Teater Yuka's 'Bisu-in-Blue' says that all we need is love
Teater Yuka's 'Bisu-in-Blue' says that all we need is love
By Lauren Bain
JAKARTA (JP): Bisu-in-Blue, the latest work by Jakarta-based
Teater Yuka, is loosely based on the West Sumatran legend of
Malin Kundang. It has been given the contemporary makeover by
sinetron (TV series) actress and ex-rock singer Renny Djajoesman,
who is the director, and the general manager of GATRA magazine,
Yudhistira ANM Massardi, who is its writer.
In the legend, Malin Kundang is a young boy from a poor
family. One day a rich trader arrives on a big ship. When the
trader leaves port, Malin is encouraged by his parents to become
a crew member on the vessel. So young Malin travels the world and
ends up becoming rich and famous himself. He marries well and
becomes the captain of his own trade ship.
One day his wife says that she wants to see where Malin comes
from and they return to his hometown. When he returns and sees
his roots, Malin is deeply ashamed, so he does not acknowledge
his own mother and pretends he doesn't know the kind of poverty
that he sees his family living in.
His mother, of course, is deeply upset and insulted, and when
Malin and his ship leave town she turns them all to stone.
Bisu-in-blue is not the first Indonesian play to be inspired
by Malin Kundang -- for example, the Padang-based playwright
Wisran Hadi used the story in his 1978 work Puti Bungsu. But
Bisu-in-blue takes the Malin Kundang legend as a starting point
for an exploration of contemporary Indonesian politics and in
particular the consequences of reformasi (reform).
"It's not only a Minang legend, Malin Kundang is relevant
everywhere," said Yudhistira.
Bisu-in-Blue is conventional text-based theater interspersed
with a few dance sequences and crowd scenes, variously depicting
demonstrations, conflict and the plight of refugees. The
interaction between three characters -- Malin, Siti (Malin's
sister, played by Yuka Mandiri, Renny's daughter) and their
mother, played by Renny -- becomes an allegory for the
maneuvering by Indonesia's elite.
In Teater Yuka's version of the legend, we see a reversal of
fortune as Malin turns his mother to stone, the ultimate betrayal
of the loving parent.
The script is not particularly sophisticated or complex,
either in terms of language or structure. The dialogue on the
whole tends to be didactic and leaves little room for audience
interpretation.
On the other hand, the staging makes good use of Gedung
Kesenian, and attempts to break down what can sometimes be an
"invisible wall" between performers and audience in that space.
The music and lighting also work well and push the story
along. It's well paced and the use of film projections of
demonstrations -- although nothing new -- generally works well.
The political motives behind this work, however, are
questionable, and Bisu-in-blue could be read as being antireform.
In the end, its message seems to be that: "Struggling against
Soeharto's power is hopeless. We should just learn to love. If we
love better, then we will be OK."
While not disputing the importance of love, the implication of
this for those trying to implement or fight for change is
unclear.
The promotional material for Bisu-in-Blue also provides a clue
about its politics: "Not only revolution, reformation can also
diminish a country's people; Not only dictatorship, democracy can
also create fear and chaos ..."
The problem is that one logical conclusion from this is that
democracy is perhaps something that "we tried but it didn't
work". Meanwhile, Renny is a declared supporter of the onetime
ruling group, Golkar, and always appears ready to give a comment
on the record in support of the military.
To its credit, Bisu-in-blue does portray Soeharto as being the
dalang (puppet master) behind what it sees as the failure of
reformasi; it ridicules the Soeharto family, makes jokes about
bombs and highlights the challenge of overcoming the New Order's
pervasive power. But it has to be noted that this is by no means
something new in Indonesian theater -- groups like Teater Koma
have been producing this kind of work for years.
It could be argued that this sort of satire is no longer an
effective political, or theatrical, strategy, and that it
provides the middle class audience with some laughs but does
little else. As one observer commented in the theater foyer after
the performance, "this does nothing for the people, the real
victims of this era."
Bisu-in-blue is interesting in that it reflects an immense
frustration and desperation with the progress -- or lack of -- of
reformasi and Indonesia's future prospects. But we should not
forget the play's real message: "Reformasi has caused chaos and
bloodshed. If we learn to love everything will be OK. Don't
bother trying to change anything." Go figure.
Bisu-in-blue will be performed at 8 p.m. at Gedung Kesenian
Jakarta on Saturday and Sunday. For bookings and inquiries, call
3808283 or 780-3084.