Tarki girls score with `Beauty and the Beast'

Tarki girls score with `Beauty and the Beast'

Kenny Santana, Contributor, Jakarta

The fun and games at all-girl schools seemed only to appear in
Enid Blyton's books, such as the Malory Towers and St. Claire
series.

But students of Tarakanita I (Tarki I) high school in South
Jakarta, dispelled the theory when they recently presented an
outstanding three-day play based on the Beauty and the Beast
tale.

The recent show at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, Central Jakarta,
was hugely entertaining, thanks particularly to witty scripts,
wonderful choreography, great original songs and amazing acts.

And it was family-oriented too.

The event's media coordinator, Ismi Dian Rochimah, 17, said
that they used the theme because everyone was familiar with the
tale.

"And most teenagers love romantic stories. That's what makes
it a perfect choice," she told The Jakarta Post.

The girls had been working on the show since last October and
asked Aji N.A., a Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) graduate to direct
them.

Aji had directed several performances for Tarki I, such as
Hamlet in 2001 and Panji Koming last year.

This year's play was not an easy task for Aji, especially
during the casting, as each part must sing. But over one month of
casting, the director pulled it off.

After nearly four months of hard work, the sold-out shows
began on Feb. 20, and were kicked off with a prologue from an old
woman, followed with some weird-looking creatures dancing around
the stage.

It turned out the woman was the old Beauty and the creatures
the Kromaks, mutants created by Warhole, Beauty's father.

Years before, as Kromaks kidnapped Warhole, the young, pretty,
kind and sweet (you name it!) Beauty was willing to replace her
father.

That was when she met the Kromaks' leader, the Beast, played
by a girl who hardly ever shows her face during the entire play.

And the rest is history. Beast falls for Beauty when he sees
through her beauty (hence the title) inside out. But hey, if that
was so simple, why bother to make it into a play and charge the
audience up to Rp 50,000?

The girls made the plot more exciting by inserting dozens of
supporting characters, most notably Gaston, a cocky, handsome
Elvis-esque playboy, besotted with the gorgeous Beauty.

As the most fun character of the evening, Gaston charmed the
audiences more than the leads themselves. Laughter roared as he
threw out the funniest punch lines with attitude, not to mention
his cool sideburns and quiff.

The girl who played Gaston, Irma Borland, really should
consider acting in the future as her glowing performance
overshadowed Beauty and the Beast themselves, although the
latters were also played wonderfully.

Other characters to appear were likenesses of celebrities,
dead or alive, such as Pamela Anderson, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe
-- as the girls who were dying to have Gaston -- and Bruce Lee as
Gaston's assistant.

Without question, they were the highlight of the show. Unlike
fake sinetron (local TV soap opera) dialogues, the funny lines
that spilled from their mouths were so real and made the
youngsters who dominate the audiences feel they could relate to
them.

It wouldn't be a bad idea if, maybe next year, the girls made
a spinoff play simply titled "Gaston and the Girls".

The collaboration between the entire ensemble was excellent as
they made sure that the audience of over 400 people really had a
great time during the play. And we did. We laughed our heads off
and at some moments I laughed even louder than at any Hollywood
or local movie I had watched recently.

The catchy sound effects also made for some entertaining
moments. If two thumbs-up are to be given, the writers, the
players and the incredible director are the most deserving.

The downside, perhaps, was some sound problems at the
beginning, and the lengthy, four-hour duration plus 20-minute
break.

Some scenes could have been cut, such as the one where it took
annoying old Beauty some 15 minutes to walk downstairs, just to
show how fragile she was. Or some scenes in the Kromaks' cave
that were not exciting enough to justify their length.

Despite some flaws, all in all, it was an excellent show. Loud
applause for the girls, as they proved that girl power has more
meaning than tacky Spice Girls jargon.