Modern Indonesian Drama Beyond Bali - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Modern Indonesian Drama

Beyond BaliSlide2

Good News!

Although it is possible to study every major non-English speaking Western culture through its translated literature, this has not been the case with the literature of Indonesia. This is one of the reasons why

Lontar

was established: to ensure the ancient literary tradition of Indonesia, and its thriving contemporary literature, are more accessible to international scholars.

Aware of the need abroad for text books,

Lontar

is publishing several multi-volume anthologies of Indonesian literature: one on the history of Indonesian drama, the other two on poetry and short stories.

In 2001, with financial assistance from the Luce Foundation,

Lontar

began to collect modern Indonesian

playscripts

. Hundreds were collected and scanned. With advice from

Lontar’s

editorial advisory board, 50 plays, representing the range of issues that were aired on the Indonesian stage in the twentieth century were chosen for transcription and publication in Indonesian. Of these, 35 were then selected for translation into English.Slide3

Early Developments in Modern Theater

Traditional dramatic forms such as

wayang

in Java and Bali had been performed for their ritual and/or religious significance.

“A modern, secular theater, Malay Opera, emerged in the late nineteenth century. … The audiences as well as playwrights, directors, and actors, of Malay Opera included Europeans, Chinese, peoples of mixed-racial ancestry (the

peranakan

), and indigenous peoples of the Netherlands Indies (e.g. Javanese,

Sundanese

, and Balinese).” (Rafferty 10). The development of this multi-ethnic, secular, though still non-scripted, drama was an important transitional stage for Indonesian theater.Slide4

Malay Opera

“In 1891, August

Mahieu

, a Eurasian of

F

rench descent born in Surabaya (c.1860), established the first successful Malay Opera group in the Indies.” (Rafferty 10)

Improvisational theater, with no written script and performed in the open, it combined tales from many cultures—European, Chinese, Indian, Persian, Javanese, and Malay. The merging of multi-ethnic stories also enabled the establishment of modern national identities and sensibilities.

For a historical perspective on Malay Opera in Borneo, see

http://www.hicsocial.org/social2003proceedings/nur%20afifah%20vanitha%20abdullah.pdf

See also Tan

Sooi

Beng

,

Bangsawan

: A Social and Stylistic History of Popular Malay Opera. Slide5

Origin of Modern Indonesian Drama

The publication of

Rustam

Effendi’s play,

Bebasari

, an allegorical verse drama about the struggle against Dutch colonialism, is considered to be the foundational moment of modern Indonesian drama.

It was the first original play written by a native Indonesian in “high” Malay, and was intended for an urban, educated elite.

Other playwrights following in this tradition both glorified the past and attempted to include contemporary issues.Slide6

Realistic drama

After independence, two major theatrical institutions were established: Cine Drama

Instituut

in 1948 in Yogyakarta, and

Akademi

T

eater

Nasional

in Jakarta in 1955. Both taught a realistic style of acting.

Translations of Western playwrights (Poe, Ibsen, Shakespeare) became popular in the 1950s.

“Serious” plays, featuring representation and analysis of contemporary

I

ndonesian society flourished.Slide7

Lontar Anthology 2: 1926-1965

Synopsis:

The first four decades of the national art theater in Indonesia (1926-1965) were a period of fascinating experimentation undertaken by elite intellectuals heavily influenced by, and attempting to come to terms with, the forms and styles of western theater. These experiments ranged chiefly from hybrid anti-colonial allegories and grand historical epics to psychological and social realisms. This volume contains a selection of plays representative of the main currents of this exciting and pivotal era in the construction of Indonesia’s modern national art theater. The volume begins with nationalist allegories, then moves to psychological and social-realist works, and finally to plays that typify the dominant currents into which the theater of the New Order period, beginning in 1966, would later flow.

Authors:

Roestam

Effendi,

Sanusi

Pane,

Armijn

Pane,

Saadah

Alim

,

Usmar

Ismail,

Utuy

Tatang

Sontani

, Muhammad Ali,

Motinggo

Busye

,

Misbah

Yusa

Biran

,

Agam

Wispi

,

Yoebar

Ayoeb

,

Iwan

Simatupang

,

Mohamad

Diponegoro

.Slide8

Utuy

Tatang

Sontani

,

Awal

and Mira

(1951)

Sontani

was

Sundanese

and used both the local language and Indonesian in his writings. He was famous during his lifetime for his novels, short stories, as well as plays. The plays were published in the 1950s and earned him high praise. He chose to frame his vision in one act plays in short story form as a way of exploring “human problems at a specific time during man’s long life.”

Awal

and Mira

focuses on the “physical and psychological victims of revolution in a newly independent nation” (Rafferty 14) by portraying the love of a nervous aristocratic man for a beautiful common coffee house owner who turns out to be handicapped.

For an article on

Sontani

, see

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2002/04/14/utuy-tatang-sontani-a-tragic-end-a-literary-great.htmlSlide9

Iwan

Simatupang

,

Square Moon and Three Other Pla

ys

Simatupang

was a journalist, novelist, actor, director, and playwright. For a brief biography, see

http://www.lontar.org/index.php?page=author&id=96&lang=en

Born in North Sumatra, he fought for freedom from the Dutch, and was later on the staff of

Siasat

, a journal on the forefront of intellectual life in the struggle for freedom and post-independence Indonesia.

He was associated with Theater 2000, an avant-garde theater company, and was heavily influenced by Existentialist writers , believing in the possibility of autonomy and independence for all.

Square Moon

(1957) focuses

on an old man who has spent his life tying to build the perfect gallows and whose philosophy is “I kill, therefore I am.”

His works deal primarily with issues of death, freedom, social disenfranchisement and conflict.Slide10

Lontar Anthology 3: 1965-1998

Synopsis:

As

Soeharto's

New Order government became increasingly authoritarian, censoring and crushing public opposition openly and often brutally, there was a clear shift in playwriting style from allegorical fairytales of wordplay, humor and oblique reference to a more direct engagement, interrogation, and call to arms. All in all, Indonesian drama during the New Order provides a fascinating window into a society in transition caught between the legacy of tradition, the challenge of repression, and a strong desire for democratization.

Authors:

Arifin

C.

Noer

,

Rendra

,

Putu

Wijaya

,

Noorca

Marendra

Massardi

,

Akhudiat

,

Wisran

Hadi

,

Saini

K.M.,

Yudhistira

ANM

Massardi

, N.

Riantiarno

,

Aspar

Paturusi

,

Afrizal

Malna

,

Emha

Ainun

Nadjib

,

Ratna

Sarumpaet

.Slide11

“New Tradition”

The governor of Jakarta, Ali

Sadikin

, was instrumental in the foundation of a Cultural Arts Center, Taman Ismail

Marzuki

(TIM) in 1968, which provided a Western-style, government subsidized venue for the staging of modern drama.

The plays staged at TIM have seen various degrees of merging of

l

ocal and Western forms and techniques. The use of regional elements in modern genres is central to the “New Tradition” and is in direct reaction to the forced social realism of the

Soeharto’s

regime.

In order to keep the theater relatively free of political pressures, an Arts Council was formed. For the most part, it was an autonomous body with a “free hand” (

Mohamad

3).

TIM organized an annual festival of theatrical groups run by young artists and featured traditional theatrical forms as well as modern plays, making it possible for traditional and modern forms of drama to co-exist in post-independence Indonesia. Slide12

W. S.

Rendra

: Struggle for Cultural Independence

Indonesia’s most famous playwright, he was also an actor, essayist, translator, critic, and poet.

He was openly anti-Establishment, and was arrested in May 1978 for his seditious writings.

Rendra

wrote satirical, experimental plays, known for their innovative form combining Javanese

wayang

and

ketoprak

in modern Indonesian productions. He borrowed elements of music, costume, dramatic structure, acting style, and joking routines from traditional drama, breaking down boundaries of low/high theaters.

Struggle of the Naga Tribe

(1975)

,

while influenced by Western ideas,

incorporates many traditional Javanese theatrical conventions, including the use of the figure of the

dalang

,

the puppet master, to provide a social critique.

Rendra

valorizes the

rural poor, and an non-cosmopolitan, folk lifestyle.

Rendra’s

Bengkel

Theatre group initiated a new performance style,

mini-

kata

, using movement and music but minimal dialogue, in response to the “prevalent

slogalization

of the Indonesian language in the late 1960s” (

M

ohamad

8).

For an article on

Rendra

, see

http://www.insideindonesia.org/edition-97/w-s-rendra-1935-2009-16081231

For an interview of

Rendra

in Australia, see

http://www.insideindonesia.org/edition-86/rendra-speaks-1507094Slide13

Putu Wijaya: Theater of Surprise

Worked with

Rendra’s

Bengkel

Theatre group from 1967-69.

Putu’s

tontonan

theater similarly emphasizes spectacle over narration, and reflects his commitment to improvisation, creative adaptation, openness and flexibility. “The plays are both visually and aurally busy, at times verging on the chaotic” (Rafferty 16).

Plot is minimal; characters are stylized and remain on stage for most of the play resulting in a crowded, noisy stage; humor tends to the bawdy and the grotesque and is used as a distancing device; and action is non-realistic.

As in traditional Balinese drama, there is no obvious closure, and the central issue remains unresolved.

Putu’s

theater seeks to incorporate spirituality, bringing the traditional religious/ritual element back into a secular model.

According to

Putu

Wijaya

, Indonesian actors “act without analyzing; they are reluctant to question the meaning of actions or situations in the script.”

For an article on

Putu

assessing his life and works, see

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2001/04/08/putu-strives-save-theater.html

For a video of

Putu’s

tribute to

Rendra

,

Monolog '

Merdeka

'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7qLSBk7uzISlide14

N.

Riantiarno

: Commercially Viable Modern Theater

His blending of indigenous and Western forms is influenced by the example of Malay

O

pera.

High ticket prices and an “entertainment” model make

Riantiarno’s

company,

Teater

K

oma

, a much more capitalistic enterprise, catering to an affluent middle class.

However, the plays, “with their graphically literal representation of the dark ‘underside’ of elite prosperity,

subvert

rather than

affirm

middle class assumptions. On the set of

Time Bomb

(1982), directly below the chairs of a group of oblivious restaurant diners, sits a slum on the banks of a fetid canal” (

Hatley

xi-xii).

For an article on

Riantiarno

, see

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/02/24/playwright-n-riantiarno-visionary-mission.htmlSlide15

Women Playwrights: Activists

Actress and playwright,

Ratna

Sarumpaet

, has her work included in the

Lontar

Anthology, and comments incisively on issues relevant to women in contemporary Indonesian society, though she sees herself as a champion for all underprivileged people rather than as a feminist.

Her play,

The Prostitute and the President

(2006), focuses on the lack of choices available to women who are forced into prostitution. The main protagonist,

Jamila

, has taken to murder as a way of dealing with her oppression: “hate that keeps building inside me, forever ready to explode and make me kill again…to make me kill again….” On her attempts to film this play to raise awareness about child trafficking in Indonesia, see

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2007/07/24/ratna-sarumpaet-agony-senior-director.html

A clip of the film,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtsgSL0fDiY

Her most famous work,

Marsinah

: Songs from the

Underworld

(1994) directly

accuses President

Soeharto

.

For an article on her life, beliefs, and her arrest, see

http://www.insideindonesia.org/edition-55/ratna-accused-and-defiant-2909767Slide16

Putu Wijaya: Geez

!

Only two characters have stable names:

Bima

and

Sita

. Both names go back to the Indian epics,

Ramayana

and

Mahabharata.

Bima

or

Bhima

is the second

Pandava

brother, known for his strength and bravery: "Of all the wielders of the mace, there is none equal to

Bhima

; and there is none also who is so skillful a rider of elephants. In fight, they say, he yields not even to

Arjuna

; and as to might of arms, he is equal to ten thousand elephants.” (

Mahabharata

, Book 5, Section 22).

Sita

is famed for her marital fidelity and devotion in the

Ramayana.

Despite her abduction and imprisonment for ten years by

Ravana

, she remains impervious to his sexual advances and is able to remain chaste.

http

://www.britishmuseum.org/images/puppet_m.jpgSlide17

Three Worlds in

Geez!

The worlds of the mourners, the corpse, and the dancers are kept separate in the beginning, though we expect them to collide. There are also tiered platforms on stage: the top with the gamelan orchestra in a four-pillared temple; the middle with the corpse and the mourners; and the bottom with

Putu

himself. “No world subsumes, destroys, or dominates another as the action progresses” (

Zarrilli

in Rafferty 42).Slide18

Characters

Putu’s

characters do not behave in causal, psychologically consistent ways. He establishes characters though monologues which start out by isolating a single motive or emotional tone for the character but which unfold by contradicting or subverting the original stance.

Putu

: “My manuscripts and my style of directing are neither anti-psychological nor do they support psychological reality” (Rafferty 44).Slide19

Use of humor and the unexpected

The gravediggers, reminiscent of the ritual-clowns of

wayang

, are not the only characters who joke inappropriately; the mourners also indulge in incongruous, exaggerated behavior that belies expectations, leading one gravedigger to comment, “Hey, is this a burial or a party!” Their bawdy humor as well as their inter-changeable names give rise to laughter. The rising of the corpse multiple times also contributes to the macabre humor.

Putu’s

intention is to jolt the audience but also to convey a Balinese sensibility.

Putu

: “In Bali people joke all the time, even at funerals. They play cards at funerals. People are naturally prone to joking” (Rafferty 39).Slide20

Use of Indigenous Javanese elements

In Madison, he used gamelan, Javanese court dance, and a shadow puppet but in Jakarta, he has never used traditional techniques. Even in Madison, he subverted their traditional use, often breaking the conventional rule that guide both orchestra and dance. Dance movements were speeded up and changed; at times gamelan broke up into random cacophonous sounds (Zarrilli in Rafferty 40)Slide21

Questions for discussion

1.

Bima

is the only character in the play whose speech and motivation remain consistent. What is the significance of this consistency attributed to a supposedly dead person who remains in limbo at the end?

2. To what extent is

Putu

intentionally supplying an

exoticized

spectacle in using traditional Javanese theatrical elements in his Western productions? How necessary do these elements seem for an understanding of the play?

3. Analyze the ways in which

Geez!

functions both as a satire and as an absurdist commentary on the human condition.

4. How are confusion and distancing used in the play to subvert conventional theatrical narrative and expectations?Slide22

Bibliography

Asmara

,

Cobina

Gillitt

. “

Tradisi

Baru

: A ‘New Tradition’ of Indonesian Theatre

,

Asian Theatre Journal

12, 1 (Spring 1995): 164-174.

Aveling

, Harry.

Man and Society in the Works of the Indonesian Playwright

Utuy

Tatang

Sontani

and

Awal

and Mira

by

Utuy

Tatang

Sontani

. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Southeast Asia Paper No. 13, 1979.

McGlynn

, John H “S

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Manoa

12, 1 (2000

): 38-44.

Mohamad

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Goenawan

.

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Peacock, James.

R

i

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.

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Putu

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Indonesia

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---. Ed.

Putu

Wijaya

in Performance: A Script and Study of Indonesian Theatre

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The Struggle of the Naga Tribe

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Time Bomb and Cockroach Opera

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Putu

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Michael

Bodden

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Structure and

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