'Cinta yang Serakah': Teater Koma's latest innovation
By Oei Eng Goan
JAKARTA (JP): Cinta yang Serakah (Greedy Love) is something new from Teater Koma, its 79th production which opens with an old wheelchair-bound tycoon being attended to by a bunch of heartless offspring and their spouses who eagerly look after his wealth but not his health.
The play resembles Greedy, an American movie about a small army of potential heirs who, according to one film review, "stoop lower than a limbo dancer to pick the pelf of a stinking-rich" wheelchair-bound Uncle Joe (played by Kirk Douglas).
Not until the play has run for a few minutes does playwright and stage director N. Riantiarno, Teater Koma's group leader, launch a coup de theatre -- a sudden dramatic change that seizes the attention of the audience -- that rightly affirms Cinta yang Serakah as his own original creation.
Riantiarno's tycoon character, unlike the Uncle Joe in Greedy, is a completely vigorous, healthy man!
Other new things which Teater Koma fans may find in the production currently being staged at TIM's Graha Bhakti Budaya theater are the prevalence of serious dialog and a sparing use of skits to criticize human greed and hypocrisy, as well as more down-to-earth acting and character portrayals.
"It's time for the players of Teater Koma to perform in a realistic manner, now that people have become tired of laughing and skits (from this theatrical group)," Riantiarno told The Jakarta Post after the dress rehearsal last week.
"In the vein of realism, we just show the bare facts of life, just as the players lay bare their acting ability," he added.
Despite his great efforts to remain true to realistic drama, the audience may still find the influence of Bertolt Brecht's "epic theater" style, where members of the audience are left to grapple with emotionless acting.
Cinta yang Serakah centers around the family of Triadi (played wonderfully by Taufan S. Chandranegara), the owner of several large companies who never hesitates to justify his means of amassing more wealth.
Aware that his days are numbered, old Triadi plans to pass on his wealth to his children so that his vast enterprises can continue to operate. He discovers, much to his despair, that all his children and their spouses -- except for the youngest, unmarried son, Bayu Buana (Budi Ros) -- have conspired to replace him as leader of the enterprises.
Triadi -- with the help of his butler, Kroso (Dudung Hadi), and personal physician, Dr. Kartono (Edi Sutarto) -- tricks the greedy children into showing their true colors, depriving them of their inheritance rights.
To achieve his goal, Triadi pretends to be gravely ill and suffering from a stroke that partly paralyzes him. Bayu, who knows the secret game his father is playing, refuses his father's offer to manage the business enterprises, saying that he'd rather be the man he is and not the sort of person his father wishes him to be.
"Besides, how can I enjoy your wealth which you have accumulated through foul play and at the expense of the poor people's suffering? Riches that you've garnered from felling trees of the pristine forest? From setting up golf courses on the poor people's plots which you have acquired at so cheap a price?" Bayu retorts.
His remarks are an obvious commentary on collusion between tycoons and officials, unfair business practices, and the government's indifferent attitude towards the environmental damage caused by deforestation and the country's ambitious development plans.
The story continues with the return of Triadi's wife, Ayuning (Ratna Riantiarno), from an overseas trip, both of whom are then kidnapped by a group of abductors. As the identities of the abductors are never revealed throughout the play, the kidnapping can be regarded as the self-expiation of Triadi and Ayuning.
Another surprise emerges when the motherly Ayuning is revealed to be a murderer, for it is she who insisted that the woman with whom Triadi had had an affair have an abortion, which ended up with her death.
The use of cliff-hangers in the story development of his play is another element not commonly found in Teater Koma's earlier productions.
A thumbs-up to Riantiarno, who proves that even the most basic human qualities such as love and greed can become evocative themes for solid theatrical performance if they are treated artistically and professionally.