Gardanalla Theater stages drama on Yogya city bus

Gardanalla Theater stages drama on Yogya city bus

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

A modern drama indeed does not always need a stage to perform.
That was true at least for Yogyakarta-based Gardanalla Theater
when it performed its latest teen act series Jalur 17 (Line 17)
last week here on a city bus while it was moving along the city's
busy street!

"The main idea is staging the play in its real setting, where
it actually takes place among daily activities, along with all
the interaction that surrounds it," Jalur 17's
scriptwriter/director Joned Suryatmoko told The Jakarta Post.

The drama tells about problems that most teenagers have to
face each day in this country regarding their pocket money, how
they spend it and how they look for additional money by either
asking for an increase from their parents or doing part-time
jobs.

The play began with a heated argument between Rini (Netty
Yustitusya Wardani), a university student, and her brother Rio
(Ignatius Emmanuel), a high school student, on their plan to
propose an increase in their monthly pocket money to their
parents, while they were on a city bus.

Rini argued that Rio should not expect too much on the planned
proposal and suggested that he accept a predictable 20 percent
increase over and above the Rp 200,000 now.

Rio, on the other hand, insisted that she propose an increase
of at least 50 percent, or even 100 percent if possible, because
he had a new things to spend money on, including his new
girlfriend.

"You're completely out of your mind!" Rini shouted.

The talks between the two siblings then continued, with Rini
mostly offering solutions on how to manage money wisely and seek
additional money elsewhere. She, for example, sold decorative
candles to her fellow students to pay for her cellular phone
expenses.

Penyo (Wisnu Aji), the bus crew member tasked with collecting
the passenger's money, often interferes in the conversation with
the typical way of such a street worker expressing things:
spitting out his opinion in an unabashed way.

Penyo, also a teenager, quit school and became a bus worker,
because that way he felt he had grown up into a big man who no
longer depended upon his parents' financial support. That way,
too, he could buy whatever he wanted without being afraid of
being told no by his parents.

"Throughout the play, we just want to show small things in our
daily life. We have no specific message to convey. It's just a
portrayal of a daily reality," the 29-year-old Joned, who is also
Gardanalla's Artistic Production Manager, said.

Established in 1997, under its initial name of Trotjoh Group,
Gardanalla Theater has since 2001 focused more on the realism
style. To realize that, they used what they called the everyday-
life-studies approach to develop a play.

The focus, too, is mostly on a small phenomenon in the
community, which sometimes does not seem to have much
significance.

"Yet, once it is further traced, it often leads us to a much
bigger problem. The problem of pocket money, for example, can
lead us to the bigger problem of the so-called consumerism
culture," Joned argued.

Jalur 17's data collector and analyst Kurniawan Adi Saputro
said that while conducting the interviews on which the script was
based and developed, he found an interesting relation between
teenagers' pocket money, their consumption patterns and their
ways of managing money.

"With pocket money, teenagers learn how to manage their
desires through daily activities like paying for the
transportation expenses, a meal with a girlfriend or a boyfriend,
the cell phone bill, fuel or getting additional money," Kurniawan
said.

Jalur 17 is the third and last episode of Gardanalla's teen
act series that it launched back in 2003. The first series,
Ayahku Stroke Tapi Nggak Mati (My Father Gets Stroke But Does Not
Die), was staged in December 2003 in Yogyakarta and Taman Ismail
Marzuki in Jakarta. The second, Ah, Kamu ...! (Ah, You ...!), was
staged in several venues in Yogyakarta on May 2004.

"This time, though, we chose a city bus to stage it," said
Joned, adding that Jalur 17 had won an art grant of nearly Rp 17
million, with which the production cost of the play was mainly
funded, from the Jakarta-based Yayasan Kelola this year for the
category of innovative work.

It was the second such grant that Gardanalla Theater received
from the same foundation. Previously, it also won a grant in 2001
for Tiga Dara (Three Girls), an adaptation of a movie by Usmar
Ismail, in the tour performance category. The play was staged at
a number of cities including Yogyakarta, Tasikmalaya (West Java),
Purwokerto (Central Java) and Surakarta (also in Central Java).

The two-hour play Jalur 17 performance last week was started
from Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta cultural center on Jl. Suroto, as
the bus station, and was also finished there. The bus, with some
20 passengers (read: audience) on board, was equipped with a
sound system to enable the audience to follow the dialog.

Moving at a moderate speed, the bus passed through a specially
designed route that bears some of the symbols of the teenagers'
consumption pattern in the city, including malls, cafes, markets,
and fast food restaurants.

The plot was designed in such a way as if the audience were
the true passengers. They were also given Rp 1,200 each when
boarding to be given to Penyo, as the bus fee. They could also
hear other passengers talk to one another, or watch a street
musician sing songs on the bus.

In particular spots, Penyo was also often heard yelling rude
cries to reckless motorcyclists or passersby.

It was, therefore, only the number of the bus' route, 17,
which was not real. There is no such route in Yogyakarta.

"We deliberately did that (used a non-existent route number)
to give ourselves more freedom to perform what has to be
performed in Jalur 17. Besides, we don't want to disturb the
public transportation facilities while we are using this
particular public space," Joned explained.

If they had used an existing bus number, it was feared that
passengers would mistakenly stop the bus.

The number, according to Joned, was also deliberately chosen
because it is a typical age where teens face a lot of decisions.