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