Nano's anxiety a part of his creativity

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A week before his latest production -- Roman Yulia -- hit the stage, noted director, actor and playwright N. Riantiarno was a nervous wreck.

Even prior to an interview with The Jakarta Post he admitted he had severe bouts of diarrhea.

Which is good, at least according to the chief of the popular theater group Teater Koma, "because if I don't get nervous that means my work has become mechanical, which is very bad in my line of work".

With 98 plays produced by Teater Koma counting the last one, and more than 35 years of experience in the business, nervousness may seem a bit on the ridiculous side, but not so according to Riantiarno. For him, no play is ever the same.

"Every time I do a new production, it feels like I am starting from scratch again, making some very basic mistakes again, and that's why I'm always nervous," Riantiarno, who is known to his friends as Nano, said. The play opened on Oct. 20 and will run until Nov. 2.

Nano's love affair with theater drama began when he was 16 years old and he had joined state radio Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) declamation group in his birthplace of Cirebon, West Java. There he met many poets, literary and theater figures, including Indra Suradi who first introduced him to the theater.

"My first performance was called Arya Pangemban, a Cirebon story, in which I played a guard holding a lance and I had only two lines to say," he said.

From that minor role, Nano found a new horizon in the theater, happiness in relationships with other artists as well as the freedom to say what was on his mind to a wider audience.

"At the time I simply thought that the theater enabled me to talk to those sitting in the audience, whether they were a president, a mayor, or anybody else who's important."

Nano's second role was as Skipio in Albert Camus' Caligula, a part he said he had fallen into because the original cast member got sick.

"They trained me day and night for the role, and that made me realize even more that this (the theater) was my calling," he said, explaining it was also a reason that made him decide to move to Jakarta right after high school.

However, Nano did not immediately have his family's approval. His father wanted him to either enter the seminary to become a priest or study economics for a career as a bank clerk.

"When I moved to Jakarta they thought I was going to UI (University of Indonesia) to take economics, when in fact I had entered ATNI (Indonesian National Theater Academy)," he laughed.

"When they found out, they barraged me with questions on how I would make a living once I graduated," Nano said, adding that at the time, even he did not have any answers.

His parents only changed their minds after seeing Nano perform in Teguh Karya's Teater Populer at Hotel Indonesia in 1968.

"Upon seeing the play, my parents said to me that perhaps I wasn't wrong to choose the theater," Nano said.

"They also saw how serious I was. At the time I studied in the mornings and took in mas Teguh's lectures on theater in the evenings."

Nano's first taste of script writing came when he won the Jakarta Art Council's script writing competition in 1972 with his work Matahari Sore Bersinar Lembayung (The Afternoon Sun Shines Crimson). This work was later staged by Teater Remaja Jakarta and made young actor Deddy Mizwar famous. It was later made into a television production with Teater Populer.

Nano's scripts won the honor four years in a row, with the last titled Lingkaran Putih (White Circle) in 1975.

His directing debut came with Teater Populer for Anton Chekhov's Pinangan (The Proposal) in 1970.

But as Teguh Karya began to lean more toward filmmaking, Nano, who saw a vacuum in the Indonesian theater scene, decided to set up his own theater, Teater Koma, on March 1, 1977.

"Koma can mean in a coma or in distress, but not full stop," Nano explained, adding that in theater there was no end to creative exploration and one could freely choose the form, without ever coming to a full stop.

Teater Koma's first production was Rumah Kertas (Paper House), which they staged just five months after the theater was set up.

Nano has never regretted his decision to make the theater his career. He said by knowing that other people were happy or had gained new perspectives on their lives after seeing one of his productions was satisfying.

Besides getting opportunities to meet, befriend and learn from noted figures in the arts scene, such as director Teguh Karya, Arifin C. Noer and musician Mus Mualim, Nano's plunge into the arts also led him to his wife, Ratna Madjid.

"Ratna is perfect. She's my ally, my supporter, my wife and lover. She is optimal in her roles. I don't know what I would do or where I would be without her," he said.

Nano said he first laid eyes on Ratna in 1969 when he saw her perform a Balinese dance at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) art center's open theater.

"There was this woman there, dancing so beautifully, so lovely to watch. Who was she?" he mused poetically, explaining that Ratna was then a member of Arifin C. Noer's Teater Ketjil.

"It was funny because Teater Ketjil was in fierce competition with Teater Populer, and so we had to hide our relationship," Nano said, alluding to Shakespeare's Montague-Capulet feud.

It's a good thing the Nano-Ratna story did not turn out as bloody as Shakespeare's tragedy. On the contrary, after their relationship was out in the open, the two groups became closer, Nano said. A Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending, the two got married in 1978 and had three sons together.

As Teater Koma nears its 100th production, Nano admitted that the group's form of plays also went along with the times. Before the fall of Soeharto, the group was famous for its not-so-subtle social criticism, but now it takes on a more subtle form.

"During Soeharto, we were out in front because we were the loudest. Now everybody's doing it. If we were to stay in that form we wouldn't be leading anymore, we'd be behind everyone," Nano explained.

For its 100th production next year, Nano plans to produce Masih Adakah Cinta diantara Kita? (Is There Still Love Between Us?), a new script about an old married couple.

"The plan is the couple will be played by me and Ratna. A couple who's been married for years and one day this question comes up between them," he said.

The story would be a flashback of everything Nano has gone through over the years, including an episode that would reflect on his brush with the law over the Matra magazine pornography suit two years ago.

Now in his 53rd year, Nano has only one wish and that is to have enough time to finish the script of a 138-episode Mahabharata, which will comprise 46 titles of three episodes each.

"I have only finished 10 titles, and it is my lifelong project."