Indonesian play to run in Brunei Darussalam

By C.G. Asmara

JAKARTA (JP): Teater Mandiri, under the direction of Putu Wijaya, will perform YEL as part of the Fourth ASEAN Theater Festival, from Aug. 18 to 26, in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.

This year's festival will host one performance from each member country, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. ASEAN's newest member, Vietnam, will not be performing this year.

The performances will be held in the Dewan Raya, Radio Television Brunei, a small theater that seats approximately 400 people.

Besides performances from the member countries, the Festival will also feature lectures/demonstrations on acting, directing, production design, literature and playwrighting, as well as theater and stage management.

Putu Wijaya will also present a paper on directing.

This new production of YEL is a combination of two performances: YEL (1991) and AUM (1982, 1993). YEL is a spectacle without dialog. There is no plot and there are no characters. It consists only of images drawn from traditional and contemporary theaters of Indonesian images, evoking different aspects of life in a dynamic and changing Indonesia. AUM is about a world where everyday events become increasingly bizarre, so bizarre that they cannot be explained, not even by the elders, the government, or religious leaders. For example, in a certain village, heads spontaneously separate from bodies. Men, as well as women become pregnant, and there are men with animal faces and many arms like the character Dasamuka from the world of the shadow puppets. Eventually the unexplainable becomes so overwhelming that the villagers self-destruct. The only answer they can find is to commit mass suicide in order to protest their continuing ignorance in a world out-of-control.

YEL was first performed in Jakarta in 1991 and then toured the United States under the auspices of The Festival of Indonesia, a year-long joint American/Indonesian project commemorating Indonesian culture. YEL's four-city tour, to Middletown in Connecticut, New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle, was met with much acclaim by those who saw the production and by those who participated in the accompanying performance workshops.

AUM has been performed twice by Teater Mandiri, in Jakarta in 1982 and 1993, and is considered by many to be Teater Mandiri's signature piece. The English version of AUM (ROAR) was also staged by Putu Wijaya four times in the Unites States, between 1986 and 1988, in Wisconsin and Connecticut, and at La Mama ETC, an Off-Off Broadway theater in New York City.

YEL (1995) is a performance that touches all the senses. An opening whiff of incense; composer Harry Roesli's signature loud music; designer Roedjito's stark set and innovative lighting; and the closing wind and dust whipping the audience's faces as a black curtain is vigorously shaken to produce rolling waves. From the moment enigmatic figures appear in the darkness, moving across the stage making abstract designs in the air with the orange points of burning incense sticks, the audience is drawn into a bizarre world of images, that are bombarded relentlessly at them for fifty minutes.

The first half of the performance, or tontonan as Putu prefers his performances to be called, takes place behind a giant white screen, where both actors and puppets (traditional and original) perform a type of nightmarish wayang kulit (shadow puppet play). Images merge and dissolve, grow and shrink, change color and undulate. Teater Mandiri's members have clearly spent a great deal of time experimenting with different ways of creating shadows on a screen.

Eventually the actors break through the screen and the tontonan slowly shifts downstage, where the audience is presented with an eerie figure of a Balinese sang hyang trance dancer swaying in semi-darkness. Soon, other members of the cast move downstage making innovative use of a large black curtain that seems to effortlessly transform from the body of a swaying beast wearing a white death mask, to the consuming waves of an angry ocean.

Harry Roesli's music simultaneously accompanies and drives the performance. At times it is disturbingly loud and at other times mysterious. His composition is made up of sampled pieces of original electronic and computer generated sounds and melodies, along with traditional Indonesian music, such as Balinese kecak (clapping) and Sundanese vocal music. The result is an eclectic mix that has a three-dimensional quality to it.

In this new production of YEL, it is up to the spectators to interpret the images, to create their own stories based on their feelings. The use of traditional performance elements in YEL is not based on any previously established formulas but with the objective of capturing new possibilities. It shows that the spirit of traditional theater is still relevant in contemporary society and is an effective medium for communicating and interacting with a present-day audience.

Other members of the production include Teater Mandiri performers Yanto Kribo, Arswendi Nasution, Ade Mawar, Ucok Hutagaol, Fien Herman, Dwi Hastuti, Acak Winarso, Dang Rachmat, Aguy, Hadi Herman, Wanda, and Corin Danu Asmara; Musician Ruli Hairul Handiman; Stage Manager Corin Danu Asmara; and Company Manager Dewi Pramunawati. YEL was conceived, written, and directed by Putu Wijaya.