Not much toil and trouble in Balinese take on 'Macbeth'

Not much toil and trouble in Balinese take on 'Macbeth'

By I Wayan Juniarta

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Imagine Shakespeare's Macbeth
transplanted from ancient Scotland, wearing an ornate Balinese
dance costume and speaking the old Javanese court language of
Kawi.

The seemingly absurd becomes reality in Gambuh Macbeth, a
classical Balinese dance-theater performance scheduled to tour
several cities in Germany.

Performed by 68 members of the ARTI foundation, Gambuh Macbeth
will open at a newly established art center in Stuttgart. The
group will also perform in Berlin, Bonn, and Frankfurt from May
19 through June 6.

The performances have been made possible through the support
of German art patron Jongki Goei.

Rector of the Yogyakarta Arts Institute (ISI) I Made Bandem,
who is the author of a Balinese dance encyclopedia, said gambuh
was an old form of court dance drama.

It existed 600 years ago during the Majapahit Hindu kingdom in
East Java.

It was then known as raket mask dance-theater and was familiar
among court dancers. The repertoire usually drew East Javanese
classical literature and chivalrous tales related to Prince
Panji.

It was believed the raket dance theater was brought by East
Javanese court members who fled to Bali with the fall of
Majapahit.

"There is another source which says gambuh existed in Bali
during the period of King Anak Wungsu in the year 1200," Bandem
said.

Before gambuh entered Bali, the island was home to myriad
sacred dances. However, the new arrival exerted dramatic touches
and structures on the forms of theater and dance in Bali.

"Gambuh is considered the 'mother' of Balinese theaters and
dances," added Bandem.

It also was the root of other Balinese theatrical forms like
Topeng Balinese mask dance, Arja theater, Drama Gong to the
delicate legong and prembon dances.

The repertoire always centered on Panji tales dealing with the
romantic lives of princes and princesses of the Jenggala, Daha
and Kahuripan kingdoms which ruled East Java between the 10th
century and 12th century.

It was originally performed by all-male casts, but now women
also play female roles and sometimes heroic characters.

For the German tour, director Kadek Suardana experimented with
Macbeth.

Suardana set out to stage Macbeth in the gambuh style.
Although the play of the Scottish general and his fiercely
ambitious wife is set centuries ago, it always seems fitting for
contemporary situations.

The marriage of the two styles proved challenging even though
Suardana staged Gambuh Macbeth with Sanggar Putih theater group
at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta in 1986.

Last year, supported by artists from the ARTI foundation,
Suardana set out to do a revamped version.

To gain more ideas, Suardana traveled throughout Bali and
sought input from gambuh groups in Batuan Gianyar, Jungsri in
Karangasem in East Bali, Pendungan in Denpasar and Anturan in
Buleleng in North Bali.

"We shared our experiences and knowledge on this most ancient
form of Balinese drama, and I then decided to use the pendungan
style of gambuh from Denpasar as my basic choreography for Gambuh
Macbeth."

Pendungan might be considered the best style in terms of its
artistic and theatrical elements as well as the originality of
gambuh theater.

"After I found the most suitable gambuh style, I worked very
hard to create a compact and easily absorbed gambuh dance
theater," Suardana said.

In the past, gambuh performances, usually held in temples or
courtyards, went on for days, but modern versions last only a few
hours.

The performance may be composed of series of scenes in which
characters present monologs, dialogs, dances and fight scenes.

"The original Macbeth play would last at least three hours to
four hours. Therefore, I decided to make a proper combination and
cut Gambuh Macbeth to a one-and-a-half-hour performance,"
explained the 44-year-old director.

In creating a quality performance, Suardana also faced various
technical problems. Performers of gambuh must master all dance
gestures as well as speak the old Javanese court language of
Kawi.

Suardana also eliminated penaser or punakawan comic characters
who usually play important roles in communicating the plot of
story to the audience.

The dialog and monolog were delivered in Kawi, with the comic
servant characters conveying them in colloquial Balinese.

"My concept is in expressing the ideas of the story through
dance gestures rather than words," Suardana said.

He honed his concept in more than 50 performances throughout
Bali and in Bandung, West Java. The results were encouraging and
he believed the audience understood the plot even though the play
was performed in Kawi.

Suardana also presented his Gambuh Macbeth in several sacred
Hindu temples, including the mother temple of Besakih and Pura
Paseh in Pendungan village in Denpasar.

The performances were intended to solicit divine blessings and
taksu, a spiritual artistic power.

Suardana's hope is that the performances in Germany will
successfully serve up this piece of Balinese tradition in a new
form for contemporary audiences.