Lampung theater group gives 'Rashomon' a Malay twist
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post/Bandarlampung
A robbery occurred on the road to Yamashina town.
The victims were a martial arts fighter, Rustam, and his wife, Maesaroh. News about this robbery, which was followed by a murder, spread far and wife rapidly.
Mat Tholibun bin Samiun was arrested. He, Maesaroh and the soul of Rustam made statements about the robbery and murder.
The three gave different versions, with each claiming version was correct. They claimed to be respectable human beings and wanted to be treated as such. Finally, the interests of each made it harder to get to the truth.
Filled with satire and tragedy, Rashomon (The Bandits), a play by famous Japanese playwright Ryunosuke Akutagawa, dwells on problems related to lies, love and truth.
Lampung's Teater Komunkas Berkat Yakin, generally referred to as Teater Kober (Kober Theatrical Group), performed an adaptation of this play in a uniquely Lampung Malay folk theatrical style.
Director Ari Pahala Hutabarat injected life into this adaptation of Rashomon and made it contextually relevant to our contemporary problems.
The adaptation of Rashomon is indeed very interesting as it is a reminder of the story of Ken Arok, later the king of the Singosari Kingdom in Central Java.
When a robber, Ken Arok was attracted by Ken Dedes' thighs, which were exposed while she was getting out of a coach. Ken Dedes was the wife of Tunggul Ametung, the regent of Tumapel.
Secretly, Ken Arok had an ambition to possess Ken Dedes and at the same time seize power from Tunggul Ametung. He went to Empu Gandring, a famous kris maker, to have a kris made for him. The kris was later used to take the lives of Empu Gandring, Kebo Ijo (a palace guard), Tunggul Ametung, Tohjaya (Tunggul Ametung's son), Anusapati (Ken Arok's son) and Ken Arok himself.
Robber Mat Tholibun also did something similar to what Ken Arok did. Charmed by the beauty of Maesaroh and desiring her, he devised a ruse. He pretended to help Rustam, Maesaroh's husband, during his journey. On the way, Tholibun took Rustam to a valley to have a look at an extraordinary sword.
Intrigued by Tholibun's story about the sword, Rustam agreed to visit the valley with Tholibun and left his wife alone in the town border. Mat Tholibun tied Rustam and beat him black and blue. He also raped Maesaroh in front of Rustam.
As Tholibun would not kill someone who was powerless, he challenged Rustam to a duel. The two fought fiercely, and Rustam was killed. This was what happened according to Tholibun's version.
Rustam's soul gave a different story, though. He said Maesaroh flirted with Mat Tholibun and the two eventually had sex. Knowing that his wife had slept with another man, Rustam committed suicide after fighting with Tholibun.
Born a Batak, Ari Pahala Hutabarat, a Lampung poet and dramatist, used the folk theatrical concept for this performance.
In this way, the players were close to the audience. For the stage, he used the arena concept, not a conventional proscenium, usually used in modern theatrical performances.
Consequently, there was only an imaginary line separating the players and the audience. Members of the audience sat on the ground and could readily respond to the dialog of the play.
About his choice of the folk theatrical concept, Ari argued that it was a concept Indonesian audiences were familiar with. This concept is used in folk theatrical performances in many regions across the country, such as ketoprak and ludruk in Java, lenong and topeng Betawi in Jakarta, randai in Minang, didong in Aceh and warahan in Lampung.
The performance of Rashomon by Teater Kober very clearly showed the influence of warahan, a folk drama with didactic themes. The beginning and the end of the adapted play, at least, offered pieces of advice.
Lampung characteristics were very prominent in the performance of this adaptation of Rashomon, discernible not only in the scene division but also in the names of the characters, the costumes, the music, the movement and the props of the players (for example, brooms made of the veins of coconut palm fronds).
Mat Thalibun bin Samiun is obviously a Malay name. To show that this adaptation of a Japanese play offered a reality most intimate to the Indonesian audience, one of the scenes featured Pak Haji, a haj wearing a black peci (felt cap) and loose black silk trousers usually worn by martial arts fighters, with a prayer rug carried on one of his shoulders.
The heart-rending sound of a Lampung flute, the dynamic movement of rakot, a martial art form from Lampung, and the heart-rending belting of hahiwang blended together in a smooth- flowing and captivating performance. Hahiwang, a piece of oral literature from Krui, West Lampung, contains a lamentation for the dead.
The adoption of traditional elements by Teater Kober in its performance shows that life is a perennial problem for everybody. At the same time, it also shows that the beauty of art is universal in nature. The beautiful sadness you find in Japan can also be found in Lampung or elsewhere in the world.
The adaption of a foreign play is nothing new in Indonesia, with this being the ninth for Teater Kober, among them an adaptation of Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot, Chekhov's Afternoon in the Garden and William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
On the reason for including the Malay element in the adaptation of Rashomon, Ari said his theatrical group wanted to offer dramatic movement and sounds that were familiar to the audience.
"Our interpretation of Rashomon has been adjusted to social conditions familiar to our Lampung environment. It is the tug-of- war between the text and the context that we have tried to present," Ari said.
"Like the blaring of rock `n roll music, our performance tried to create a similar effect. We tried to give sound to silence with the rhythm of our bodies and that of nature. This performance was like the Japanese short poetry haiku: simple, imaginative and sublime," he added.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa was one of Japan's great dramatists and writers. Born in Tokyo on March 1, 1892, he studied English literature at the Royal University in Tokyo and graduated in 1913. In reputation, he was on a par with the great French writer Gustave Flaubert. Aside from Rashomon, he also wrote Hell, Kappa, Death, A Christian, The General, In the Forest, Mirage and Life of a Madman, among others.
On July 24, 1927, Akutagawa committed suicide for unknown reasons. However, when he was still alive, he once said that if he ever committed suicide the reason, most probably, would be "the fog of fear".
After World War I, when many writers dwelled on the naturalism of sex and politics, Akutagawa went back to the mysticism of traditional folklore and Japan's ancient legends.
Rashomon was filmed by great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and was internationally acclaimed.
Rashomon was performed in the Hall of Center for Students Activities, Lampung University (Sept. 29) and, also in the old hall of the Pedagogy School of Lampung University (Sept. 30).
In Jakarta, was scheduled to be performed in the New Workshop at Ismail Marzuki Park (TIM), Jl. Cikini Raya 73 (Oct. 7) and in Utan Kayu Theater (TUK) (Oct. 14 and Oct. 15). Later, it will be performed all over Indonesia.