Theater Festival exposes violence and destruction

By Putu Wirata

SINGARAJA, Bali (JP): Violence and destruction were the major themes of the recent Biennale Theater held by Singaraja Teaching College in North Bali recently.

This biannual festival on contemporary theater presented numerous artists from Bali including Nyoman Erawan, Nanoq da Kansas, Putu Satria Kusuma and the Buleleng art community.

Artist Nyoman Erawan's Pralayamatra (The Death) started his theater piece with an arm wrestling match symbolizing the violent elements in human beings. Erawan and Dewa Jayendra participated in a harsh and fierce duel set in a wild arena decorated with swords and other sharp weapons. The arena was also adorned with spiraling pig intestines and chicken meat, symbolizing greediness and animal instincts in humans.

The arm wrestling was followed by a duel in which the prize was the raw meat and pig intestines. Jayendra demonstratively bit the hanging intestines, illustrating detestable power struggles.

Through this artwork, Erawan wanted to show the audience that death could come to us through systematic and engineered violence implemented in the name of power.

In Pralayamatra, Erawan fully exploits symbolic languages and impressive soundtrack music arranged by Kadek Suardana. Kadek creates traditional Balinese music elements wrapped in hi-tech computerized sounds. The music really gives a magical effect to the play and to the audience as well.

The performers wear masks which hide their identities and motivations. The masked men freely cheat and abuse people for the sake of seizing power.

Erawan tries to expose how humans can be so destructive just to fulfill their ambitions. He lets the audience interpret all of the symbolic meanings contained in his work.

The message of this play is how ambition, obsession and greed can draw people to their death.

It is interesting to note that the theater festival presented a trend which blended together theatrical and fine art elements.

Erawan and Hardiman are known as prominent painters, while theater figures like Putu Satria Kusuma and Nanoq da Kansas are starting to paint.

It is hard to categorize their works as conventional plays. Most of these artists emphasize more in symbols rather than scripts. They express their messages and ideas through symbols, not words.

Putu Satria Kusuma and the Buleleng art community presented Musyawarah Burung-Burung (The Bird Meeting), using pieces of burned wood and debris of the recent riot in Singaraja to build the setting for the work.

He opened the play with a poetry reading featuring Indonesia's famous poet Soetardji Calzoem Bachri's work titled Cari (Search) on a rooftop of a building.

Putu donned a giant clock mask. While he read the poem, he destroyed the mask to illustrate the death of time. Dozens of supporting artists from the Buleleng art community were savagely involved in battle. They cried, shouted and started to set fire to buildings and destroyed all products of civilization.

The play reached its climax when the performers became trapped in the post-riot period. They were confused but unable to do anything to repair the damage caused by the outbreak.

Nanoq da Kansas appeared with his gloomy work titled Rezim (Regime). The setting was dark and murky.

He opened the play with an erotic dance. His body swayed in the darkness accompanied by the sound of mumbling. He fell on the floor. Two muscled men sit behind carrying long swords, creating a fearful atmosphere on stage.

Nanoq tried to recreate the repression of the New Order regime on stage. The two men stabbed their swords into big plastic bags filled with water.

They ran on the stage and destroyed two big wooden boxes, bottles and threw away stones to express their anger in a violent way.

Artist Hardiman presented Kanvas Api (Canvass of Fire), which also exposed violence using similar symbols like swords and daggers. In his work, people rode bicycles around a park in Singaraja. They carried swords, daggers and other weapons while shouting at each other. They stopped in the center of the park and set fire to painted canvases.

"Surprisingly, we adopted a similar theme -- violence," said Putu. Violence has become a social phenomenon since former president Soeharto stepped down. Riots have occurred in troubled provinces like Aceh, Maluku, East Timor and a few other provinces, including Bali.

All the presented works reflected the current social condition.

"The sense of brotherhood is losing its footing in our country. Our hearts are filled with anger and hatred. What we need now is peace. We should eliminate our suspicion and greed," commented Erawan.