Lampung theater group gives 'Rashomon' a Malay twist
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.