Puppeteers join to push tradition

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.