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.