Play explores controversial issue of polygamy

Singgir Kartana, Contributor, Yogyakarta

It's midnight and Lastri is finding sleep difficult. She is restless with worry and jealousy as her husband often returns home very late at night. Still, she waits faithfully for him.

Sumanto, her husband, is not working overtime. He is "busy"... with his two other wives.

The tension between Lastri and Sumanto has infiltrated every aspect of their home. The couple's teenaged son, Deri, frequents discotheques and has become a drug addict. Later, he overdoses and ends up in hospital.

Sumanto's secret is revealed and Lastri's heart is torn to pieces. The three wives finally meet while visiting Deri at the hospital.

This gloomy story was brought to the stage in the play, Kebelet Kawin Lagi (Desperate to Marry Again), presented on Aug. 9 at Yogyakarta Cultural Park's concert hall building. It was the initiative of the Coalition of Indonesian Women's Yogyakarta chapter.

Simply constructed yet thematically serious, the story kept the audience sitting tight for a full two hours enjoying the witty dialogs.

It was the comedy that really drew the audience in, thanks to the participation of professional comedians Didik Nini Thowok, Yu Beruk, Joned and Dalijo; guest star, theater artist and AIDS activist Baby Jim Aditya; and actors from the Gardanala theater group.

Right from the start, the laughter erupted, while Lastri lamented her husband's "long hours" she suddenly chuckled at the newspaper headline, "this month, the capital city of Afghanistan is changed from Kabul to Tesi". Kabul in this context was not the city but a reference to the name of a member of the Srimulat comedy troupe, Kabul a.k.a. Tesi.

Played by Didik Nini Thowok, Lastri the typical Javanese woman -- refined and polite -- verged on comical caricature. When Lastri cursed, she embellished the rough language with a soft- spoken manner, creating a "naughty" but nice impression. This fell just short of satirizing the Javanese personality, that is at worst said to be hypocritical, or otherwise, multi-layered -- each layer revealing a different side.

Didik, who has a good reputation as a dancer, gave a quite successful performance of Lastri as a graceful and noble woman, fraught with weaknesses and ambiguity.

Baby Jim Aditya, playing the role of Baby, one of Suminto's wives, also gave an impressive performance.

A member of the famous theater group Teater Koma, Baby Jim played Baby as a coquettish urbanite who resented her societal status. Baby Jim and Didik were great comedic partners but joking aside, the play was not intended to be light entertainment. In fact, it was part of a campaign against violence against women -- in this case, polygamy.

Masruchah, chairwoman of Yogyakarta's Coalition of Indonesian Women, said that in many cases a husband gets married again without the knowledge of -- let alone the permission from -- his wife and family.

"Polygamy is a crime against marriage, especially if it is popularized by the recent award for polygamy. Polygamy needs no celebration. I support the idea of the Coalition of Indonesian Women to perform this play," said Baby Jim before the play.

An Indonesian businessman, Puspo Wardoyo, the owner of the Wong Solo restaurant franchise, who has four wives, presented the "Polygamy Award" late July this year, for men who had married more than one wife. More than 30 women's organizations as well as individuals protested the award.

The play had a sizable audience, with dozens of people forced to watch from outside the hall, since all one thousand seats were taken.

Unfortunately, the audience seemed to be so caught up in the comedy that the play's message was lost.

Maybe, this was because most of the audience was made up of activists from non-governmental organizations and university students, who were already familiar with the campaign against violence against women. The play might better deliver its message to ordinary people, especially men who have two or more wives.

"It would be better to perform the play at an Islamic boarding schools or among entrepreneurs. When a man takes another wife, he usually justifies this by presenting arguments from his religion or hiding behind purportedly economic reasons," said one of the audience, Wahyuningsih from Danurejan, Yogyakarta.

A major flaw of the play were the discotheque scenes which were intended to be a description of Deri's path to addiction. The scenes took up much more time than necessary. The audience would have been forgiven for thinking that the play's main message was the danger of drugs.

In general, the play -- and its debate on polygamy -- was quite entertaining, but it just missed the mark.