Teater Mandiri, an eclectic group

JAKARTA (JP): Teater Mandiri is an eclectic group of people from all walks of life which, under the direction of Putu Wijaya, has been producing tontonan (performance events) in Jakarta and in cities throughout Indonesia and the United States since the early 1970's.

Teater Mandiri is more of a family than an organization. There are no auditions, there's no guarantee of work, from performance to performance and there seems to be no common thread running through the members, who range from illiterate gang members, con men, and alcoholics, to lawyers, teachers, and architects. Yet somehow the group manages to come together with a minimum of materials, to produce its unique brand of theater that touches all the senses.

Teater Mandiri's motto is bertolak dari yang ada, which means to make maximum use of whatever is at hand, which, for Teater Mandiri, is generally very little. This means that they are forever trying to find inventive ways to create what they need from what is readily available and from their own distinct and diverse experiences. The results are invariably magical.

The goal of a Teater Mandiri performance is mental terror. The tontonan strives to disturb the spectators, to shake them up, to make them reconsider their assumptions; but does not presume to provide any answers. Rather, they re-examine what has been taken for granted through the lens of the Balinese belief of desa (place), kala (time) and patra (adjustment). Together, desa, kala, and patra are about adjusting to one's surroundings, both spatially and temporally. It is Putu Wijaya's medium to explore what he terms Tradisi Baru (New Tradition), by presenting the spirit of traditional Indonesian cultures in innovative and generally iconoclastic ways, in order to speak to, and about contemporary Indonesian society.

Since 1974, Teater Mandiri has performed Putu Wijaya's scripts steadily in Jakarta and in other cities in Indonesia, including such productions as Aduh, Lho, Hum-Pim-Pah, Entah, Nol, Edan, Blong, Awas, Dor, Los, Ger, Aum, Zat, Tai, Front, Aib, Wah.

Teater Mandiri also performs staged readings of Putu's short stories and poetry. Most recently in November and December of 1994, as well as in January and June, 1995, as part of Merah Putih (Red and White), a monthly television program on RCTI commemorating Indonesia's 50 years of independence.

-- C.G. Asmara