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.