Flying with 'Peter Pan' brings back childhood fantasy

By Mariam K. Sutalaksana

JAKARTA (JP): What would be a better way to spend the weekend with your family than to revisit the childhood fantasy of a flying boy in green, lost boys, dancers and defeatable crooks?

This weekend at Taman Ismail Marzuki's Graha Bhakti Budaya, Central Jakarta, the Namarina Ballet School is performing Peter Pan, an ambitious musical combining fun music, creative sets and entertaining choreography.

The show, which runs for two days, opened last night, and is a quality alternative for child entertainment in the city.

The show's opening flying tricks, using the patented Flying by Foy technique from the United States, carried the audience into a make-believe world that was amusing and fun. This is the first time this technique is being used in a live performance in Indonesia.

For those familiar with the tale of Peter Pan, this Indonesian musical version brings a new look to the fantasy. Using prerecorded dialog with a mixture of computer-programmed and live synthesized music created by Fariz RM, Dian AGP and Didi AGP, the show proved to be lively in most parts, especially with the help of sound effects, including those for Tinkerbell's wand.

Creating the ballet's score was a new experience for these musicians. Using the Peter Pan cartoon as a reference, they worked together with the choreographers, creating a theme tune that recurs throughout the performance.

Each character's signature tune was also played whenever they were in a scene. Included was a primitive melody for Tiger Lily, the Indian Princess, Peter's melodious theme and Captain Hook's funky music.

The dancing was slightly overshadowed by the brilliance of the costumes and the sets. The underwater scene had prancing sea horses, twirling jellyfishes, brightly colored fish and cute pieces of seaweed filling the backdrop.

The underwater scene's lighting, waving backdrop and fancy costumes, was a pleasing sight for a short while, however, there was just a little verbosity in the music and choreography.

The audience was dazzled by too much of the same stimulant. The sets were creative and the overall package of a never never land fantasy world, where Peter Pan resides, was geared toward greater entertainment value.

Jazzy

Most of the dances were basic ballet choreography made to fit the characters, while the style for Captain Hook and the pirates was more jazzy. The only display of real ballet technique could be seen in a trio made up of two mermaids and Peter Pan. The dances were just dances but different from most of the other ballet performances in Indonesia.

The show has an added entertainment value. Peter Pan is played by Edmund Gaerlan, a Filipino ballet dancer, while the female characters are played by Namarina's students. Captain Hook is played by Henry Jones.

There will be two performances today, one in the morning and one in the evening, with tickets costing Rp 40,000 and Rp 60,000.

With a production cost of Rp 175 million, the show is quite a large-scale production for an Indonesian ballet. Maya Tamara, the artistic director for the ballet school, said that this is just the start to creating musicals. In the future, perhaps, a larger production can be held. With the help of both government and private sponsorship, a greater dance scene may see more quality oriented musical productions by the nation's ballet troupes.