I can understand why Jessica Hagedorn's "Dogeaters," the novel and then the play, became a hit in the US. After all, anything coming from and about this side of the world must be exotic, right? The very title suggests a barbarism that has been accused of the Filipinos by their colonial masters through hundreds of years. A Fil-Am writer in New York writing about the Philippines... not only that but the Philippines at its most controversial and interesting time. It definitely has all the ingredients of a hit. That's for the American market. When writing about a group of people, it only follows that that group of people will be the hardest to please. And I am not pleased.
Asked if it was good by a friend, I could only muster a non-committal, "It was ok. It was not spectacularly good but it was ok." Pressed for more by the question, "Will you recommend it?" I answered, "Only if you have nothing to do. It's not a complete waste of money and time naman. But it's not something to really rave about. Go and watch 'Avenue Q' na lang." But one can only write so much in a text message so I felt compelled to write this review.
From the point of view of a Pinoy audience as myself, the play is soulless at best. Uninspiring. Clinical. Cold. Just some of the words that come to mind at the moment. I am not moved in any way. Not once in the more or less two hours of sitting in the dark theater am I transported back to the Martial Law era, when the play is supposedly set. I cannot sympathize with the characters. Any characters. They remain to be actors playing out roles for me onstage. I do not feel anger, hurt, shame nor pride. I do not feel. Period.
And don't get me wrong, the acting is quite good.
So what went wrong?
-The material is huge: the scope too wide, the story too thin. Logically, one will not be able to find anything wrong with the story. Everything is probable. Historical, even. But the depth of each life's story is inevitably sacrificed. What's more is that this play attempts to tell a nation's story.
-The problem of language. Perhaps it is practical to have it in English. It is, after all, originally a novel in English for the American audience, and then a play staged in Broadway. Watching it in Manila, however, makes it a bit difficult to believe that a junkie who lives in the slums of Tondo would talk to his uncle-pimp in English. Sure, they compensate by having a Filipino accent. Err, unfortunately, it does still ring false to a Pinoy's ear, just as the story itself carries with it a certain sense of detachment.
-I do not know how long and how extensive a research was done for this story but perhaps Hagedorn should be writing about the Fil-Am experience instead. Maybe then there could be some truth to the emotions in her story and it would not feel as clinical. It does not seem as if the story has any clear and deep understanding of a Pinoy's sensibilities at all. It claims to be a play about the Philippines and yet it does not feel Pinoy.
I cannot help but compare the play to "Avenue Q" because it was the last I watched before "Dogeaters" and I watched it in the same venue. "Avenue Q" had no pretensions. It simply is a story about a confused young man eager to know what life is all about as he searches for his purpose in life. It's about this one man who realizes how inadequate his college degree is, how immature and scared he is when it comes to love and commitment, how the internet is for porn...
And that's where "Dogeaters" ultimately fails. It attempts to tell so much and yet everything comes out as two-dimensional. It's soulless! *wails.
