Putu strives to save theater

Putu strives to save theater

By Yusuf Hartono

JAKARTA (JP): Although performing irregularly, Teater Mandiri,
a theatrical company set up in 1971, has made it to the present
reform era of Gus Dur, which is characterized by social tumult,
after safely cruising through Soeharto's repressive New Order era
and the brief period under Habibie.

How did it survive? Answer: By waging a "guerrilla war". This
is the strategy used by I Gusti Ngurah Putu Wijaya, a dramatist,
who was born in Tabanan, Bali, but grew up in Jakarta. Better
known simply as Putu Wijaya, he set up Teater Mandiri 30 years
ago, while still working for Tempo news weekly, and has been its
impresario since.

For Putu, this "guerrilla" tactic means to keep appearing and
disappearing, a hit-and-run of sorts. He has two effective
weapons. First, the philosophy of using what is at one's disposal
and the second, terror.

Adopting the philosophy of using what is at one's disposal,
Teater Mandiri, when facing its limitations or financial
problems, has never lost its resourcefulness, with regards to
property, human resources, funds and rehearsals.

Take for example Luka (Wound), its latest play held at the
Jakarta Arts House between March 23 and March 25 to mark the 30th
anniversary of this theatrical company. There were no glossy
catalogs although the play marked the 30th anniversary of the
group. A modest leaflet folded into three had sufficed. The
property consisted of a used banner and sun hats which had been
repainted. Even the Balinese-styled headband that Putu wore was a
piece of cloth torn from the used banner. Even the song sung by
Harry Roesli in the performance was used in Ngeh, a play by
Teater Mandiri at the Art Summit II in 1998. A span of three
years did not matter to Putu.

With respect to using old objects, once Teater Mandiri
perplexed immigration officers when it took a lot of garbage from
Indonesia to be used as stage property for its play, Yel
("Yell"), in New York in 1991. When the garbage became part of
the performance on stage, the Caucasian audience could only watch
in bewilderment, their mouths agape.

Putu, who is married to Dewi Pramunawati, is now mostly
occupied with the shooting of his TV films, and did not have
enough time to drill his performers for Luka. At first he asked
the troupe to rehearse by themselves, but the result was
unsatisfactory.

Putu had time for a rehearsal only a few days before the play.
That's why he was unable to inject fresh ideas into Luka. So,
this play, which was once performed in Japan, was staged just
with whatever the group had. Even the absence of the slide on the
first day did not matter. The audience were oblivious of these
inadequacies anyway.

Keep changing

"Our philosophy of facing a situation with whatever is at our
disposal is sort of our resistance against limitations. I believe
we will never be free of limitations. To get through this
situation, we need a working strategy. This is the source of the
light that gives us strength," he writes on the leaflet for Luka.

Putu, usually sporting a white cap, is also known as a short-
story writer, a novelist, a screenwriter, a theater/film/TV film
director and a columnist. He believes nothing remains unchanged.

Egy Massadiah, who has been with Mandiri for 20 years, said
Putu's works keep changing. Although they stage the same play,
the performance is different each night.

Egy added that Mandiri relied on the spontaneity and self-
confidence of the actors on stage (even when a mistake is made,
it will seem right if the actor can convince the audience that it
was right).

The plays which Putu writes give room for such an
improvisation. When Front was performed in Bandung, for example,
a later scene could be moved forward and then moved back again.
For such critical moments, the actors have to be always on the
alert. These critical moments are part of the performance.

Singer Silvana Herman (Ario), who first joined Mandiri in
1983, added that Putu Wijaya did not teach a Mandiri member how
to act, but how to live. He teaches his members how to live
mandiri (independently), ready for any circumstances. Also, he
teaches them how to lead a good life.

Terror

Putu's second weapon is terror. He really enjoys himself when
he can mentally terrorize his audience, shocking them to a
catharsis. This terror can come from the theme of the story or
blown-up visualization in the style of pop art or shadows.

For over a decade, Putu has explored shadows as his theatrical
idiom. This idiom was derived from the leather puppet shadow
play. He was infatuated with this idiom even before he went to
the United States. On his return, he intensively explored the
shadows through Aib (Disgrace, 1986). Before optimizing the use
of shadows, he performed his plays verbally.

Lately, however, Putu has begun to doubt his skill in
introducing mental terror. The country is now in the grips of a
greater terror -- street rallies, ethnic conflicts, bombing of
places of worship, the loss of a spirit of brotherhood, and mud-
slinging and denunciations through the mass media -- as a result
of the multidimensional crisis that is sweeping across the
country. "I give up. I cannot compete with such a terror," he
said.

His fear of the street rallies in Jakarta, which he says is
the real terror, had prompted him to skip a rehearsal. Once, his
troupe, tired of rehearsing by themselves, took advantage of his
fear to get some rest. They told Putu that a terrifying street
rally was going on. Putu, in a fatherly manner, told them to end
the rehearsal and go home right away.

So, it appears that in this reform era, Putu and his Teater
Mandiri have "lost" to the "theater of the masses" on the
streets. He is not alone as other theatrical companies are also
facing a similar situation.

Putu has even admitted that he has lost his energy. In the
past year, for example, he has not been able to get himself to
read the newspaper. He would like to lodge a protest against the
"grand theater", but he would be powerless against the loss of
brotherhood now prevailing in the country. His heart bleeds. "The
theater of the masses is too powerful for a stage theater to
fight against," he said.

As for how the Indonesian theaters are faring, Putu said that
even before the reform era was ushered in, it was already on the
decline. One of the basic reasons, he said, was there was no
strong market in the country. There is a lack of people
interested in mastering art marketing/management like did Amna
Kusumo and Ratna Riantiarno of Teater Koma.

If this is a defeat, then this defeat should not make our
theatrical workers disloyal to the vocation. Putu, especially, is
disposed to continuously exploring his shadows in a guerrilla-
like manner.