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.