Beckett's 'Godot' brings hope to PLWHA
Beckett's 'Godot' brings hope to PLWHA
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
When noted Balinese dramatist and director Cok Sawitri was asked
by Tunjung Putih (White lotus), a Bali-based support group for
People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), to transform its activists
into stage actors, she purposefully chose Samuel Beckett's
Waiting for Godot as their first and primary reading material.
"I deliberately did not introduce plays or poems with HIV/AIDS
contents or themes. I wanted to introduce them to a new horizon,
a broader dimension to life," she said.
She conceded that most plays on HIV/AIDS were filled with
tragic accounts written in sorrowful, sometimes even desperate,
tones. Instead of raising the fighting spirit of the PLWHA, such
plays, Sawitri feared, would only aggravate their sense of
desolation and desperation even more.
"We need to inform them that suffering happens every day, in
every corners of the world, at every level of society and befalls
all kinds of people, PLWHA or otherwise. Suffering is an integral
part of human life," she said.
Once the PLWHA were able to acknowledge the non-discriminatory
nature of suffering, they would be able to shed the paralyzing
grip of self-pity that had prevented them from functioning as
productive members of society.
Waiting for Godot, Sawitri said, was a perfect example of the
tenacity of the human spirit and the perseverance of hope in
overcoming suffering and the uncertainties of life.
Irish playwright and Nobel laureate Beckett wrote the two-act
tragicomedy in 1949. The play, which won Beckett international
recognition, portrays two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, and
their long, futile wait for someone named Godot. During the
anxious period of waiting, they amuse and irritate each other
with past stories, jokes and speculations on life and on the true
identity of Godot.
In the end, Godot never appears. He only sends a hopeful
message that he might be able to come on the following day. The
desperate and angry protagonists try to hang themselves, but when
they fail at the attempt, they announce their intention to leave.
Yet, the final curtain falls on the two of them, still there,
waiting for Godot.
Vladimir and Estragon, in the words of Wallace Fowlie, author
of Dionysus in Paris: A Guide to Contemporary French Theater
(Meridian Books, 1960), might represent "Everyman and his
conscience ... of the medieval debate between the body and the
soul, between the intellectual and the non-rational in man".
"The life of the tramps at many points in the text seems
synonymous with the fallen state of man," he suggested.
Ana (all names used for PLWHAs are pseudonyms, to protect
their identities), who read the part of Estragon in Tunjung
Putih's production of Godot, found that the above statement
accurately portrayed her life as a PLWHA.
"We are the outcasts, the tramps of our society. Rejection,
isolation and prejudice are our daily social diet. At the same
time, we also are also mired in a deep psychological paralysis
because we believe our lives have ended. We stop growing, we stop
hoping and eventually, we stop becoming," she said.
Ana and her fellows Intan and Santi found no difficulty in
identifying with the protagonists in Godot and with the play's
dominant atmosphere of restless anxiety.
"Maybe because we have spent most of our time waiting for
something. Waiting for our deaths, perhaps," Intan said, a grim
smile on her young face.
"Or waiting for God. Divine intervention to change our lives
for the better," Ana added.
Yet, the play also awakened them to the power of hope. The
protagonists' jokes and perseverance in the face of uncertainty
stimulated them to appreciate the many joys that had graced their
lives.
"I have a boyfriend and a family, who, regardless of my HIV
status, have never failed to love and support me. They are my
constant source of energy and consolation," Intan said.
Moreover, the play provided them with a chance to meet new
people, the charismatic Cok Sawitri first, and later, scores of
Indonesian and Balinese writers through the Ubud Writers and
Readers Festival 2005, which took place in early October.
The Tunjung Putih troupe was invited to read the play at a
special session on Living with HIV/AIDS: A Woman's Perspective,
initiated and sponsored by UNAIDS, the United Nations Joint
Action Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Along with Cok Sawitri, at least 20 leading writers, such as
Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, Putu Oka Sukanta, Sitok Srengenge, Joko
Pinurbo -- this year's Khatulistiwa Award winner for poetry --
Ayu Utami and Djenar Maesa Ayu, as well as promising local
talents like Sonia Piscayanti and Maliana, also attended the day-
long session on Oct. 9 at the Alila Hotel Ubud.
Included in the session was the launch of a collection of
poems by the late Suzana Murni, founder of the Spiritia
Foundation for PLWHAs.
"We want to forge a strategic partnership between UNAIDS, the
writers and the PLWHA. This partnership is crucial in our
continuous effort to educate the public on HIV/AIDS and to fight
stigma and discrimination," UNAIDS country coordinator Jane
Wilson said.
The session turned to be an eye-opener for writers as well as
the PLWHA.
"Until today, I never realized the true magnitude of their
predicament. I really admire their energy and determination, a
bunch of tough women they are," Sonia Piscayanti said in awe,
following the session's closed meeting, in which the PLWHA took
turns in telling their life stories.
As for the PLWHA, the writers' sympathetic curiosity and warm
repartee reminded them that the world did not only comprise of
cynical and prejudiced people.
"I believe that we have made some new friends today, real
friends," Santi said.
Later in the afternoon, the Tunjung Putih group read Waiting
for Godot in an open-walled restaurant overlooking a tranquil
pool and the majestic hills of Payangan village.
Surrounded by their new friends, Ana, Intan and Santi gave
their best attempt at the play. Their voices, warm and confident,
reflected their newfound love and hope for literature and
friendship; for life.