Q&A with Lea Salonga on Request sa Radyo

By Art+ Magazine
October 14, 2024

Request sa Radyo (Wunschkonzert / Request Program) is Franz Xaver Kroetz’s landmark theatrical piece that captures the poignant solitude of a woman through her meticulous evening routine. As she navigates her quiet, solitary life, her actions and her favorite radio program reveal the profound loneliness and yearning for connection that lie beneath. This masterpiece of modern theatre transforms the mundane into a powerful exploration of isolation and the human condition.

Acclaimed theater actors Lea Salonga and Dolly De Leon will perform the solo piece in scheduled alternating performances. The strictly limited engagement with 20 performances will begin on October 10, 2024 until October 20, 2024 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Makati City.

Prior to the opening of Request sa Radyo, Lea Salonga granted a roundtable interview to some members of the press. Here are some of the takeaways from that interview.

What was your reaction to the play being silent?

Lea Salonga: Well, my first reaction was, I don’t have to wear a microphone. I don’t have to memorize lyrics or dialogue or anything. So I’m thinking, what a relief. What a nice change where I don’t have to utilize my voice. But then it moved to another level of, I’ve been so dependent on my voice and people are so used to associating my name with a voice. So it’s like, paano ‘to? And I realized, oh, this is challenging and it’s terrifying.

But at the same time, it’s kind of nice to be pushed and challenged and to do something different. And so, you know, the audiences need to know going in that this is the convention of the show. That there’s no singing, there’s no speaking.

What is the challenge of performing without dialogue?

Sometimes, when you have the dialogue, it can be an anchor for emotions. Maybe a word will trigger something or a line of a song can be something I hang onto so I have a post. Without the dialogue, I have to find some other post.

I can figure this out. But the figuring out of it is the challenge. And trying to find guideposts for however long the play lasts.

How does it feel to do a play like this for the first time in the Philippines?

We’ve never done anything like this, so it’s going to be new for everyone, which is going to be fun. It’s not like we know what we’re doing, and then the audience has no idea. We’re all in this together, guys.

How different is your performance from Dolly’s?

One question [Dolly] asked is, do I have to do everything the same? And I said, absolutely not. The actor is as much a creator of what is happening. And what may make sense to one of us will not make sense to the other. So I’m going by my own internal logic. She’s going by her own internal logic. What she needs as an actor may or may not be different from what I’m looking for.

Everyone that’s worked on the show has said, oh my God, we could not have picked two more different people to do this. And that’s wonderful because then there’s no comparing. There’s temptation because when you have two people playing the same role, there is always this danger of—how does this person do it versus how does this person do it? I’m going to say, do not fall into that trap. It’s two different shows.

Being a solo actor on stage, does the radio help you with your performance?

The radio show becomes your partner, and your connection is there. So you tether onto that. The radio show, the DJ, the songs, the interstitial stuff she says, that kind of becomes your post.

The play tackles the theme of loneliness, among other things. Did the pandemic inform your experience of making this play?

I think everyone went through the pandemic, everybody understands what loneliness is, what isolation feels like, and the unknown of when are we coming out of this. Like, nobody knew how long these lockdowns were going to last. Is it going to be a week? Is it going to be a month? And it ended up being, what, two, three years?

As a human being, do you make the effort to connect to someone else? Sometimes it’s yes, but there are some people who are just unable to break through that mental, you know, this glass pane of feeling isolated. There are folks for whom it comes easy. And then there are people who just don’t [connect] and so remain totally isolated in the bubbles they’ve created for themselves or that circumstances have created for them. So I think everyone, to some extent, will understand loneliness and isolation because everybody went through it in varying degrees.

What is your takeaway from playing the role of Ms. Reyes, who is an OFW and a caregiver?

Hers is a story, I think, that is echoed by so many millions of people. The takeaway is like, here’s this one human being living this life of solitude, of service, of caregiving, of loneliness, and then you multiply that by how many millions of Filipinos have gone through it, and it boggles my mind thinking about it.

What I’m hoping for that people take away from this is hopefully a deeper sense of empathy and understanding for people that have decided to do this.

What do you think is the role of theater in our society?

A lot of folks seem to have this notion that theater is this elitist art form. The role of theater is to show the human condition to an audience in an environment that is safe, in an environment where you can just kind of step out of it and watch. And sometimes you can find solutions, resolution, closure from just the watching of other human beings going through maybe what you’ve been through. I know as an actor, I’ve had circumstances that have kind of slammed into my own life where what I’m doing on stage is mirroring what’s happening in life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tickets are available via TicketWorld. For latest announcements, follow the official social media

accounts @RequestSaRadyo on Facebook and Instagram and its official venue partner @cpatofficial.