious and unsettling, &quot;Sopranong Kalbo&quot; is a treat if you’re into absurdist, thought-provoking, intellectual comedy. One of the best so far this year. The ending is genius.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1754560187799Copy of _DSC3809.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>The cast of Teatro Meron&#x27;s &#x27;Sopranong Kalbo&#x27; at curtain call. Handout</div>The play is a tribute and fundraiser in memory of the late Ricky Abad (founding director of Tanghalang Ateneo), with performances tied to his birthday on August 10: Aug. 8 (8 p.m.) | Aug. 9 (2, 5 and 8 p.m.) | Aug 10. (2 and 5 p.m.) at the Rizal Mini-Theater, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City. Tickets at P800, P720 and P700. Proceeds go to the Ricardo G. Abad Endowment Fund.

This stripped-down absurdist comedy turns small talk into existential dread, with a Filipino twist. One of the most thought-provoking (and uncomfortable) theater experiences this year.

This stripped-down absurdist comedy turns small talk into existential dread, with a Filipino twist. One of the most thought-provoking (and uncomfortable) theater experiences this year.

‘Sopranong Kalbo’ review: A hilariously sad mirror to our empty conversations

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‘Sopranong Kalbo’ review: A hilariously sad mirror to our empty conversations

ABS-CBN Lifestyle,

Stephanie Mayo

Published Aug 07, 2025 06:04 PM PHT

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theater review

Sopranong Kalbo

Teatro Meron

Ateneo de Manila University

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