MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Watching Request Sa Radyo is like watching someone through their window. This is how one of its lead actresses, the acclaimed Lea Salonga, put the show. Request sa Radyo, opened on October 10, explores the poignant solitude of a woman, her isolation, and yearning for connection all in one evening.
The play, originally in German (Wunschkonzert / Request Program) by Franz Xaver Kroetz, has never been staged in the Philippines and in its premiere brings together a confluence of excellent actresses and visionaries in the theater industry.
Starting with a fair warning that she will not be singing at all for her role, Lea said, “There’s no secret about what the show is… We need to inform the audience what they’re gonna see so that they can make an informed decision on whether or not to go.”
There can be a lot communicated even in silence.
While it is quite the relief to not be utilizing her voice, the Tony-award winning actress said it became a challenge to skip the anchor she has been known for. As she put it, “I’ve been so dependent on my voice and people are so used to associating my name with a voice.”
Unique in its form, Request Sa Radyo has no dialogue in its script — an undertaking that is unprecedented for her who has voiced two Disney Princesses, played the original Kim in Miss Saigon, and the first Asian actor to portray Eponine in Les Miserables. With a career spanning decades and as heralded as hers, Lea shared that for this one, “It’s kind of nice to be pushed and channel something different.”
“Sometimes words don’t even have to be spoken.”
Yet, when no words are spoken, the feelings must still be palpable through all the other languages an actor can channel through. In Request sa Radyo‘s case, the needlessness of words make the message stronger and more universal. In an interview with adobo Magazine, the actress said that there are no hifalutin words, no all-english conversation, and breaks the notion that theater is an elitist, and therefore, unreachable art form.
“Shakespeare wrote for masa,” quipped Lea and tailing that this aside, she hopes that the story will inspire deeper empathy and understanding among those who will watch.
“The role of theater is to show the human condition to an audience in an environment that is safe.” — with the premise that one can always take themself out of the physical space and be adjacent to the issues that are being explored by the actors.
“It’s one person’s life… We’re not saying this is how every single OFW is. It’s how this one lives, how she deals with the cards she has been dealt.”
When asked how she will defy the quintessential overseas Filipino image, Lea said, “There are Filipinos who are portrayed as really hospitable, and warm, and friendly. It’s the caregiving — The minute she’s in her apartment, you don’t see it ’cause she’s by herself. Who does she have to turn this on for?”
“Here is 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 that have gone through it.”
Request Sa Radyo’s 20 performances opened on October 10 and will run until October 20, 2024 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Makati City, the Philippines. Lea Salonga and Golden Globe-nominee Dolly De Leon will perform the solo piece in scheduled alternating performances.
