Teater Mandiri, an eclectic group

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