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Gandrik Theater: Chuckling at corruption
The Gandrik Theater group from Yogyakarta is presenting its latest production, Pandol, a play that raises political and social issues pertinent to the country
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he Gandrik Theater group from Yogyakarta is presenting its latest production, Pandol, a play that raises political and social issues pertinent to the country.
This new production is showing at the Salihara Theater in Jakarta from May 20 to May 22, 2010.
Although the issues broached are serious, Gandrik Theater presents them in a special style known as Sampakan. (This style of theater developed in Yogyakarta is known as unsophisticated, repetitive and vigorous.)
"Yu Paelah mangan trasi *Miss Paelah eats fermented fish or shrimps*/ Ngombene dawet tur karo cendhol *She drinks dawet (coconut milk and palm sugar) with cendhol (doughy rice-flour drops)*/Iki ono panti korban korupsi sing diarani Pandol *There is an institution for victims of corruption called Pandol*."
Then there's the Jula Juli song among others. The song is used in the opening stages of Ludruk theater. Ludruk is East Java folk theater in which all parts are played by males.
Sung with vigor and accompanied by gamelan music, a special feature of Ludruk, dozens of players sing the song while performing the Ngremo dance. This is featured in the opening stages of Pandol. The company is led by actor Butet Kartaredjasa.
The opening scene created the right atmosphere for the audience that watched rehearsals by Gandrik in front of hundreds of senior high school students in Yogyakarta, last Sunday at the Bagong Kussudiardja Art Center.
Moreover, Jula Juli was interspersed with humorous verses, which poked fun at the political and social conditions in the country.
After the song, two figures appeared dressed as clowns named Owel and Maekani. These two roles are like those of Togog and Bilung in wayang kulit (leather puppet shows).
But this time they peddle articles selling laws and local regulations. "I'm a representative of the people, I can receive orders for local regulations. The price can be discussed," said Owel and Maekani in turns while carrying the Book of Laws.
They said making laws was no longer a process that should be kept secret. Laws are like goods that can be traded and sold through clearance sales at the market. "Buy two, get three laws. Quickly, who wants to buy?" he asked.
This portrait claims to reflect what is happening in the heart of society. Pandol stands for the House of Idols, a place similar to a mental hospital but for the victims of corruption, and is the setting for the play.
This is the story line: The Kotabulus Regent has built a mental nursing home for victims of corruption in his region. The home is better known as the Panti Idola or Pan Dol), the House of Idols.
This sets up a new paradigm, and a culture that has been created by the regent so that corruption can only be fought by the victims of corruption.
Corruption has become so rampant that it has tested the limits of healthy and logical thought, and all parties have run out of hope in trying to stop it.
Even Owel and Maekani, members of the Regional Representative Council, are buying and selling regional regulations, as mobile street vendors display their wares.
To make matters even more complicated, the regent and his entourage also get involved in corruption.
Briefly the story is that the administration of the Bulus City District begins to break down. Some officials get caught in the vortex of corrupt practices and become victims of corruption.
But when investigating officials try to decide who is suspected of corruption the Bulus City regent succeeds in ordering a regional regulation, raising the Pandol Director to the head of the District Monitoring Board, and place the Corruption Eradication Commission as a small unit under the Division of Internal Affairs at the District Monitoring Board.
According to Butet, the point is to show the practise of manipulating budgets. The theme came from the results of conversations with Teten Masduki, the secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia and former coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch. Heru Kesawa Murti wrote the script, with the accompanying music by Jaduk Ferianto.
The staging of this new work maintains the special characteristic of Gandrik theater.
The performance doesn't just involve the players and musicians, but also the audience through interaction. This is the style of Sampakan, the reactive relationship between audience and players, and the style of Parikeno, the joking style of Mataraman in South Kalimantan.
That is to joke using language that doesn't offend. Maybe corrupt officials will also laugh when watching Pandol.
On the stage this time, apart from adopting local art forms such as Ketoprak (Javanese drama depicting historical or pseudo-historical events) and Uwong Puppet (Javanese stage shows using puppet themes), this 2010 stage premiere also encapsulates the spirit of Ludruk from East Java.
"As a people's theater, we are always open to any local art form. Maybe next time we will take the spirit and language of Banyumasan or Tegal," said Butet Kartaradjasa.
Butet added that the staging of Pandol had also become the catalyst for regenerating players and audiences. In terms of the players, there is much interest from the new generation.
"Through the audience we have tried to bring senior high school students together for workshops. And from them we expect to find new audiences for Gandrik."
Since the beginning, if Gandrik audiences are kept away, this art form will be lost.
