Students give 'Ketoprak Lesung' new relevance

Students give 'Ketoprak Lesung' new relevance

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Performing a racy folk tale about the relationship between penises and power was how the Gadjah Mada theatrical group made an ancient art form relevant for a modern audience, while managing to keep the upstanding moral commentary of the original work.

The story, originally from folklore known as Ajian Kontol Sewu has been adapted to a play Alang-alang (Tall, Coarse Grass), a metaphor for a phallus, or kontol in Javanese.

Part of the Ketoprak Lesung genre of traditional Javanese drama, these plays usually fictionalize stories set at the time of historical or religious events. Alang-alang a tale from the southern coastal area of Yogyakarta, is a story about a husband embroiled in household difficulties who goes in search of enlightenment.

The performance, which took place in the Student Arena hall at Gadjah Mada University, was easy to digest and often amusing.

Directed by Gati Andoko, the performance also satirized the current state of national politics and the behavior of the political elite; criticisms that were sharply and humorously conveyed.

A Ketoprak Lesung is a traditional Javanese performing art that could be said to be the origin of modern Javanese plays.

In a Ketoprak Lesung performance, the Lesung music strongly marks the change of each scene and is followed by certain dance movements that introduce the character traits of each character. The defining feature of a Ketoprak Lesung is this simple, but rhythmical, musical accompaniment.

The players wear emblematic costumes and the dialog throughout the play is plain-spoken with the occasional interaction between players and the audience. Unfortunately, this traditional performing art is increasingly forgotten today.

This particular Ketoprak Lesung story revolves around Pak Slamet's family, which is always in poverty. As the family head Slamet has been under a great stress because his wife is demanding, both sexually and materially. To solve his problems and his perceived lack of potency, Slamet decides to meditate somewhere in the southern coastal area of Java.

On this spiritual journey, Slamet meets Syeh Bela Belu, a charismatic and supernaturally powerful figure who propagated Islam in Java.

Syeh Bela Belu advises Slamet to met Sunan Geseng, who is meditating in Langse cave, which is perched on a steep mountainside in the rough South Sea. He is told only Sunan Geseng can help solve his problems.

With great difficulty, Slamet meets Sunan Geseng, a man who is black all over, and is given three magical stones which, when they are burned, will grant him three wishes.

Happily, Slamet returns home. On the way, he fantasizes about asking for three things: wealth, power and women. Back home, he tells his wife about the stones and they soon want to prove their magical power.

They burn the first stone but because Slamet is consumed with worldly thoughts, he misspeaks his wish and as a result many penises -- Alang-alang -- cover his body.

Understandably distraught, Slamet hastily burns the second stone and wishes for all the penises to be removed. The wish is fulfilled but he loses even his own phallus.

In tears Slamet burns the last stone to ensure his phallus returns. So as man proposes, God disposes.

G. Subanar, a lecturer at Sanata Dharma University's School of Cultural Studies in Yogyakarta wondered why the relationship between the patron of power, Sunan Geseng and Syeh Bela Belu, symbolized by the mountain, the sea and the people in the middle, was not highlighted in this performance as it was in traditional performances of the story.

The focus of the story could also have been better explored and examined, he said.

"It is still open to question whether this folklore, which contains an indictment of the prevailing circumstances, can be put in the same category as Serat Gatoloco, a traditional literary masterpiece that the government used to ban," he said.

To The Jakarta Post, the Ketoprak Lesung players made too many martial arts movements. Certain acrobatic movements like somersaults were appropriate in sections but not in every scene. The Lesung music, a rhythmic beat made by pounding rice with a pestle, that accompanied each scene could also have done with more profound exploration.

However, despite the shortcomings, Theater Gadjah Mada should be commended for its bold attempt to perform Ketoprak Lesung in a modern format.

The final result is likely to appeal to today's audiences and will most likely survive the test of time.