CCF takes theatrical approach to literature

By Helly Minarti

YOGYAKARTA (JP): In an era of multimedia distraction, how do you entice people to open a good book? It is especially difficult in Indonesia, where efforts to popularize book reading are often drowned out by the clamor of electronic media.

"I noticed that while working at the French Embassy in charge of literature translation years ago," said Jean Pascal Elbaz, now the director of the French Cultural Center (CCF) in Yogyakarta.

Last year, he designed a bimonthly literature reading program in collaboration with Teater Garasi and Kalangan Anak Zaman.

"I did it because Indonesians have a strong oral tradition," he said.

Launched in March 1998, the program presents literary works using a more theatrical approach.

"Sometimes we have authors read their works, sometimes we enliven the characters through actors by modifying it into a small play," said Yudi Ahmad Tagudin, the director of Teater Garasi.

Tagudin and Elbaz decide the program contents, with the creative execution left to Tagudin. More than half a dozen works of international and Indonesian authors have been staged.

"The first was one of Kahlil Gibran's essays. Then Saman by Ayu Utami, poems by Sitok Srengenge and the new, unpublished lyric prose of Linus (Suryadi). We also read short stories of Yogyakarta's young authors," said Tagudin

Some of the authors, like Ayu Utami, have come to Yogyakarta for question-and-answer sessions after the readings. Sitok gave a reading of his works.

"Linus read his prose accompanied by gamelan music and dance," said Tagudin.

The latest event was a show last Saturday of The Little Prince, the famous fairy tale by French author Antoine de Saint- Exupery.

"It was the audience's request to stage a French literary work since this is a program by CCF. I just read the book a few months back and was instantly charmed," said Tagudin.

The Little Prince is an allegorical tale that wittily offers philosophical perspectives through its main character, a universal theme which appeals to children and adults. On the night, Tagudin arranged a small play with three actors -- including himself -- playing the characters. An animated version of the play, taken from a CD-Rom, was flashed intermittently on a large screen.

Tagudin read the part of the story's narrator, Arti Wulandari was the Prince and Kusen Adipahadi won most of the laughs in witty cameos as a rose, a drunkard, a numbers-fixated businessman, a pathetic king and a few more.

The result -- despite the old, rigid translation of publisher Pustaka Jaya -- was a flowing and amusing performance, complete with musical illustrations and subtle lighting of the actors. In the absence of the traditional theatrical stage set, the performance never failed to invite spontaneous laughter and giggles for every funny line and ironic twist in the story.

One of the amused audience members was Elbaz himself.

"I trusted Yudhi with the execution and I hadn't seen the program until tonight. I'm surprised that it turned out very well."

The reading, this time of the whole book, ran about two hours, with half of the audience members staying on for the discussion titled "Recalling Fairy tales that Have Shaped Our Awareness" with Elisabeth D. Prasetyo. A co-translator of Indonesian fairy tales and the writer of her own, she presented her paper on the subject.

"It amazes me as well (the number of visitors)," said Tagudin.

Elbaz added: "The record was when we read excerpts of Ayu Utami's book, Saman. We held it for two days and we were forced to limit the number of people because of the auditorium's limited capacity."

The auditorium was packed with youngsters who paid Rp 2,000 for nonmembers of the French-Indonesia Institute, as CCF Yogyakarta is popularly known, and half-price for members. The credit goes to Kalangan Anak Zaman -- an umbrella organization of Teater Garasi -- which arranged ticket sales, promotion and production back-up.

The program, especially the last session of The Little Prince, also is being considered for CCF offices in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya.

"For the next session, we still don't have fixed ideas. That is what's (typical) of this program -- we can make it very actual and practical. Like when we decided to have Ayu Utami read her work, knowing that she would come to Yogyakarta to attend another event," said Elbaz.

Will French literature be a mainstay of the program?

"It doesn't have to be so," Elbaz said. "It has been so since the beginning. The main target is to attract Indonesians to read literary works -- then hopefully they will eventually read French works."

The experimental approach seems to have worked well. Many people flocked to the amphitheater auditorium on Saturday night despite the concert by famous Bandung rock group /rif at a nearby sports hall. Instead, they paid a few thousand rupiah to be lulled into the world of a foreign fairy tale.