Teater Kita, where ritual meets cartoon<\/p>\n
By Lauren Bain<\/p>\n
MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (JP): It's a balmy night and the
\namphitheater is crowded. It's a run-down, almost derelict space;
\nthe pavement, still warm from the midday sun, is badly cracked;
\ntall black roosters are running around an area that might be
\ndescribed as \"backstage\".<\/p>\n
The audience sit on sheets of newspaper spread out on the
\nground. The backdrop is a high cement wall scrawled with
\ngraffiti. A snapshot of urban Makassar.<\/p>\n
Teater Kita is arguably the leading contemporary theater group
\nin South Sulawesi. Their most recent work, Aku Pinjam Baju Baru
\n(I'm Borrowing A New Shirt) presented last week, drew
\nconsiderable attention from both the theater community and the
\ngeneral public in Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
The group, officially established in a sidewalk coffee stall
\nopposite Makassar's Benteng Fort Rotterdam in 1993, works under
\nthe direction of Asia Ramli Prapanca (\"Ram\" to his friends) who
\ncollaborates closely with designer and writer Is Hakim.<\/p>\n
Teater Kita's work is both highly contemporary and grounded in
\na strong sense of tradition and local identity.<\/p>\n
\"Although we create contemporary performance, we always use
\nritual and traditional performance as a point of departure,\"
\nexplained Ram.<\/p>\n
It's not often in Jakarta that we hear news of contemporary
\ntheater from outside of Java. There are many reasons for this,
\nbut primarily a Jakarta-Yogya-Bandung centric \"system\" of
\nlegitimization and recognition in the arts has led to an
\nassumption that if an arts event is happening outside of Java, it
\nmust be of limited critical value.<\/p>\n
This, of course, is nothing new, and nor is it unique to
\nIndonesia -- similar patterns of centralistic cultural hegemony
\nexist all over the world. But it's unfortunate that Teater Kita's
\nAku Pinjam Baju Baru will probably not be seen outside of
\nSulawesi because it's an imaginative and challenging work.<\/p>\n
Aku Pinjam Baju Baru is all about costumes. It's about the
\nchanging of costume, the adoption of new identity and the chaos
\nthat results. It's about how easy it is to put on a new \"costume\"
\nor borrow a new shirt, for a new context. Of course it's intended
\nas a political critique -- the military uniform is easily swapped
\nfor a reformist outfit, the dictator's supporter becomes a
\ndemocrat.<\/p>\n
At the same time as being sharply critical of this duplicity,
\nlike the best of political cartoons, Aku Pinjam Baju Baru is
\nextremely funny. We see a series of \"characters\" put on new
\ncostumes, which they pull out of a coffin, a Pandora's box with
\nthe potential to unleash chaos on the world. And the costume
\ndesign is what really makes this performance work. The characters
\nare delightfully exaggerated superheroes and supervillains of a
\nworld going off track. They make fun of political life and of
\nthemselves; they are as self-deprecating as they are menacing.<\/p>\n
One character wears a headpiece crowned with a huge crucifix
\nand a crescent and star, and a breast plate instantly
\nrecognizable as the Pancasila shield without the symbols. He's
\nthe hero of emptiness, his values stripped of meaning. This
\ncharacter presides over the costume changing ceremony, mumbling
\nmantra as catastrophe unfolds.<\/p>\n
Other characters include an enormous silver communist\/East
\nJavanese\/Dayak sickle, a man locked in a set of \"legal\" scales
\nlike a convict in stocks, a man tied down by a ball and chain, a
\nwoman who dances in a field of rupiah, a man covered in spoons.
\nTheir interactions are at once violent, chaotic and ridiculous,
\nclimaxing with one character being winched into the air by
\nindustrial lifting equipment.<\/p>\n
In addition to the exceptional costumes, Aku Pinjam Baju Baru
\nuses a limited amount of text, elements of traditional Makassar-
\nBugis ritual such as mantra, and a chaotic, almost apocalyptic
\nsound design with trumpets and drums, songs and laughter, the
\nclanging of the huge industrial pulley.<\/p>\n
\"This work is a reflection of the postreform era, the Gus Dur
\nera,\" Ram said. \"We have tried to 'photograph' the current era
\nand the (manifestations of) power.\"<\/p>\n
Aku Pinjam Baju Baru tests the possibilities of performance
\nand in doing so moves beyond presenting a \"flat\" critique of
\npolitics, which after all we can read about in the newspaper. It
\neffectively contests the symbols of Indonesian political life and
\nthe meaning of identity (whether it be of the individual, the
\npolitical party or the nation) derived from these symbols.<\/p>\n
The result is a highly contemporary and unconventional
\nphysical performance, perhaps best described as being like the
\nAsterix cartoon crossed with a traditional Bugis-Makassar ritual.
\nSounds crazy? Well that's exactly the point -- maybe this is a
\nway in which to make sense of the complexity and contradictions
\nof contemporary Indonesia.<\/p>\n
It is only one of several Sulawesi-based groups which are
\nchallenging the assumption that Java is the center of
\ncontemporary Indonesian theater. Last week Makassar audiences
\nalso had the opportunity to see new works by locally based
\nSanggar Merah Putih and Komunitas Teater Perempuan Randa nTovea
\nfrom Palu in Central Sulawesi. Their works are brave,
\nsophisticated and deserve recognition on this side of the Java
\nSea.<\/p>\n
The writer is an Australian doctoral student and theater
\nworker living in Jakarta.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/teater-kita-where-ritual-meets-cartoon-1447893297",
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