Ki Enthus Susmono offers innovative puppetry performance

Ki Enthus Susmono offers innovative puppetry performance

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

The younger generation mostly considers wayang (shadow play with leather puppets) dull and boring.

Yet, that is apparently not so in the case of performances by noted puppeteer Ki Enthus Susmono from Tegal, Central Java.

His recent performance in the auditorium of state radio station RRI Semarang proved so. The audience, who were mostly students of elementary and junior and senior high schools, did not leave the venue until the two-hour show had completely ended.

And that was not all. Throughout the show, laughter and applause were often heard in response to the puppeteer's performance.

It was not because of the language he used -- Javanese. Instead it was due to the stunning theatrical performance of the wayang show.

In the hands of Enthus, who is also known as a dhalang gendheng or dhalang edan (mad puppeteer), the puppets undeniably look very alive. They can fly into the air beautifully, kick energetically, avoid attacks nicely, or even jump into the audience in an amusing way.

The accompanying music, too, usually played by some 75 musicians, was no less interesting. It did not simply consist of gamelan music, as in a conventional wayang performance, but also involved music produced by modern musical instruments like the keyboard and drums.

"I just don't want to be dictated to by the so-called pakem or the dramatic conventions of wayang performance. I can construct my own pakem. To me, it's the philosophy that matters in puppetry," Enthus said.

That is also the reason why Enthus can open his performance with almost any scene -- not always with what is called the jejer scene, which portrays, climatically, scenes of war.

Enthus can start his performance with a war scene or the comical scene of Limbuk-Cangik, humorous dialog between two wayang characters, Limbuk and Cangik, which represents grassroots society. This particular scene is usually played as an intermezzo in a conventional wayang performance.

In terms of language, too, Enthus does not restrict himself to high Javanese. Instead, he often uses languages that conventional puppeteers might consider as coarse. Javanese in Banyumas, Tegal, or Semarang dialect, Indonesian or slang are not unusual in Enthus' wayang performances.

The way he moves the puppets, too, is an integral part of the dialogs. Instead of using long, boring speeches, he incorporates it into meaningful movements of the puppets. It is as if he changes the pakeliran (screen) into a film screen in which he is the director and the puppets are the players.

Many have referred to his style as the pesisiran (coastal) style, which is completely different to the mainstream Yogyakarta and Surakarta styles.

The fact that he has been addressed as Ki Enthus Dhalang Saka Tegal (or puppeteer Ki Enthus of Tegal) indicates his coastal style of Javanese shadow puppet performance. "I want this particular style to become a kind of virus that will quickly infect other puppeteers," he said, laughing.

Besides language, the difference between the pesisiran style and that of Yogyakarta or Surakarta also lies in the puppets themselves. Although most of the puppets used still have the same appearance, those in the pesisiran style mostly have much brighter colors.

Enthus, too, has created some 500 to 600 new wayang characters for his play. These include military tanks, helicopters, Superman, and other comic strip heroes. In a performance held in East Java, for example, he once portrayed then East Java Governor Basofi Sudirman.

On other occasions he presented the characters of world leaders like George W. Bush or Saddam Hussein.

It is probably because of these innovative steps that Ki Enthus' play is more easily accepted among younger people and schoolchildren. One thing is for sure: It is because of this he is also often nicknamed Dhalang mbeling (naughty puppeteer).

Originally from Dampyak village, Kramat subdistrict, Tegal, who grew up mostly in the village of Bengle, Talang subdistrict, Tegal, where he runs Sanggar Satria Laras, Enthus was born to a puppeteer family.

His father, Ki Sumaryodihardjo, was a noted puppeteer in Tegal, while his elder brother, Sudirman, is one of the most popular puppeteers in Pemalang, also in Central Java.

His skill in puppetry was learned mainly from his father.

"My father always reminds me to insert religious messages into my plays. And I have done so to date," said Enthus, who also claims to have received support from noted Muslim cleric, poet, and culturalist Musthofa Bisri, or Gus Mus as he is affectionately called, from Rembang, Central Java.

That accounts for why he often brings in qasidah, religious chants in Arabic sung to the rhythm of the gambus (a kind of six- stringed, plucked instrument of Arabic origin), in his performance. He even requires his sinden (singers), of which there are usually eight, to cover their heads while performing in his plays.

Strong criticism has, however, been aimed at him, especially regarding the way he performs wayang and the language he uses.

What is his response?

"What matters to me is that the messages we want to convey through the performance reach the target audience. Please don't analyze a wayang performance in terms of its individual components," said father of four, Enthus.

Thanks to his innovation, he was elected best performer during the Central Java Professional Puppeteer Festival held in Surakarta last year. He was also awarded with an honorary doctorate from The Institute of Business Management & Arts (IBMA), which is affiliated with The International University (TIU) Missouri, U.S., in January this year.

"I consider myself as still young. I still have much time and opportunity to develop," he said on his future career.