Teater Payung Hitam paints black picture of troubled Aceh
By Tuti Gintini
JAKARTA (JP): What can a dramatist do in the face of the harsh realities in Aceh after the province was declared a military operation zone (DOM)?
Just look at Teater Payung Hitam (Black Umbrella Theater) of Bandung and its reflections of the tragedies befalling victims of the military operation. The audience will see a display of sadism, from beginning to end.
During the show, a woman in the audience whispered: "I feel like vomiting."
In its performance on Tuesday of DOM -- And People Die, which was part of the International Festival 2000 at the Jakarta Arts House, the group began with a scene exploring violence symbolized by human bones.
Playwright and director Rachman Sabur showed off his skill in making use of symbolic stage props.
Bones are very effective in conveying messages, particularly because the group has chosen to stage a play which basically is nonverbal. In DOM -- And People Die, 12 players acted without uttering a single word. Once in a while they would simply hiss, cough, laugh or sob piteously.
The work, featuring Tony Broer, Rusli Keleeng, Deden Sutris, Tatang Pahat, Rudiaman, Cep Kobar, Lala, Inong, Betty, Dian and Yani M, was shaped like an album of photographs. The scenes, just like an arrangement of photographs, contain numerous events. The series of pictures have something in common: lots of victims, lots of dead people. Therefore, the director has called this play an album of black history.
Perhaps this is an album of the black history of the Acehnese. Although the director never says DOM is an acronym for military operation zone, but rather an abbreviation for Dan Orang Mati (And People Die), the pictures, attributes and costumes of the actors show the obvious role of the military in the deaths. Also, scenes featuring the victims of gun violence seem to be an effort to reconstruct what happened in Aceh when it was a military operation zone.
Smiling Face
The background of the stage was filled with large posters depicting men wearing rimless caps and others wearing military uniforms. Then a number of actors appeared in dressed as officials, all wearing the same mask: a smiling face, one the audience became very familiar with during the 32 years of the New Order regime.
It was this smiling face which during the performance was pictured as the one giving instructions to the military; orders which resulted in piles of bones. The shouts let out by mothers and children losing their husbands and their fathers failed to move the ruler.
Rachman Sabur was skillful in choosing the props for this performance and he used them effectively. Desks and wheels, for example, served many purposes. Also the bones, highly symbolic and imaginative, were efficient used to establish the rhythm as they were banged against each other to build a gripping atmosphere.
Absurd and Contemporary
The only theatrical group that can be said to be continuing in the tradition of Putu Wijaya's Mandiri Theater is Black Umbrella. This group was established more than a dozen years ago. Rachman Sabur is a graduate of the Indonesian Arts College in Bandung, where he now teaches.
The result of following in the absurdist tradition of Putu is that Black Umbrella is known only in small circles. An entertaining play group, Teater Koma, for example, usually performs before packed houses.
However, the choices Black Umbrella have consistently made have allowed it to write its own history. In some communities, the group is considered to have developed its own style. Also, its productivity has confirmed its position as a contemporary and absurdist theatrical group.
Social reality and harsh, cruel and sometimes vulgar and sadistic criticism has been maintained as one of its characteristics. Between 1997 and 1998, Rachman shocked the theater world with his trilogy of Kaspar, Tin Music and Holed Red, as well as Katakitamati (Ourdeadword). These works, created just before and following the drive for reform, took a sharp picture of the face of Indonesia.
In Tin Music and Holed Red, for example, Rachman attempted to criticize unfair general elections and politicians too generous with empty promises, like banging away inside an empty can. For these plays, Rachman used as a symbol of these politicians the sound of stones inside a large kerosene drum; noisy and annoying.
In Ourdeadword, his criticism was much harsher. He stated in this work that many people were very good at making speeches, arguing, bragging and talking and talking without any action. The air was packed with so many words that the words became dead and meaningless.
The Black Umbrella's performance of Ourdeadword two years ago is still relevant today. Many bureaucrats, many legislators and many in the ruling elite simply talk and talk. They are good only at demonstrating their skill at making speeches, bickering and criticizing, while the people need concrete action, not just a generous production of empty and meaningless words.
Black Umbrella has opted for a theatrical form far from simple attempts to entertain the audience. This choice has proven rewarding, for it led to it being invited to participate in the De' Lyon International Theatrical Festival in 1997 and in an international festival in Finland in 1998.
However, at home, the name Black Umbrella Theatrical Group may ring strange. Furthermore, to be able to enjoy its performances, one needs to possess a special understanding and to adjust one's tastes. But, then, are such tastes really necessary at all?