The Nobel laureate has also written 9 plays–and made his debut as a stage actor at age 78
For several weekends at the CCP’s Bulwagang Huseng Batute, mother and daughter Gina and Racquel Pareño alternated in the part of Linda Loman, the wife of Willy Loman, in “Pahimakas Ng Isang Ahente,” Tanghalang Pilipino’s production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” as translated into Filipino by National Artist for Theater and Literature Rolando Tinio.
The case of 29-year-old actor Jonathan Tadioan playing the role of 63-year-old Willy Loman in Tanghalang Pilipino’s production of “Pahimakas sa Isang Ahente”—Arthur Miller’s classic “Death of A Salesman” translated into Filipino by Rolando Tinio—can very well be the theater curiosity of the season.
Tanghalang Pilipino’s “Pahimakas sa Isang Ahente” has got to be one of the longest straight (meaning nonmusical) staged dramas in recent history. Clocking at nearly four hours, it’s a bittersweet tale of a once charismatic and perpetually optimistic man on the verge of losing his dreams, his soul and his family (in a manner of speaking).
Tanghalang Pilipino opens ”Pahimakas Sa Isang Ahente,” a Tinio translation of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” this September 26 and runs until October 19, Thursdays to Sundays, at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute. Before you catch the Tanghalang Pilipino production, here are eight interesting things to know:
“There is a shifting of emotions in this play; emotions not easy to internalize. There is an American element, but during rehearsals this becomes universal. May mga umiyak. The actors would sometimes cry during rehearsals because they were affected by the situation they were rehearsing, and relating it to their own stories.”
