'I La Galigo' goes on tour to the Big Apple

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a series of sell-outs in Singapore and four countries in Europe, the music-dance-theater piece I La Galigo is expected to be staged at one of the world's finest arts venues, the Lincoln Center, New York.

The performance, inspired by Sureq Galigo, an epic poem of Bugis people of South Sulawesi, will hit the stage from July 13 through July 16.

Directed by internationally acclaimed director Robert Wilson, the performance will have a full Indonesian cast of 50 actors, musicians, dancers and martial artists from all parts of the country.

The sprawling, three-hour-plus play will chronicle the creation of the Middle World and the first generations of its inhabitants.

The colossal theater consists of 12 scenes that last for a total three hours 15 minutes, with no intermission.

The script for the theater production was transcribed from a voluminous 14th century poem, which developed as part of oral tradition throughout Sulawesi; it is longer than the Mahabarata and comparable only to the adventures of Ulysses in Homer's Odyssey.

To garner much-needed publicity for the New York show, the theater's production team has launched a massive marketing campaign in the U.S. media.

The production team also planned to hold a photo exhibition to accompany the stage performance and an independent music concert featuring the I La Galigo score composed by ethnomusicologist Rahayu Supanggah.

The play's artistic coordinator Restu Imansari Kusumaningrum said that the planned New York show would come as a major event for the Indonesian artists involved in the productions, for not only had they managed to break into a world-class venue, but they had done it without Wilson behind the director's seat.

"Ever since the third production, Wilson has given up his seat to his assistant, Rama Soeprapto. It is now Rama who is calling the shots," Restu told a press briefing last week.

She added that it was not possible for Wilson to oversee the theater production the whole time as the American director had a commitment for up 50 theater projects a year.

A number of players from I La Galigo have signed contracts to perform in other world-class theater productions.

The production team has also decided to bring I La Galigo home by planning to stage the show in three cities: Jakarta, Bali and Makassar.

The play will hit the Jakarta stage in December this year, while the two other cities will have their turn in mid-2006.

"In Bali and Makassar I La Galigo will be performed in the open air; therefore, some adjustments will be made," Restu said.