Renowned theater troupe Teater Koma is set to spice up the year with another performance of biting political satire.

The troupe will stage the classical Chinese story Sie Jin Kwie Kena Fitnah (Sie Jin Kwie is framed), directed by the troupe’s noted playwright, N. Riantiarno, at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta from March 4 to 26.

The play, staged to coincide with the troupe’s 34th anniversary, is set to entertain theater fans with a drama blending Chinese opera and puppet performances.

Production head Ratna Riantiarno said the show would feature a cast of dozens, more than 200 colorful Chinese costumes, 17 musicians and singers, a large instrument ensemble as well as period props such as swords, spears and paper lanterns.

The upcoming play, a follow-up to last year’s Sie Jin Kwie, is the troupe’s 122nd production.

Riantiarno said he was determined to stage the play — an adaptation of a work by Yuan dynasty writer Tiokengjian later edited by Lokoanchung in the Ming dynasty — as a trilogy.

The story of Sie Jin Kwie was first published in Indonesia in 1894 before a graphic novel version was published in serial version by Star Weekly magazine in 1953.

Riantiarno, an avid fan of Chinese martial arts series, said the story of Sie Jin Kwie reflected Indonesia’s present situation.

“We have no heroes, so sometimes it is easy to make a big corruptor look like a celebrity,” he said at a press conference Saturday.

The story, set in the seventh century, unfolds at the court of emperor Tang Lisibin, which is rocked by a tragedy following the rape and murder of the emperor’s cousin.

War hero Sie Jin Kwie is accused of being the main perpetrator.

Sie Jin Kwie is then tortured but something strange happens: Despite the pain, he does not wake from his sleep, driving the emperor mad and ordering him to be sentenced to death.

Sie Jin Kwie’s friends try hard to solve the case, believing that someone must have orchestrated the events and set up their friend.

In the middle of the dispute, a foreign nation declares war.

Riantiarno said he believed the play’s audience would not go home without being touched by the play’s message, adding that he felt art could influence people to act.

“Maybe the change is not immediate. Maybe it takes 10 or 15 years until they become powerful people and policymakers,” he said.

Despite the play’s political undertones, no tickets were issued to politicians or the President.
Ratna said only late presidents Soeharto and Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid had watched the troupe’s plays.

Gus Dur was the only president who bought tickets for his aides to accompany him to a performance, she says, while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri only watched the group’s plays before they entered office.

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