Ghandi school stages a piece of 'epic theater'

Mario Koch, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Man and technology, technology and man -- this highly strained relationship is at the core of The Mobile Grave.

Grade ten students of Gandhi Memorial International School, Kemayoran, North Jakarta, undertook a true challenge in staging Nigerian playwright Fred Kayondo's work in the school's auditorium on Friday.

The central theme of the play is portrayed in a series of episodic scenes that deal with two deadly road accidents that occur on the same spot, on the same day.

In the first, the drunken fiance of Miss Indonesia, deeply frustrated by her popularity in contrast to his own perceived insignificance, steers their car into a pedestrian. The latter, earlier ironically honored as "the republic's most careful driver", as well as the beauty queen, are left dead.

A little later the speeding car of populist leader Mr. Mop, who is rushing from one function to the other, and an overloaded school bus, collide. This second accident leads to the deaths of both the popular figure and a young boy.

Members of the public react in outcry to the events. They stage demonstrations against ruthless driving and demand action from the government, repeatedly clashing with the police.

In the subsequent, centrally important scene, two women are forced to carry home their purchases from the market on foot due to protesters blocking the roads.

In a deliberately exaggerated dialog, one of them calls the demonstrators hooligans disrupting people's lives, whereas the other praises them as "messiahs" speaking out for their values.

Relocated from an African town to Jakarta and adapted to suit an Indonesian context, director Francis and the amateur actors presented The Mobile Grave as a fine example of "epic theater".

Typical for this genre, which is largely associated with the works of German writer Bertolt Brecht, is the renunciation of a lavish stage set and the narrative way the story is told.

Its context is set by a class of schoolchildren on an outing, who are told by their teachers the meaning of a memorial that depicts the dead in the accident, and a broken steering wheel.

By means of such alienation, epic theater, in contrast to "dramatic theater", seeks to place the spectator opposite the plot. Thus, its intention is not to draw him into the event, but to make him a critical observer, providing him with knowledge and demanding a personal reaction from him.

Director Francis, who in India wrote his PhD thesis on Brecht's works, told The Jakarta Post: "Epic theater means communicating directly with people. That is how theater as a whole becomes relevant."

Spectators are forced not to just accept what they are observing as being the natural cause of events, but to think of alternatives to the protagonists' actions.

Following a famous quote by Karl Marx, Brecht said,"The (epic) theater became an affair for philosophers, but only for such philosophers as wished not just to explain the world, but also to change it. So we had philosophy and we had instruction ..."

Unfortunately, directly following Friday's performance there was a lengthy introduction of every single contributor to the evening.

Even if they deserved the attention, the instructive element of The Mobile Grave should have been given an opportunity to unfold in the minds of the audience.

After all, that is what epic theater is all about.