VII - Sense in Nonsense

"There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it."

Last October 9-10, the Teatre Phileo of Asia Pacific College presented Ang Tatay Mong Kalbo. This play falls under the absurd theater category. The Theatre of the Absurd explains and expresses what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose. The lines said by the actors has irrational and illogical meaning yet they turn into something entertaining.

The play starts in one evening in Makati with Mr. and Mrs. Santos talking about their somewhat appetizing dinner, the news and talks from the grapevine, and a family who all happened to share the name Gin Santos.

Mr. and Mrs. Santos

The story then introduces the rest of the characters discussing nonsense, fighting over silly things, and exchanging stories.

Mr. and Mrs. Reyes

Hepe and Maria

Deciphering and unraveling the meaning of the story is quite difficult. There were a lot of questions on my mind. "Why is it titled 'Ang Tatay mong Kalbo'?" "Who is the bald father?" "Why did Mr. and Mrs. Reyes repeated the first lines of the first scene at the end?"

But after reading Ms. Eliz's blog post about the play,  I learned that this was an adaptation of the French play, The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco. The underlying theme is not immediately apparent. Many speculated that it expresses futility of meaningful communication in modern society. Others thought it was a parody. The Bald Soprano appears to be a continuous loop, with Mr. and Mrs. Reyes reciting Mr. and Mrs. Santos' line from the beginning at the final scene. 

After some research, Ionesco told Claude Bonnefoy in an interview, "I wanted to give a meaning to the play by having it begin all over again with two characters. In this way the end becomes a new beginning but, since there are two couples in the play, it begins the first time with the Smiths (or the Santoses) and the second time with the Martins (the Reyeses), to suggest the interchangeable nature of the characters: the Smiths are the Martins and the Martins are the Smiths".