Black Tent's 'Woyzeck' recounts gloomy reality

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): When reality is brought to stage before us, it really bites. Understanding goes beyond words. The right gestures, facial expressions and tone are enough to deliver meaningful messages.

People are fake, money is everything while morality is less important. Given the opportunity, the powerful will exploit the weak, and the person you love might betray you, stabbing you in the back.

The Black Tent theater of Japan deserves credit for refreshing our memory of what is happening around us, something that we pretend is not there. Through Woyzeck, an adaptation of George Buchner's old play of the same title, the theater troupe sets the record straight.

The play, which is being performed for two consecutive nights for the Third Art Summit Indonesia 2001 International Festival on Performing Contemporary Arts, closing this Thursday night at Graha Bakti Budaya Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta, was released to the public in 1879 and first staged in 1931. Indonesian theater groups, such as Teater Populer and Teater Koma, had also staged the adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck here.

Black Tent's Woyzeck, centers on a dumb soldier who becomes an object of medical experiments. Although Woyzeck is a soldier, his only work so far is to tend to his captain's needs -- taking off his jacket and shaving him while swallowing every harsh remark made to him by his superior.

Every penny he earns goes to Marie, the love of his life and mother to his illegitimate son.

Woyzeck's relationship with Marie is the essence which ties the play together. In Woyzeck's eyes, Marie is a pure, beautiful woman. But as life becomes harder and the experiment starts clouding Woyzeck's mind, he starts losing attention of Marie and his son.

Marie is not a holy woman after all. She craves attention and love, and in the absence of Woyzeck, finds all she needs from a rough but good looking drum leader. When Woyzeck finds out about the affair, he is devastated and furious. He then starts hearing voices telling him to strangle and to kill Marie.

Under the direction of Black Tent's veteran director Makoto Sato, the gloomy play is given a new touch, making the 90-minute play originally written by the German author based on a psychiatric record of a man who was convicted and hanged for murdering his mistress back in 1821, relevant to the present day.

Despite the use of Japanese, the play is still an enjoyable one, even though once in a while the audience have to divert their eyes from the performing actors to read the subtitles on the big screen mounted closer to the stage.

The theater troupe was set up in 1968, being formed from three small drama groups. Then it was called Theater Center 68. Its name was changed to Black Tent in 1971 following the group's unique way of performing inside a large black tent. The trademark of staging performances in the tent was stopped in 1992.

For Indonesian actors, the troupe is inspirational. Just like Ratna Riantiarno of the Teater Koma group said, Black Tent inspires struggling actors to keep on trying, as Black Tent started out touring Japan on the back of a truck.

An adaptation of Buchner's Woyzeck has been staged by the Japanese troupe many times. The first time was in 1984, and the last one was in 1996. The play has toured Japan, Europe and attended theater festivals abroad.

For the Art Summit here, the veteran director gave the play some new twists, presenting more young actors to attract a younger audience.

Young performer Jiro Shigemori, gave a strong performance as Woyzeck. Shigemori's various facial expressions were a real highlight. His expression of stupidity when he was ridiculed by his captain, insisting that he was only made of flesh and bone and compassion when he encountered Marie and his son, are just some examples of his strong performance.

The role of Woyzeck was also brought to life with the presence of five boys wearing yellowish robes and black sunglasses who carried with them five different tools and acted either as Woyzeck's watchers, executors of the doctor's experiment, or once in a while, as his friend Andres.

Through her facial expressions, laugh and tone, Marie (Hitomi Iwai) displayed varying emotions, such as the mood for love, to play with her son, or when she became interested with the drum leader (Yoshiaki Tamura).

Stunning performances were also given by Captain (Katsumi Muramatsu) and mysterious Karl (Keiko Takeya) whose dances somehow reflected Marie's emotions and desires.

But the twists that really evoke the audience throughout the play was the right setting, playful folk songs from Okinawa and fascinating music presented by composer-pianist Kiyoko Ogino.

Performances by groups of spirited young girls, who chanted harmonious and rhythmical words without music or accompanied by simple instruments like small chimes or water-filled glasses, also injected moments of fresh atmosphere throughout the play.

Understanding the play will not be a problem as long as, just like director Makoto Sato puts it, "don't only pay attention to the physical aspects of the play but also note the expressions."