theater

ASIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA Southeast Asia Publications Series

Since 1979 the So utheast Asia Publications Series (SEAPS) h as brought so m e of th e best of Australian schola rship on Southeas t Asia to an international readership. It seeks to publish leading-edge research by both you ng and established schola rs o n the countries and peoples of Southeast Asia across all disciplines of the humani ties and social sciences with particular enco utage ment to interdisciplina ry and comp a rative res earch .

SEAPS is now published for the Asian Studies Association of Australia by NUS Press , a unit of the National University of Singapore, in alliance with the University of H awaii Press in North America and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) [non-Indonesia tides] and the KITLV Press [Indonesia tides) in Europe.

Editorial Board

Professor Howard Dick (University of Melbourne) (Editor)

Professor Barbara Andaya (Un ivers ity of Hawaii and University of Hawaii Press) Professor Colin Brown (Curtin University of Technology) Associate Professor John Butcher (Griffith University) Professor Emeritus David C handler (Monash University) Associate Professor Helen Creese (University of Queensland) Dr Rob ert Cribb (Australian National University) Dr Jane Drakard (Monash University) Dr Greg Fealy (Australian National University) Professor Robert Elson (University of Queensland) Professor Barbara H adey (University of Tasmania) Professor Kevin Hewison (University of North Carolina a t Chapel Hill) Professor Virginia Hooker (Australian National Univers ity) Professor Rey Ileto (National University of Singapore) Gerald Jackson (NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies) Associa te Professor Paul Kratoska (NUS Press, Na tional University of Singapore) Professor Tim Lindsey (University of Melbourne) Professor Andrew M acintyre (Australian National Univers ity) Emeritus Professo r Camp bell M acknight (Australian National University) Professo r Anthony Milner (Australian National University) Dr Harry Poeze (Director, KITLV Press, Leiden) Professor Anthony Reid (National University of Singapore) Associate Professo r C raig Reynolds (Australian National University) Professor Merle Ricklefs (National University of Singapore) Professo r Kathryn Robinson (Australian National University) Dr Mina Roces (University of New South Wales) Professor Krishna Sen (Curtin University of Technology) Associate Professor M aila Stivens (Uni versity of Melbourne) Dr Philip Taylor (Australian National University) Professor Carl Thayer (University of New South Wales, ADFA) Professor Adrian Vickers (University of Sydney)

Websi te: http:// iceaps.anu .edu. au/asaa_publicationslsoutheascasia.html

JAVANESE PERFORMANCES ON AN INDONESIAN STAGE

Contesting Culture, Embracing Change

Barbara Hatley

Asian Studies Association of Australia

in association with

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I PRESS

HONOLULU

First published by:

NUS Press AS3-0 1-02, 3 Arts Link Singapore 117569

Published in North America by:

University of Hawai'i Press 2840 Kolowalu Street Honolulu, HI 96822 www.uhpress.hawaii.edu

© 2008 NUS Press National University of Singapore

(i' I J

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, wi thout written permission from the Publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hatley, Barbara. Javanese performances on an Indonesian stage: Contesting culture, embracing

change / Barbara Hatley. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8248-3295-7 (pbk.)

1. Theater - Indonesia - Yogyakarta - History - 20th century. 2. Theater and society - Indonesia - Yogyakarta - History - 20th century. 1. Title.

PN2906.Y64H38 2008 792.09598'2709 041 - dc22

2007052918

Cover: Bondan Nusantara introducing a community show held in the wake of

the devastating 28 May 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta. Photo supplied by Bondan Nusantara.

Printed in Singapore

To the performers~

who made it all possible

Introduction

This book explores 30 years of stage performances in Central Java in a period of dramatic social change. It begins in the 1970s when the structures and institutions of the powerful New Order State were being established, moves through the monetary boom and cultural globalisation of the 1980s and 1990s, then traces the times of economic hardship and social conflict, political decentralisation and increased political freedom that followed the New Order's demise in 1998. By looking at the way popular theatre developed in response to socio-po litical circumstances, it illuminates both the workings of Javanese theatre and the local impact of major social change.

The main site for this exploration is Yogyakarta. An o ld court centre strongly invo lved in the national struggle for Indonesian Independence and in ongoing national politics, and whose myriad educational institu- tions draw staff and students from across the archipelago , Yogyakarta is hardly a 'typical' Javanese city. Yet its national significance, diverse population and rich cultura l history make Yogyakarta an ideal place to examine how theatre gives expression to the social experience and sense of identity of audience members who are both culturally Javanese and modern Indonesian.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, 1970s-90s

My first encounter with theatre in Yogyakarta took place in the 1970s. Then my focus was on ketoprak, a form of Javanese-language popular melodrama with a repertoire drawn from Javanese history and legend, which I was researching for my PhD. Watching the nightly perform- ances of the five commercial troupes based in the city and a myriad of amateur shows celebrating community events, I developed a sense of how ketoprak's tales of the past gave expression to contemporary social concerns and cultural val u es for its wong ciiik, I lower-class participants. In the 1980s and early 1990s I began to follow developments in teater,

2 Javanese Perfbrm ances on a n Indo nesian Stage

Indonesian-language , scripted plays. At this time of strong govern- ment concrol, modern theatre provided room for its young, educated, overwhelmingly male practitioners [0 indirectly critique contemporary political authorities through satirical interpretations of Javanese his[Ory. Both ketoprak and teater might be described as 'popular' in their dis- tance from classical theatre traditions and their close connections with particular social groups.

By the late 1990s, social changes in Yogyakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia seemed to challenge this picture of close integration between theatre and local social life. The forces of capitalist development and

globalisation were physically transforming the city and having a major impact on theatre and the media. Multi-storied international hotels and sumptuous bank buildings were being erected along the main thoroughfares; middle-class housing complexes were spreading out into the rice fields that once marked the city's perimeter. In 1992 on the

historic main street of Malioboro there appeared the amazing appari- tion of the Malioboro Mall- gleaming, multi-levelled, with escalators , designer clothing boutiques and a McDonald's restaurant. In the field of arts and media, four new commercial television channels had been established alongside the single government station, which until this time had enjoyed a monopoly over television broadcasting. Troupes performing traditional theatre lost audiences and disbanded; modern theatre groups suffered a haemorrhage of performers [0 sinetron, tele- movies produced to provide a modicum of local content alongside a Aood of imported programmes.

In August-September 1997 I went to Java for two months to

investigate these changes, to explore whether and in what ways local performances still conveyed social meaning in an age of commoditisa- tion and globalisation. June-September had been the big months for performances for weddings and circumcisions, anniversaries of organisa-

tion s and for celebrations of 17 August, Indonesian Independence day. During the 1970s and 1980s, community concerts (ma/am kesenian) held to mark Independence Day had conveyed a sense of neighbour- hood identity as residents of all ages and interests, from tiny preschool

dancers to teenage rock bands [0 middle-aged lady choirs, contributed to the show. A ketoprak performance often constituted the final, star attraction of the event; a common theme of villager hero defending his kingdom might be seen to express a kind of local, grass roots "nation- alism" (Hatley, 1982). To what extent were performances of this kind

still prevalent in the late 1990s? What did their content and mode of

In troduction 3

. . A t about the contemporary functions and perceived organisation re ec meanings of local theacre?

SEPTEMBER 1997 - A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Two months in Yogyakarta to catch up on developments in t.he p~rform­ . arts seems but the blink of an eye in light of all that IS g01l1g on, 1l1g . h· . I but I try. With three separate performances to take 111 on t IS parrlCu ar

. ht my video batteries charged and notebook at the ready, the first I1lg , . I·S dinner to fortify myself for the task. The place I head for IS stop' . . .

hardly a quiet spot, situated next to a sports stadium, fac1l1g the ma1l1

telephone office, at the junction of several busy roads, wI~h .thelr streams of roaring motorbikes and exhaust-belching buses. But It IS near where I am staying, on the way to my first destination, and serves a good gado-gado (vegetables with spicy peanut sauce) very fast.

Tonight, as I approach, the small restaurant seems to be at the hub

of a maelstrom of people, noise and entertainment. From the stadium comes a noise like an earthquake or impending revolution, amplified

rock music assaulting the feet via the shuddering earth and the ears in waves of distorted sound. Huge numbers of young men in their late teens, with jeans, black T-shirts and long , dishevelled hair, stream through the gates . Right across the road, at the prestigious state senior

high school, similar waves of amplified music and thronging crowds indicate a major "happening". Traffic has been partially blocked off and stalls set up along the street. Inside the school complex, a huge screen and stage mark the site of a performance later that night of wayang kulit shadow puppet theacre by the famous and highly paid puppeteer, Anom SurO[O. All this is taking place as parr of several days of lustrum

celebrations, five yearly events organised by school alumni. Eating at that spot, between the two crowds and the dual walls

of sound while the traffic roars relentlessly by, I experience an intense ,

embodied sense of Yogyakarta in the late 1990s, in all its rush and

noise, its teeming life and cacophonous voices. Setting out to locate and analyse such voices as they are expressed in performance events, for a moment I am no longer the detached researcher but a helpless, in-

voluntary participant, engulfed and overwhelmed by aggressive noise. But the dismay is momentary and the search goes on. The rock

concert, of course, is off-limits to me , and anyone of my advanced years, local or foreign. Later that night I will return to watch the wayang, to gaze from afar for a time until summoned by a batik-shirred official to

4 Javanese PeifOrmances on an Indonesian Stage

a front seat alongside similarly clad dignitaries, prominent alumni of the school who constitute the organising committee for the festivities and their honoured guests. But first there are two other shows to take in. Less than 200 metres from the rock concert and the wayang, in the Bentara Budaya cultural centre attached to the offices of the Kompas newspaper, a mime performance is taking place. Cemek, a diminutive Yogyakarta actor and mime artist, with a colourful past as a thief and standover man, is playing out a meditation on power and oppression entitled Kuasa Mahakuasa (Power and Omnipotence) . A youthful crowd of university students, journalists and artists watch as Cemek, Marcel Marceau-like in white face, mimes subservience to, then rebellion against, a peremptory, remote-controlled rocking chair symbolising tyrannical, unseen authority. Next he and several fellow actors whisper and shout in parody of the confused, contradictory accounts of witnesses in a then current court case over the murder of a crusading journalist.

Just as the show ends, I race out to hail a pedicab for the short ride to my next destination , the sumptuous princely home of a brother of the reigning sultan, not far from the palace itself. The head of the classical dance group who invited me to watch his group perform here , an uncle of the host and the Sultan, has made no mention of the nature of the occasion being celebrated. So the guests and I are equally disconcerted as I bumble incongruously into an elegant private party, where aristocratic relatives of the host and moguls of the tourist industry are dining at white-clothed tables set up around the edges of a beautiful pavilion (pendopo) , in which the dance is being presented. Nevertheless, after a moment's confusion, I am graciously received and seated at a table as the dancers perform an excerpt of court dance drama. The host explains that this performance is being held to mark the commencement in a few weeks' time of a new venture, his pre- sentation of dinner and classical dance shows for tourists on the model of existing programmes in other aristocratic homes. But while these other shows all play out the Ramayana legend as a simple love story with a dramatic climax, seen as unfailingly attractive to tourists, his focus will be the other epic of the Javanese dance drama repertoire, the Mahabharata.

Then back to the wayang. While delighting in Anom's sonorous singing and the witty repartee of his puppet characters, I chat politely about the Australian educational system with my distinguished, ba- tik-shirted neighbour. Awestruck acquaintances, watching from afar, report later that my companion has been none other than the head of

Introduction 5

the Department of Education and Culture for the whole Yogyakarta district! I start with surprise at unexpected additions to wayang as I have known it , such as nude puppets with movable penises , Muslim music played on tambourines and a solo pop song by an audience member, who turns out to be the wife of a well-placed military man. Finally, around 3 o'clock, when the waves of tiredness become too much , I walk home to bed , to drift off to sleep with the amplified

sound of Anom's glorious voice still filling my ears.

*** Three performances within a few hundred metres and a fourth close by, each with their own form , their own purpose, their distinct audiences. No doubt other shows were staged that night in different parts of the city to mark other events. A rock co ncert, a shadow puppet play, clas- sical court dance and politically oriented mime illustrate only a few of the types of performance on view. On other occasions I saw or heard about scores of productions of ketoprak; several concerts of dangdut, a hybrid Middle Eastern/Indian/Malay musical form, with a pulsing beat, gyrating, scantily clad female singers and huge male audiences; jathilan, hobby horse trance dance, performed by itinerant buskers and by a group of teenage boys and girls to mark a village celebration of Independence Day; experimental Western-style theatre, classical music recitals and performances of Islamic music and Arabic chanting to celeb- rate Muslim religious holidays. Neighbourhood concerts celebrating Independence Day also abounded. The first of my research questions was emphatically answered. Local performances were thriving in the Yogyakarta of the late 1990s, despite the hubbub of globalised media

culture.

MILIEU AND MEANING

Along with the overall vitality of performance aCtiVity, the above descriptions also illustrate connections between theatrical events and particular social groups. The rock concert and the mime presentation, as modern forms influenced by Western models, were staged com- mercially, for a paying public. The wayang and classical dance had been organised by the alumni committee and the Sultan's brother in the context of specific celebrations. As regional, 'traditional' art forms they would more rarely be performed as a paying show.

2 But in each

6 Javanese Performances on a n Indo n esian Stage

case the show was observed by people from a particular social milieu rather than an amorphous 'general public'. 3

Differences in social status and education clearly playa key role in this process: attendance at particular kinds of performance marks the lifestyle of a specific social group. Here are examples, one might sug- gest, of the kind of choices described by Pierre Bourdieu as he traced links between social class groupings and their members' tastes in art

and ent~rtainment (Bourdieu, 1984) . University students , through their academIC and recreational activities , have acquired enouah contact with foreign cultures to appreciate the conventions of Weste~1 mime and to defin~ themselves as part of a modern-minded, cultured, socially criti- cal elIte who watch modern theatre in a theatre building. Government

officials and prominent professionals watching a wayang performance, r~nowned as the ' highest' of Javanese art forms, are accumulating a sIzeable store of cultural capital as they sit resplendent in the VIP seats

with their colleagues and other dignitaries. Contemporary aristocrats, observing an excerpt, tailored for tourists, of the court dance drama

~nce presented with spectacular grandeur in the sultan's palace, are liv- mg out and capitalising upon their elite heritage. And the middle-class youth at the rock concert are expressing their rejection of local social hierarchy and hypocrisy through images and expressions drawn from a global culture of youth rebellion .

Yet the Yogyakarta scene differs in important ways from the European model of a leisure and culture marketplace, ordered by personal taste as a reAection of class status. Government officials do not

at.tend j~st any wayang but the one being organised by the organisation w~th whIch t~ey are associated. Also present at the show are not just elIte figures lIke themselves but a crowd of ordinary citi zen s, who are being provided with entertainment through the largesse of their social betters, acting out their m a rginal social status as they stand packed

~oget?er, ~atching behind th e roped-off seating area. Factors of group Id~ntIficatIon , patronage and noblesse oblige are s till very much in eVIdence. Even at modern, commercial performances, audiences tend

to be not only drawn from similar social circles but to have many common cOI1I:ections. After the mime presentation, for example, virtually no other audIence members left straight away as I did; the others all stayed back in the theatre building to chat with friends.

What is taking place here is arguably an adaptation to new settings and purpos.es of the. long-esta blished Javanese practice of nduwe gawe, the celebratIOn of an ImpOrtant event in the life of a family or community.

i ntroductio n 7

The marriage of a d a ughter, the circumcision of a son - these were the kinds of events that a famil y of some standing in the community was expected to celebrate with a wayang perform a nce , confirming and displaying the wealth and position of the hosts , as w ell as providing entertainment and an opportunity for sociability for their neighbours. For those of lesser means several nights of chatting and card playing (jagongan) at the tim e of such events provided a more modes t equivalent. Now it is the wealthiest, most prestigious educational institutions whose alumni hold lustrum celebrations and m a rk the occasion with a wayang performance by one of Java's best puppeteers (dalaniJ. For years the Yogyakarta chapter of the government political party, Golkar, would celebrate its election s uccess with a w ayang; in 1997 during my stay the local newspaper, Kedaulatan Rakyat, on the 50th anniversary of its founding, outshone all others with a glittering event involving no less than three top dalang, each operating a separate screen and

accompanied by his own gamelan orchestra. But at the same time , every day in towns , villages and across the

city, often dutifully documented in the local press, myriad more modest

performances mark significant occasions in the life of local organisa- tions - satirical skits at a university graduation , a karaoke competition for the anniversary of a youth group, a women's gamelan concert at a

celebration by a neighbourhood wives' organisation to mark the end of the fasting month . In many cases , the institution and even the event itself is a modern one modelled after a Western practice - a univer-

sity graduation or school alumni gathering. The mode of celebration, however, draws on and perpetuates local practice through the staging of a theatrical performance. As global cultutal inAuence pours in through modern economic and political s tructures and the mass media , local

performances may take on a radically altered form . Yet their symbolic function in celebrating group membership for particula r social groups is not necessarily diminished. Indeed, such events may assume enhanced

importance, as assertions of an ongoing local identity, adapting to but not swamped by international inAuences and practices .

INTEGRATION AND CONTESTATION

Symbolic anthropologists underline the significance of theatrical per- formances and other ritual events as encapsulations of the perceived meaning of experience for members of a particular culture. 4 Clifford Geertz's article on the Balinese cockfight, for example, is widely cited

8 Ja vanese Performa nces on an Indo nesian Stage

for its analysis of the role of such entertainment as cultural text . The fight, Geertz argues, mirrors issues of status difference and social alliance in its betting structure, while its ferocious savagery gives a vivid, experiential sense of the potential violence beneath the calm of daily life, the utter seriousness of status rivalry (Geertz, 1990). Performances and rituals as texts are seen to embody a shared social meaning for their participants as members of a common culture.

In the performances described above, celebration of shared group identity is clearly an important aspect of the experience of attendance. At the same time, wider social and political forces combine with local dynamics in giving meaning to these events, creating both integrative and "combative" effects. In a later article Geertz reports on rituals and performances he observed in 1986 in the town of Pare in East Java on a return visit to the site of his research of the 1950s. Staged variously for the graduation of students at state and religious schools, a Muslim prayer meeting, a ritual celebration at a pilgrimage site and the 40th anniversary of the state police, these events represent the interests of differing ideological streams in contemporary Javanese society. These include the middle-class "youth culture" associated with the burgeon- ing education system, conservative and modernist Islam , the spiritual renewal ("neo-Javanist") movement and the institutions of the state, the last two both mobilising "traditional" Javanese cultural symbols. Geertz links the intense interest of these events for their participants, along with their often bland or jarringly inconsistent imagery, with the displacement under the New Order regime of expressions of ideological difference to the cultural realm. Purportedly non-political organisations, including schools, cultural associations and religious groups, stage rituals and performances, the key symbolism of which is assertion of posi- tion - "part of the struggle for power, status, wealth and recognition" (Geertz, 1990: 94).

Other scholars have documented processes of active enforcement by the state of this "culturalisation" of difference, analysed its effects and documented instances of resistance. Mary Zurbuchen, for example, deconstructs the rhetoric of New Order cultural policies, as wittily and very accurately reproduced in the political satires of the Jakarta theatre group Teater Kama (Zurbuchen, 1989). Anthropologists and ethnomusicologists such as Greg Acciaioli , Michael Dove and Amrih Widodo describe how state authorities have banned from performance elements of regional dances and music judged "unseemly" or contentious, promoting instead bland, sanitised versions of these forms (Acciaioli,

Introductio n 9

1985; Dove, 1988 ; Widodo , 1995). Yet such actiVity creates its own

cultural politics. In the context of appropriation b~ the state o~ t~e

E t Javanese horse dance pageant reyog, the cultivation of reyog 111 ItS as .

original form, with all its rough , aggressiv~ vigour, by local commUJ1i- ties in dispute with the government proVides a strengthened sense of

identity and a vital symbo l of resistance (Wilson, 1999).

POLITICS, CHANGE AND JAVANESE THEATRE TRADITION

Combative, political roles of performance surely did not originate with New Order culturalisation policies, displacing politics to culture. In Java, and in Indonesia more generally, display of power and exertion

of political influence through theatrical , ritu~l events has. a l~ng and well-charted history. It constitutes a key theme 111 the extenSive literature on wayang shadow theatre, illustrating its status as the most iconic of Javanese art forms. Drawing on Javanese discourse , Western social scientists view wayang as the embodiment of a hegemonic, aristocratic ideology emphasising social hierarchy, refinement and concentration of political and spiritual power (Geertz, 1960; Anderson, 1966). Ward Keeler, analysing structural correspondences between wayang and the overall experience of being Javanese, shows how wayang gives expres- sion to the everyday 'politics' of authority relations in family and com- munity (Keeler, 1987) . Laurie Sears challenges the notion of a single hegemonic wayang tradition. She argues that Javanese aristocrats and Dutch administrators/scholars promoted a construct of wayang as a refined court art, imbued with Hindu-Buddhist philosophy, suppressing Islamic-influenced elements and village variants (Sears , 1996). Sears' picture of an alternate village tradition of wayang, distinct from that of the courts , is echoed in Richard Curtis' contemporary account of a distinct wong cilik appreciation of wayang's humorous clown interludes and dramatic battles , as opposed to the aesthetic, philosophical and

ritual aspects of the performance (Curtis, 1997). The mobilisation of wayang by political parties in the 1950s

and 1960s, and its use by the state to convey propaganda messages both in Sukarno times and under the New Order, has been widely documented (Mc Vey, 1986; Groenendael, 1985) . Late-1990s wayang as described by Jan Mrazek - commoditised spectacles with coloured lights, multiple screens and famous comedians and glamorous singers sharing the limelight with puppeteers, who themselves sing, dance and appear as "guest stars" on television (Mrazek 1999, 2000) - seems

10 Java n ese Performances on a n I ndo n esian Stage

more involved with global media trends than local social and political conditions . Yet Mrazek's recent (2002) edited volume of articles on wayang abounds with cases of performances intimately connected with their local context, asserting East Javanese cultural identiry vis-

a-vis hon:~genising Ce~tral ~avanese models, for example, or bringing communltJes together 111 SOCIal healing after the 1998 Solo riots. 5

Such studies provide ample evidence of wayang engaging with is- sues of p.ower an~ other aspects o.f its current social context, and playing an ongoll1g role 111 the constrUctIOn of social meaning through theatre. However, partly because wayang has been so widely investigated by others, I have chosen to explore this phenomenon through two other

theatre genres, ketoprak popular melodrama and modern Indonesian-

lan?uage t~eatre (teat~r). My choice has been motivated, moreover, by an Interest 111 the particular ways in which ketoprak and teater relate to Javanese th.eatre tradition. Both their collaborative, group-based mode

of prod~ctlon and their approach in interpreting Javanese theatrical co~ventl~ns and symbols connect these forms particularly closely with theIr SOCIal Contexts and with wider processes of change.

J~va~ese theatre forms, I suggest, draw on a shared store of dramatic Images - character rypes, interactions, settings _ which are ~resented and perceived in accordance with the conventions of the speCIfic g~nre, the circumstances of production of particular performances and ~he II1terests ~f certain. groups . Such imagery has an ambiguous, multl-fac.eted qUallry, allowlOg for varied interpretation and potential

contestation of the 'world ~iew' expressed there . Rather than separate sryl~s of performance cultIvated by different social constituencies I POSIt a mor~ fluid picture. To view 'normative' wayang as the creati~n of court anstocrats and Dutch officials and, similarly, to see this

froc~s.s re~roduced in the domination by New Order bureaucrats of tradltlonal Javanese cultural practices (Pemberton 1994) .

, , overestimates the hegemonic ro~e of elite grou~s, denying agency to others. Village and kampung audIence members , 111 my experience, appreciate far more of wayang performances than simply the spectacular fighting sequences

an~ clown humour. Ma~lY are deeply knowledgeable about wayang's phIlosophlc~ and aesthetic aspects, understood in spiritual terms rather than connectIo~ with ari stocratic values and practices . Theatrical symbols can convey a dIverse range of meanings. A telling example is cited by

Marc. Perlman, the case. of a C~urt dance drama devised in the early r:ventleth.c:nt~ry by radICal natlonalistTjipto Mangunkusumo with the aIm of cntlqull1g the policies of the Solo COUrt. As Perlman observes

,

Introduction II

"the tradition provides rhetorical resources for criticism of authoriry as well as reinforcement" (Perlman , 1999: 25) .

New genres define their mode of social reference in di stinction

to that of older thea tre forms. Ketoprak and tea tel' both appeared in the early twentieth century as part of the transformative changes taking place in Indonesi a at that time - intensified urbanisation , European influence and emergent nationalist politics - and are marked by that history. Ketoprak is characterised by its practitioners as straightforward in expression, referring literally to the here- and-now, in contrast to the figurative, allusive (pasemon) nature of wayang. Its language is seen as direct, not complex and circuitous . It is also described as "about gover- nance" (pemerintahan) - its stories of conflict between historical kingdoms are seen to have explicit political meaning rather than symbolising moral and spiritual struggles or cosmic principles like the battles of wayang. Ketoprak conveyed populist political ideology

in the 1950s and early 1960s when many groups were aligned with the Communist movement . After the transition to the New Order its political connections and reference dramatically changed. Teater,

originating from contact with Western drama and using the national language, Indonesian, belongs to the domain of modern Indonesian culture, not the tradition of Javanese theatre. Teater is therefore able to draw on the familiar images of Javanese theatre free of the constraints

of traditional theatrical convention. Blatant satirising of this imagery along with subversion of the ideological concepts it encodes has been one of the chief attractions for politically critical modern theatre actors and their audiences.

Both ketoprak and teater engage with Javanese tradition with an explicitly contemporary focus. The way performances are organised and staged likewise connects them closely with their social environ-

ment. In ketoprak performances, often celebrating a communiry social event, actors improvise dialogue reflecting on shared social experience

and mentioning topical local issues. Modern theatre groups employing written scripts have less opportuniry for improvisation; however, in or- ganising their own largely amateur activities rather than depending on elite patrons, they can refer more boldly to current political issues.

The following account of theatre and change in Yogyakarta begins with

ketoprak in the 1970s . Opening chapters describe how ketoprak was

12 Javan ese Perfo rmances on an I ndo nesian Stage

appropriated by and accommodated ro the New Order governm ent, while continuing to give expression to the experiences and perspectives of its lower-class, village and kampung participants . Chapter Four traces the development, from the late 1970s onwards, of a new style of theatre, performed and watched largely by students and other educated youth . Modern Indonesian-language plays drawing on Javanese "tradition" are seen to provide an outlet for the critical political views of its participants to reflect on their mixed Javanese/Indonesian sense of self.

In the 1990s the forces of commercialisation and globalisation , combining with ongoing authoritarian political control, presented both

challenges and new opportunities for theatre. As performance genres blended in commoditised spectacles, practitioners ofketoprak and teater collaborated to stage huge stage events combining global cultural imagery with local political reference. Chapter Five explores the resonance of these shows for their largely young, urban, middle-class audiences. In the late

1990s, as the opposition towards the Suharto regime grew, performance activities thrived in the atmosphere of heightened politicisation.

The post-New Order period, covered in the final three chapters, presents many uncertainties. In the immediate post-Suharto years, performance activity declined under the combined impact of economic crisis and political instability. Identity and ideology could now be

expressed directly rather than being displaced to the field of cultural

display. Theatre's role in voicing shared political critique faded with the dispersal of the anti-Suharto opposition movement. Yet since 2003 the

Yogyakarta theatre scene has become livelier, as performances engage with the politics of regional autonomy and democratisation and con- vey varying reassessments of "Javanese tradition" . Diversity thrives, in

theatre as elsewhere in contemporary Indonesian society, resisting the notion of general trends. But one possibility is a degree of re-creation of ketoprak as a populist, participatory form, encouraged by democratic ideology and devolved administrative structures. Another is the spread, albeit contested, of more inclusive gender attitudes, and the participa- tion of strong, talented women.

1

Yogyakarta in the 1970s - Communities, Performances,

History

Yogyakarta in the mid- to late 1970s was a diverse, dynamic city. A court centre steeped in tradition, it was also thoroughly wired into the modern nation through its history as the centre of nationalist struggle in the war of independence of the late 1940s and its current role as educational capital of the nation. Its distinctive spatial formation, with particular areas associated with specific social groups and cultural activities, gave expression to this rich history and contemporary diver-

sity. This chapter outlines the physical and socio-cultural landscape of Yogyakarta in the 1970s and locates the popular melodrama ketoprak as a cultural form explicitly associated with the inhabitants of the

kampung, the crowded neighbourhoods between the city streets, defined by themselves and others as wong cilik or underclass. It explores the origins and meanings of the identification between ketoprak and the

wong cilik social group by giving an overview of ketoprak's history of development and mode of practice in the 1970s.

SPACE AND PLACE IN THE 1970s

The legacy of Yogya's founding as the royal capital of the kingdom of Ngayogyakarta by Sultan Hamengkubuwono I in 1756, and its func- tioning as a powerful court centre, lived on in the 1970s in the large

area in the southern part of the city taken up by the palace (kraton) and its surrounds. Within the remains of palace walls were the former residences of retainers and troops, also workshops making batik cloth

13

294

sinetron

slametan

stamboel

sumpah palapa

tayuban

teater

TIM warok wayang kulitlwayang wayang wong

wong cilik

Glossary

movie produced for television, usually in

serialised form

ritual gathering marking significant events

in family and community life

hybrid Malay/Middle Eastern/European

theatre form very popular in Indonesia in

late 19th and early 20th centuries

oath supposedly sworn by Gajah Mada,

prime minister of the fourteenth- to

fifteenth-century kingdom of Majapahit,

that he would not eat the palapa fruit

until the whole of the Malay-Indonesian

archipelago was unified

dance party in which male guests dance

with female professional dancer/singer

theatre derived from the model of European

drama, using written script

Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta Arts Centre

rural strong man

shadow puppet theatre

dance drama with the same repertoire and

characters as wayang kulit

commoner, lower-class/underclass person.

Notes

Introduction

The term wong cilik or 'l ittl e people', 'commoners' historically indicated the lower end of a divide berween ordinary people and the aristocracy (priyayi). In recent times, occupation and place of residence, along with income, have been the chief markers of membership of this social group - smal l farmers and farm labourers, urban workers, street-stall owners and pedicab drivers, for example, regard themselves and are thought of by others as wong cilik. Yet no absolute divide separates 'traditional/indigenous' from 'modern/ Western' performance in this regard. Popularised variants of traditional court dance drama and other regional performance are staged in public theatres as commercial entertainment; modern, Indonesian-language plays or modern music/dance presentations often celebrate occasions (religious events, schoo l anniversaries, national days) organised by a specific social group. Goenawan Mohamad observed several decades ago that the audiences for modern performing arts, like those of traditional, regional theatre genres, are not composed of an anonymous 'general public' but very distinct social groupings with a particular interest in the form in question (Goenawan Mohamad, 1980) . "Cultures ," writes Victor Turner "are better compared through their rituals , theaters, tales, ballads, epics, operas than through their habits. For the former are the ways in which they try to articulate their meanings . .. " (Turner, personal communication , as quoted by Edward Bruner, 1986: 13). Ward Keeler's article in this vo lu me, "Wayang Kulit in the Political Margin", argues persuasively against attempts to apply to wayang misplaced expectations of political critique and activism. However, involvement of a diffuse kind in the ebb and flow of local "politics" broadly understood, is clearly a longstanding aspect of wayang's operation.

Chapter 1

See Sullivan (1992: 20-30) and Setiawan (1998: 59-65) for discussion of the comp lexities of the term kampung, including its frequently quoted

295