JP/20/ENTHUS

JP/20/ENTHUS

Controversy over Enthus Susmono's puppet-mastery standard
guideline

Blontank Poer
The Jakarta Post
Semarang

A standard guideline, or pakem, is like a scary ghost for
traditional artists. Many artists have been considered violators
of standard values, while others are said to pay little respect
to the noble values of our cultural legacy.

It has frequently been the case, however, that the artist
would simply like to interpret the pakem, which is abstract and
has no clear parameters, and adjust it to the value system
developing in society.

Pakem is a gray area and in this context a person's interest
is the dominant factor in interpretation, especially when this
person is accused of deviating from the guideline.

The proof is that the people accused of violating the
prevailing pakem are mostly those who are successful in the
market. They have good fortune as they receive a lot of requests
for performances.

The controversy over Ki Enthus Susmono, a Javanese leather
puppet master, is a case in point. Hailing from Slawi, Tegal
regency, Central Java, he used to be the target of ridicule and
criticism by academic experts of puppet mastery and several
popular puppet masters.

Enthus includes in his performances such famous television
characters as Teletubbies or the Black Steel Hero.

"I have included the Teletubbies and other popular TV
characters to persuade children to enjoy shadow puppet shows. I
hope that, in this way, shadow puppet shows will not be eclipsed
by western arts, which are often more interesting," said Enthus.

Enthus insists that he has deviated from the shadow puppet
pakem. He argues that the additional imaginary characters he
includes in his performances do not disturb the narrative or the
performance on a whole.

"These characters will appear only in mock battles, in which
ghosts or ogres, which are imaginary, too, will turn up."

It is his "eccentricity" that makes him popular. The public
accept his presence and his performances always pack the venue.
He receives four to 15 requests for performances a month for
about Rp 25 million each.

He also attempts to respond to the public by continuing to
develop his shadow puppets, either the leather or wooden ones.
Some 100 leather and wooden puppets of his own creation have just
been put on display at the Surakarta Indonesian Institute of
Arts (STSI).

Although his puppets still resemble the original characters in
terms of type and shape, their sizes are bigger and the color is
suited to the need of the performance.

To enrich his knowledge and maturity, Enthus is learning from
some puppet master figures, such as Ki Manteb Sudarsono, about
sabet (techniques in making battle scenes) and dialog, and also
from puppet masters and lecturers on shadow puppet shows at STSI
Surakarta, Bambang Suwarno, about the types of shadow puppets.

To enhance his skills, he has also taken lessons from several
wooden puppet masters in West Java, such as Asep Sunandar
Sunarya, a Sundanese wooden puppet master.

Enthus became a puppet master after his father, who was also
one, died in 1983. His father, Sumaryo Diharjo, was a leather and
cepak wooden puppet master. Cepak wooden puppet shows are unique
to the northern coastal area of Java with stories about Amir
Hamzah or the propagation of Islam in Java.

"As I had accompanied my father during his performances in
various places, logically his fans wanted me to replace him and I
couldn't refuse. That was how I was compelled to learn how to
perform a shadow puppet show," said Enthus, adding that at the
time he had just turned 18 and completed high school.

Slowly but surely he began to make a name for himself. As he
did not think he was good enough, he limited the frequency of his
shows and spent a lot of time learning from famous puppet
masters.

Enthus was a fast learner. Between late 1989 and early 1990 he
performed shadow puppet shows for six full months on a very tight
schedule. In three days, he had performed twice and traveled to
other regencies.

After winning widespread recognition, Enthus began to
experiment in his shows and offered fresh ideas in puppet
mastery. Among other things, he included fictional characters,
such as the Black Steel Hero, Batman and many others in between
the scenes of shadow puppet shows.

He featured established shadow puppet characters, such as
Gatotkaca in a flying position or ogre Dasamuka twice the
original size. Since the public did not object to this innovation
he continued with his experiments.

He is talented as a puppet master and has long hair and an
unconventional appearance.

His good voice and mastery of dialogs, which feature different
characters' voices, as well as his excellent ability to perform
sabet and his mastery of gamelan music compositions have enabled
him in a relatively short time to be on equal ground with his
seniors, such as Ki Anom Suroto and Ki Manteb Sudarsono of the
Surakarta style, Ki Hadi Sugito of Yogyakarta and Asep Sunandar
Sunarya, who is a Sundanese wooden puppet master.

However, Enthus is not completely free from accounting for his
ethics in what he has experimented with as a puppet master. His
good knowledge of religious teachings has lent weight to his
performances, because the word dalang (puppet master) can be
construed as an acronym originating from two words ngudhal
piwulang, or propagating virtues. Unfortunately, in his
performances he often uses obscene or suggestive phrases.

His critics, such as Murtidjono, the head of the Central Java
Cultural Park, said his use of obscenities could put his career
at risk.

"As he uses swear words too much, this will harm him and the
art of puppet mastery," Murtidjono said.

Enthus lives with his second wife, Nurlaela, and they are
awaiting their fourth child. Enthus lives and runs his Satia Lara
workshop out of Bengle village in the Talang district of Tegal
regency, which employs some 50 singers of traditional Javanese
songs and gamelan players.

The troupe is ready to travel to various cities in Indonesia
to accompany his shadow puppet shows. He has a bus, truck and car
ready to take the troupe anywhere they are needed. Two sets of
leather puppets and wooden puppets plus two sets of gamelans are
ready to accompany him wherever he performs.