Puppeteers join to push tradition

By Charlie Stevens

JAKARTA (JP): One of the world's best known puppeteers, Stephen Mottram from the UK, is in Indonesia to perform a series of shows with Sujiwo Tejo, one of Indonesia's most famous puppeteers.

The two are displaying their skills at the GKJ International Festival in a sort of onstage puppet jam session in which music will play an integral part. Stephen often refers to his puppets as "instruments" and the lyrical quality of his show, dubbed In Suspension, makes for a very musical experience.

The origin of Indonesian puppet theater (wayang) lies deep in the country's prehistory. It is shrouded in tradition and imbued with cultural importance, often depicting a moral universe that is complex and subtle and one that serves as a means of moral education or political communication. Because of this tradition, Indonesia is famous around the world for its puppet theater and the focus of study and collaboration for puppeteers from other countries.

"Indonesia is a country that everyone world-wide associates with puppet theater. For us in Britain, wayang is the most extraordinary of all puppetry," said Stephen.

While both performers are immersed in the tradition of their crafts, they are known for their modern approach, combining various mediums to push the boundaries of what is expected.

Sujiwo Tejo, 36, learned the skills of wayang puppetry from his father and has since built a reputation as one of Indonesia's most innovative puppet masters. Besides developing his own "Wayang Acapella" form of puppetry, he has also pursued a career in music, theater and film. In September last year, he collaborated with British group Piano Circus, contributing his own brand of gamelan to their pieces written for six pianos.

Stephen Mottram, 44, joined a traditional English marionette company in 1980 and later trained in movement and mime at the Hungarian State Puppet Theater in Budapest. He directed the Anglia TV feature film Alice in Wonderland and performed in the Warner Brothers movie The Little Shop of Horrors.

Since 1988, he has been exploring the relationship between electro-acoustic music and movement. His performances, which have toured the world and won several international awards, are the result of close collaboration with the composers with which he works.

In England, there are two types of puppet theater that exist side-by-side. The most well-known is the Punch and Judy style and the second is marionette puppetry, an art form which peaked in the last 50 years of the 19th century.

"By the time I started with marionettes, it (the art) had almost died out in Britain," said Stephen.

Traditional ideas are the ones with the greatest strength, he claims, but these ideas should always be presented in fresh and surprising ways. Stephen's own approach to marionette puppetry is progressive and designed for an adult audience, but retains elements of the traditional form.

"The problem of what is traditional and what is not traditional is a difficult thing. So Sujiwo and I are going to work together on that one," he said. "But I think that one of the things that keeps traditions alive is that they contain basic human values. That's why we should never ignore traditions because they contain elements of value that need to be retained.

"The performance I've brought here in Indonesia is in essence traditional but done in a contemporary context so that someone watching it wouldn't necessarily perceive it as traditional. But if you went back 100 years you'd find puppeteers doing the same trick because some things are inherently dramatic.

"The six different stories in my performance are not strictly traditional stories. But they are so simple that you could say they are completely traditional, that is, the same stories have been told in different ways for a long time.

For example, one of the stories is of a bird moving further and further up into space. The bird eventually changes into an egg. The body of the puppet is an egg and inside the egg is another bird. And the movement of the small bird is much different from that of the larger bird. This simple story raises old philosophical questions about eggs and chickens and which came first.

"There are also pieces that are simply about movement with no narrative. They are hopefully dramatic and fascinating simply through this movement. And it's most important that the images of the theater fits with the music."

The six short pieces that make up Stephen's performance last about 10 minutes each. The music, which is mainly modern electronic music, was written by three English composers. The first piece was written by Simon Waters in the late 1980s, when electronic music was still relatively new.

"He didn't have digital equipment to put the music together so he had to cut the tape into little bits and stick it all together," said Stephen.

Stephen Mottram's show In Suspension featuring Sujiwo Tejo is being performed at the GKJ International Festival on Sept. 3 and Sept. 4.

Mottram will also perform at Kafe Tenda Semanggi on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 8.00 pm and 10.00 pm. These shows, which will be on a converted bus, are free of charge.