Indonesian play to run in Brunei Darussalam

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.