French deaf artists to perform 'Antigone' in Jakarta

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): The universality of Sophocles' tragedy Antigone is proven by its worldwide stage adaptations in English, Indonesian, French and other languages. But, in sign language?

It can, and it will be performed here.

Some deaf artists and hearing-able ones from the France-based International Visual Theater (IVT) will be performing Antigone in sign language at Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center's Graha Bhakti Budaya on April 11 and April 12.

The performance is the highlight of Jakarta's Center Cultural Francais' April programs that focus on sign language.

Thierry Roisin, the collaborating stage director from Beaux Quartiers theater company, said that their Antigone is an experiment to blend a classical play and a new language.

"I do foresee, however, that our work will be more of a re- creation of a play than a modern adaptation," said Roisin, who had worked with IVT's Les Pierres (1990) prior to Antigone.

This Antigone performance, however, has an ambiguous stance with the silence. On one hand, Roisin leaves complete space for silence and the signs by letting the stage be simple and bare.

On the other hand, it won't be a totally silent performance. A couple of characters will be speaking spoken and sign dialog. Music will also accompany this production, thanks to the efforts of Beaux Quartiers composer, Francois Morrilier.

During Antigone's first production in 1995, Morrilier had struggled by trial and error to explore how certain sounds worked out on the actors, whom he affectionately called "silent singers".

The result is the dominance of raw acoustic materials, such as sound effects, acoustical instruments, strings, orchestral fragments on tape, rhythmic body movements and voices of sighs.

IVT's history started in 1976, when a group of young deaf people decided to venture into the world of theater and break all the dependence on spoken words and dialog.

Roisin and IVT boast about starting out the hype of sign language theater with the production of Gertrude Stein's Les Pierres (1990). Heightened with the official recognition of sign language in 1991, the artistic community has expressed a spark of new interest in sign language productions. Other productions with different directors followed, such as Les Enfants du Silence, Vole mon Dragon, and Hanna.

Nonetheless, Roisin warns of a danger to all of this: "That of becoming too fashionable."

An artist rarely stays to conform, and that includes those at IVT as well. After a series of militant performances, the 15- strong theater troupe started exploring a more classical repertory. And they opted for Antigone and performed it at the prestigious Avignon Festival in 1995.

First produced in Athens about 440 BC, Antigone, the sequel of Sophocles' Oedipus, depicts more than a heroic devotion of the maid Antigone to honor her deceased brother. It is also a story of conflicting ethical values. Which one should prevail: the law of religion or the law of state?

Some actions even started before the play. Polynices, a brother of Antigone (Emmanuelle Laborit), had led an army against Thebes to dethrone another brother, Eteocles. After each brother had died by each other's hand, Creon (Simon Attia), Eteocles' successor as Thebes ruler, decided that Eteocles was to be buried with honor but Polynices was to be unmourned and left as birds' prey.

At this point, the play begins. Antigone, the daughter from an incestuous marriage between Oedipus and his mother Jocanta, emerge from the royal palace with her sister Ismene (Fanny Rudelle). They are discussing Creon's decree. Antigone tries to persuade Ismene to help her bury Polynices' body, believing that the religious duty to bury the dead transcends any political command.

Ismene refuses, but promises not to betray her sister. Thus, Antigone proceeds alone. She succeeds in burying Polynices, but Creon somehow hears about her deed. He has the body disinterred and condemns Antigone to death.

Ismene pleads for Antigone, and so does Creon's son, Haemon (Laurent Valo), who is betrothed to Antigone. Nonetheless, Haemon's argument with Creon only angers his father, and Antigone is condemned into a more ruthless punishment. She is to be sealed alive in a cave outside Thebes.

Prophet Teiresias (Jean Francois La Bouverie) warns Creon that Haemon will die if Polynices is not buried and Antigone is not released.

But, it is too late to prevent Antigone from hanging herself. In his grief at the death of his beloved, Haemon commits suicide, leaving Creon's heart broken and crushed.

"The sign language is the first language of the performance," Roisin promises, "But the music and the spoken words will not be absent. Teiresias and Ismene will use both sign and spoken languages."

With or without words uttered, Roisin is optimistic that the sign language theater has a universal understanding of emotions.

"Its literal meaning is hard to pin down; what counts is emotion," he said. The most obvious example is that somebody's signing "I love you" will always be understood.

Those who don't understand sign language need not worry about understanding this 14-act performance. There will be a projection of a written summary at the beginning of each act.

Besides producing Antigone, Roisin and the IVT troupe will also lead workshops on sign-language theater at the studio of Jakarta's Institute of Arts from April 10 to April 13.

And, for those who wish to have a more "realistic" view of the deaf's everyday life, a documentary film, titled Les Pays des Sourds (Land of the Deaf), will be screened at Center Cultural French deaf artists to perform 'Antigone' in JakartaFrancais from April 1 to April 13.