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Miss Tjitjih survives to keep Sundanese culture alive

This year might have been the hardest for Miss Tjitjih, but the legendary Sundanese theater group has no plans to exit the stage.

A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, July 28, 2017

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Miss Tjitjih survives to keep Sundanese culture alive Hear me out: Dayang Sumbi (left), played by Putri Indonesia 2011 Maria Selena, speaks with her parents in the play Sangkuriang staged by traditional Sundanese theater group Miss Tjitjih at the Galeri Indonesia Kaya in Central Jakarta. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

Z

ainul Arifin likes to watch a new movie every weekend with his girlfriend at a movie theater at a Central Jakarta shopping mall.   

But he dropped his plans on a recent Sunday when he learned that Miss Tjitjih would be performing at the Galeri Indonesia Kaya, an auditorium next to his regular movie haunt. On the day of the performance, a large crowd of people had lined up even before the show had started.

“I have known Miss Tjitjih for a long time. I really want to watch their show because this is a legendary group. I am lucky I can find it here, because I thought it was already ‘extinct’,” said the 20-year-old. 

The legendary theater group, which will turn 90 next year, staged Sangkuriang in collaboration with the 2011 winner of the Putri Indonesia pageant, Maria Selena.

Sangkuriang is probably one of the most popular folktales of Sunda, but Miss Tjitjih performed an unexpected interpretation.

Read also: Photographer rekindles local folktales

The play opens with the pretty Dayang Sumbi (played by Maria Selena) who is weaving cloth at home, accompanied by a dog, Si Tumang (Sambas Aco).

She accidentally drops her spool of thread. Feeling lazy, she does not want to pick it up herself and carelessly declares that she would marry any man who picked it up for her.

Si Tumang, who is actually a god cursed to take the form of a dog, hears Sumbi’s promise and quickly picks up the thread. 

Although shocked, Dayang Sumbi fulfills her promise and marries the dog. They later have a son named Sangkuriang (Dadang Badut).  

Sangkuriang does not know that Tumang the dog is his father. During a hunting trip together, he kills it. Sumbi is enraged and throws her son out of the house, but immediately regrets her action and tries to find him.

She then decides to pray, wishing to be forever young. 

It is in the following scene that Miss Tjitjih improvises and diverts from the original folktale.

Sumbi, who wishes to remain forever ageless and beautiful, instead turns ugly after a god and goddess give her the wrong potion. Maria is then replaced by actor Asep Kucay, who makes the audience laugh out loud for the twist in the traditional tale. 

Fresh twist: The popular Sundanese folktale Sangkuriang is given unexpected twists by the Miss Tjitjih theater group.
Fresh twist: The popular Sundanese folktale Sangkuriang is given unexpected twists by the Miss Tjitjih theater group. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

The 90-minute play is full of laughter, thanks to the cast members who successfully nail the comedic interpretation.

Long-time fans of Miss Tjitjih will recognize that its latest rendition of Sangkuriang is very different from the horror story that the group used to perform.    

Imas Darsih, the troupe’s 56-year-old director, said although Miss Tjitjih was identified with the horror genre, this did not mean that the group could not perform other genres.  

Read also: Three underrated Indonesian folktales that teach us a little more about life

Although the group’s home is the Miss Tjitjih Theater in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, it will not perform there this year.  

“In 2017, we will not hold any show there. We will perform if we receive invitations to various events, such as at wedding ceremonies, circumcision rituals and public events like this,” she said. 

Miss Tjitjih depends on subsidies from the Jakarta administration to perform, but this year Imas said it was told it would not be getting any funding.

“I don’t know why,” she said. “We hope we can get it in 2018.”

Si Kumang the dog.
Si Kumang the dog. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

She said that to survive, some of the group’s actors had opened food stalls or become ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers. Imas also recalled that last year, her group performed 24 shows at the Miss Tjitjih Theater.

Imas confessed that winning young people’s attention was still a challenge.

The group utilizes social media platforms like Facebook for promoting events in which it will perform, as well as their collaborations with public figures like Maria.

“In the past, we performed with [the late comedians] Bing Slamet, Ellya Khadam and other artists. Unfortunately, those pictures were lost in the flames,” she said, referring to when their home theater caught fire in 1997.

Even though foreign pop culture might have overshadowed traditional theater today, Imas has never stopped thanking God because the next generation of Miss Tjitjih’s actors and managers were not entranced by it, and were instead eager to continue their parents’ legacy.      

She said that today, Miss Tjitjih consisted of nearly 100 members, including the children of its lead actors. Imas herself is a daughter of Miss Tjitjih players.

While Imas was aware that the theater group was no longer the talk of the town because its competitors were too many, she said the group would never give up.

“According to my parents, Miss Tjitjih has fought very hard to preserve the Sundanese culture. If not us, then who will [continue the fight]?” she said. “Insya Allah [God willing], we will not be die out.”

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