Lea & Adrian: Better the second time around

Manila, Philippines -  For Lea Salonga and Singaporean actor Adrian Pang, working the second time around is like picking up where they left off.

They first worked together, playing a couple, in They’re Playing Our Song which was staged in Singapore in 1999 then in Manila the year after. 

Now they’re teaming up anew as a married couple, in God of Carnage, the Olivier and Tony Award-winning dark comedy of “manners without the manners” to be mounted by Atlantis Productions on July 13 to 22 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City. The straight play will also head for Singapore in November for a three-week run, to be co-produced by the Singapore Repertory Theatre.

The STAR recently had an exclusive chat with Lea and Adrian, who are co-starring in God of Carnage with Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo and Art Acuña.

Adrian and Lea are Michael and Veronica whose 11-year-old child gets smacked in the face in a public park by the child of the couple portrayed by Menchu and Art. The play starts out in the living room of Michael and Veronica who try to thresh out the issue about their children in the nicest and most civilized (you know, “Hi, hello, pleased to meet you”) manner they could muster. But things begin to unravel, chipping away the niceness and civility of it all, as the get-together instead degenerates into arguments about heavy, off-tangent topics like racism and sexual discrimination — then all hell breaks loose.

Describing it as a play on “domestic politics,” Adrian, who is a proud father of two boys, thinks that “(God of Carnage) is relatable anywhere and to anyone.”

“I think in any kind of so-called civilized society, I think we go around every day with a veneer of civility, a facade of being well-mannered, of formality and of trying to be nice, and yeah, (politically correct),” he said. “Then the masks just all come off — like you know what I’m going to be just myself — and the ugly side of each one just comes out, and gets laid out on the table. It’s fun to play horrible people.”

Lea had already seen the play on Broadway and recalled having been thoroughly entertained. “I remember laughing so hard just seeing these four seemingly mature and civilized adults turning into children by the end of the show. It’s a lot of physical comedy.”

On her role, she mused, “She puts on this air of stability around her. She’s very OC (obsessive-compulsive) and I have a few pegs for that… in real life. Like when I’m making the bed, the blanket has to be exactly in the middle and the pillows have to be arranged in a certain way. So I understand that impulse… like the toilet paper has to roll in a certain way (laughs).”

“But the challenge for us is (to ensure) that you still want to have empathy for them,” Lea added.

“But it’s fun, fun! It’s hilarious,” Adrian stressed.

Obviously, they’re also having “fun, fun” having to partner again 12 years after They’re Playing Our Song. In fact, the two’s natural chemistry extends off-stage. 

Adrian explained, “It’s really like that. The chemistry has been built-in already.”

Lea added, “It’s like we’re just picking off where we left off.”

Which makes it a lot easier prepping up for God of Carnage given that they only have three weeks to rehearse.

Adrian said, “The couple we’re playing now is like the grown-up version of the couple we were playing in They’re Playing Our Song, like 10 years on with a kid.”

Lea said, “Yeah, it’s nice to be really comfortable to be able to give him a really nasty look…”

 “But I remember those nasty looks from 12 years ago!” Adrian quipped.

Nevertheless, to enjoy the opportunity to co-star with Lea, Adrian admitted, was what really convinced him to say yes to director Bobby Garcia even before he knew what the material was all about. 

Adrian said, “For me, it was a no-brainer really, the chance to work with Lea again, to come back to Manila again.”

They’re Playing Our Song was, however, not the very first time they were part of a project together. The first was the Singaporean production of Into The Woods in 1994, but they didn’t share a scene.

But Lea remembers Adrian very well with his big shock of curly hair. “It was like his hair entered the room before he did.”

“Well, I was still based in London at that time and I was rebelling against my Singaporean ancestry,” Adrian reasoned with a laugh.

Nevertheless, Lea said that Adrian has always been easy to work with and that it’s tough keeping a straight face when they’re doing scenes together. She recalls one from They’re Playing Our Song wherein she came out in a beaded dress that drew a double-take from Adrian that wasn’t on the script but had the audience howling in laughter as reaction.

And it may come as a surprise to people, but Lea confessed that she’s not the most comfortable person when it comes to just talking in the scripted context (“I mean how do you memorize small talk?”) but she’s just thankful to be cast alongside Adrian, who’s used to it that, “at least, I get a cue by watching him and kinda figuring my own way with guidance from him.”

For Adrian’s part, the first encounter with Lea had him “in awe to be honest, and a little intimidated, and standing by the side, listening to her songs, Oh my God, so crystal clear, this is not human!”

“The pressure of then starring opposite her in Playing Our Song was constant. But thank God, she’s a very, very nice person to work with. We have a lot of laughs on They’re Playing Our Song. It was a very, very nice memory.”

 Not to mention having to work here in the Philippines. Adrian, who runs a theater company Pangdemonium Productions aside from TV and movie work, back in his home country, shared, “My memory of working here was like a holiday. My wife — she’s a director so she directs me on and off stage (laughs) — was expecting our second son at that time, so I promised her I would be home on time. I had to leave a little earlier actually.

“But as I found myself enjoying more and more, I got sadder and sadder when I had to leave. You people are known for your warmth and hospitality and that proved to be so true in my experience. I really made a lot of friends. That was one (project) that was hard to leave. So it’s nice to be back. Plus, Menchu and Art are a joy to work with.”

Discussing God of Carnage also had the two stars ruminating on life on stage. Queried if there were roles in the past that they regretted or would have done otherwise, Adrian retorted, “Probably 90 percent of what I’ve done on TV. I would burn if I had the chance. (Laughs) But theater I have to say is where I feel most alive. Thank goodness, in theater, I’ve been able to choose my roles prudently and I’m quite proud of most of the stuff I’ve done. I think this one (God of Carnage) is going to be pretty special and memorable.”

These thespians/performers, seasoned and multi-awarded as they are, also confessed to still getting struck by moments when they asked themselves, “How do we get through this?”

Lea pondered, “Before you reached nirvana, you gotta go through a special kind of hell. But it never occurs to you that you’re going through hell. Once the performance begins, then you hear your audience reacts, and the performance begins to grow in the two hours or so that it runs, there’s that void that you get to fill that only that can do, that nothing else in life can do.” 

“Yeah, it’s all consuming when you’re in production. I quite like that,” Adrian also said. “Perhaps, in a way, it’s a little bit therapeutic and cathartic to sometimes pretend to be somebody else and hopefully, affect other people who come to watch it.”

Lea agreed, adding, “Like we’re all fighting each other in (God of Carnage), but at the end of the rehearsal, it feels like I’m just having the best time ever.”

(For details on the limited run of God of Carnage, call Atlantis Productions at 892-7078.)