Putu Wijaya's 'Ngeh' depicts terror, bravery and cowardice
Putu Wijaya's 'Ngeh' depicts terror, bravery and cowardice
By Oei Eng Goan
JAKARTA (JP): Like cubist Pablo Picasso who innovated his own
painting style after mastering conventional painting techniques,
playwright Putu Wijaya is innovating his theatrical performances
while adopting the genre of theater of the absurd.
Putu's Ngeh is a living example of his absurdist trend,
emphasizing intellectual seriousness and the human condition as
well as the incoherence of characters and actions. Like Bor,
which he presented in 1995, Ngeh reveals human behavior and
feelings not with verbal expressions, but through a combination
of jigging, jerking and graceful movements of actors and dancers
who cast their shadows on the large backdrop of the stage.
Although the 75-minute drama has no plot and the characters
have no names, Ngeh still captivated the large audience, prodding
them into pondering how human beings could become heinous brutes
in the absence of moral and religious faith in a world dominated
by absolute power.
Ngeh -- one of Indonesia's contributions to the Art Summit
Indonesia 1998, a month-long international festival on
contemporary performing arts to end on Oct. 19 -- delineated
human bravery and cowardice in maintaining their existence. While
the courageous valiantly sacrifice their lives for the cause for
freedom and justice, the cowardly unhesitatingly betray their
friends by throwing them into the mouths of hungry monsters.
Putu hit the mark in evoking the audience's admiration of his
artistic creation. The dance drama depicted events that have
taken place in Indonesia in the past few months, chaotic
happenings which traumatized most of the Indonesian public prior
to the downfall of the authoritarian ruler.
It showed the gang rape that befell a woman and the killing
of innocent people fighting for justice. All this obviously
reflects Putu's aversion to the three days of rioting in May,
when the capital was beset by lawlessness and fear that stunned
not only the Indonesian community, but also the outside world.
Produced by Teater Mandiri and directed by the multitalented
Putu, who is also a novelist and film director, the success of
the two-day performance should also be credited to musician Harry
Roesly and artistic and stage designer Rujito.
The stage backdrop was utilized to the maximum in that it
functioned as a screen where silhouettes of the players and the
simple props were contrasted sharply. With the help of the
lighting effects, it functioned as decor as well in that it
appeared as a turbulent world and roaring waves when flapped by
the players, thereby creating an impression of depth and
direction.
Harry's musical pieces served to dramatize the performance by
demonstrating his skill in imitating various sounds -- from a
howling wolf to clear rippling of water, the cracking of gunshots
and thunderous beat of drums evincing violence.
The sound and lighting effects truly supported the feeling of
fear that Putu -- who believes that mental terror is the shock
therapy of human passiveness and a driving force for theatrical
innovation -- wanted to impress on the audience.
The theme of Ngeh resembles William Butler Yeats' poem, The
Second Coming, when "in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear
the falconer. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold (and)
mere anarchy is loosed upon the world".
Despite the gloomy situation in Indonesia, a country hardest
hit by the economic crisis in the region, Putu encouraged the
audience to always love and safeguard the nation against anarchy.
It was a sentiment evidently reflected in the song Don't Cry
Indonesia at the end of the performance.