Drama bridges RI-Japan cultural gap
By Bakdi Soemanto
YOGYAKARTA (JP): A play was performed on two consecutive days here last week at the Hidang Kesenian arts center, which once housed a Yogyakartan nobleman. The performance took place in the center's pendhapa (hall) over two days, Dec. 6 and Dec. 7, in the area of Nataprajan.
It was a unique production in the way it was presented. The actors were from Yogyakarta's Indonesian Institute of the Arts and from the Boat Theater of Japan. They spoke Indonesian and Japanese at the same time but strangely seemed to understand each other.
The story of the play revolves around two knights from different tribes at war. Karna, who sides with Korawa, is matched against his younger brother Arjuna from Pandhawa in the Kurusetra battlefield to execute the scenario planned by the gods.
They were both Kunti's sons but from different fathers. Karna was the son of Surya, the god of the sun, while Arjuna's father was Pandhu, who formerly reigned Hastina, now owned by the Korawas.
The battle of the Bharatayudha is a war between two tribes who have the same ancestor, Bharata. Despite the Mahabharata's touch, the production is a new interpretation of an old story with which Yogyakartans are familiar.
The opening scene is a main road on which foreign tourists and townspeople are taking walks. The god Surya (Fajar Suharno) is riding a becak and enjoying the lovely evening when a car suddenly hits him. He is not hurt but the becak driver is wounded seriously. Surya, in his monolog, says that he is going to go to Nataprajan to see the production of Karna Tandang (Death of Karna).
Surya is a supernatural being that can communicate with the wandering soul of a Japanese soldier (Chomasa Tamayose) who died during the war for Indonesian independence.
Both Surya and the Japanese soldier have the same purpose. When they arrive in Nataprajan, Kunti (Yudi Aryani) decides to see Karna, who was thrown in a river as a baby for being a disgrace to the family.
As it is told in the Mahabharata, when Kunti was washing herself in the bathroom, she said a spell by mistake which invites the god Surya to make love to her and she gets pregnant. The priest, Druwoso, helps her to have a baby through one of her ears to keep her virginity intact, which is why the baby was named Karna (sanskrit for "ear").
Taken care of by a coachman who found the baby on a river bank, Karna becomes a handsome and smart boy. When he is 12 years old, the stepfather takes him to the palace of Hastina, where he is trained to be a warrior. He is then appointed supreme commander of Hastina's troops.
Realizing that both of her sons are going to fight against each other in battle, Kunti wants to stop them. Karna (Bambang Pudjasworo) pays no attention to what Kunti is saying. Insisting that nothing can be done, Karna asks permission to leave and die, for he knows that he will be defeated by Arjuna for the sake of the Pandhawas' victory.
On the battlefield, Karna is hit by the magic arrow of Arjuna (Ben Suharto) and dies.
Before he falls down to the ground, the wandering soul of the Japanese soldier enters Karna's dead body and starts talking about his past experiences.
Not only does he regret what happened during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, he says that he misses his family, whom he never met because he was transplanted from his country to a destination for a purpose he had never known.
Karna says that everybody everywhere is in danger. According to him, the war exists in forms that no one can do anything about. Man is seemingly doomed to annihilate himself from within as he is unconsciously enslaved by his own mysterious destructiveness.
Surya comes over to ask the Japanese soldier's soul to leave Karna's body. The soul leaves the body and the actor recovers.
The production was truly beautiful for the modesty of the directing, costume designs and dialog. It created a wonderful feeling of peace and serenity in its dramatic rhythm from beginning till end. It reminded me of the Mahabharata movie directed by Peter Brook, whose message was basically to build a new world.
Director Takuo Endo, assisted by Ben Suharto, successfully bridged the cultural gap between Indonesia and Japan in terms of language and costume. The music highlights the views of the two worlds which come together in the spirit of brotherhood and mutual understanding.
Combining reality and myth beckons people to think of life's mysteries as reflected by old buildings erected hundreds of years ago.
Some scenes needed to be polished, in terms of dialog and acting, but this was one of the best productions that Yogyakarta has ever had. The Japan Foundation, which financed it, must be very proud.