Tragicomedy 'Gerr' enlivens Schouwburg II Festival 1996
Tragicomedy 'Gerr' enlivens Schouwburg II Festival 1996
By Oei Eng Goan
JAKARTA (JP): Participating in a nine-day art event called the
Schouwburg Festival II 1996, playwright Putu Wijaya's group,
Teater Mandiri, staged Gerr, a tragicomedy on the death and
resurrection of the protagonist and snobbery in his family.
The play, which Putu himself wrote and directed, was first
performed here in 1982. Three years later, Gerr was also staged
in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S., under the title Geez. According to
the dramatist, it was "readily accepted by the American audience"
despite the absurdist storyline.
The theme of the play remains relevant, concerning as it does
an individual's struggle for freedom against the desires of
corrupt people in a world where material wealth and powerful
position hide a thousand flaws.
Gerr, whose two-day run at Jakarta's prestigious Gedung
Kesenian ended last night, lambasts the futility of human
existence in pure "Theater of the Absurd" style.
The story opens with the dead Bima (played by Budi Setiawan)
inside a coffin. His beautiful wife (Silvana Herman), his
children, and his parents wail and look bereft, protesting the
cruel fate that has befallen them and praising the good deeds the
deceased performed during his lifetime.
One of Bima's sons insists that the coffin be reopened so that
he can recite a poem expressing his sorrow and love to Bima so
that the deceased may know of their grief and then rest in peace.
To everyone's surprise, Bima comes back to life, and far from
being joyous at seeing him alive, they are frightened and run
away.
Shocked as they are, more shocked still is Bima when he
realizes the falsity of life and the true colors of his wife,
children and grandmother (played by Sri Hardini). All those who
claimed to be grief-stricken earlier now turn against him. They
beat him and want to see him dead rather than alive, for his
loving wife plans to marry a much more handsome man, his parents
have sold his belongings and withdrawn his money "to pay for his
funeral".
The only persons who still care for the desolate Bima are the
two gravediggers (Wendy Nasution and Eddy Panthat), who are
despised by the community as "creepy animals". On the
gravediggers' suggestion, Bima puts on new clothes and assumes a
new name to lead a new life.
In Gerr, which literally means roar of laughter, Putu has
succeeded in depicting human anguish with techniques commonly
used for comedy, thereby letting the audience easily digest the
difficult theme of the play while enjoying it as an entertaining
performance.
Yet this performance of Gerr lacked the sustained depth and
bite of Putu's other works such as Bor, which was presented at
TIM's Teater Arena last December.
The acting of some of the actors needed some work, to truly
add soul to their characters and play them with the spirit needed
in an absurdist tragicomedy full of improbable situations and
funny dialogue. Props and makeup cannot disguise the weaknesses
in the acting.
Still, the players efforts were not totally futile. At least
they were willing to help develop the country's performing arts.
And "good intentions", so goes the Festival's catch phrase, "even
with shortcomings, should still be praised."