Of the three, Raden Dewi Sartika is the most familiar, while Raden Rachmat’ulhadiah Poeradiredja, also known as Emma Poeradiredja, and Raden Ayu Lasminingrat are not as well publicized as Javanese Raden Adjeng Kartini, whose photo once appeared on banknotes.

Wawan Sofwan, as director, had asked his three peers to rewrite the women’s theater scripts into monologues.

Wida Waridah handled the text for Emma, Endah Dinda Jenura for Dewi and Zulfa Nasrulloh for Lasminingrat.

“Our group, Mainteater Bandung, has a theater script bank. So, we asked the writers to convert their scripts into monologue texts, which didn’t take much time to compose. Originally there were four scripts for the event. The other was Siti Jenab, but there were only three players available,” said Wawan.

In presenting the three-part monologue, Mainteater Bandung collaborated with The Lodge Foundation, an NGO that focuses on Sundanese culture and education.

Mainteater Bandung was responsible for the concept of the show while The Lodge Foundation managed its production.

Wawan said his theater proposed players suited to their respective roles.

“We later discussed with Ibu Heni before deciding,” he added, referring to Heni Smith, director of The Lodge Foundation and producer of the monologue.

The three performers chosen were Rieke Dyah Pitaloka as Emma, Sita Nursanti as Dewi Sartika and Maudy Koesnaedi as Lasminingrat.

This choice of actresses may have been why the 250 tickets at Rp 250,000 (US$18.29) each were sold out four days before the event.

Rieke, who works as a legislator, only joined the other performers on the evening of Jan. 27. 

However, Rieke, who staged the first part of the monologue, was able to bring the audience along when she forgot the text by talking in Sundanese about women’s stigmas, even if only by repeating the same content.

“Lantaran poho [it’s because I forgot] 10 pages,” said the woman whose last stage performance was in 2008, before entering the House of Representatives.

In general, the monologue narrated the struggles of the three Sundanese woman leaders to deal with educational backwardness and women’s role in their times. The leading theme of each part was described by Inaya Wahid by rendering the works of Faisal Syahreza.

“History written in ink seems to evade our names as women. Our years of devotion and track records are eliminated. Our actions seem to be reduced to mere household chores. Our resistance is underestimated amid the burning aspirations for a state imbued with freedom,” pronounced Inaya at the opening.

Wawan reversed the timeline by allowing Emma to appear as the opening character. Actually, in the historical sequence, Emma, who was born in 1902, was the youngest, with Lasminingrat and Dewi Sartika being older.

“How does it feel to voice ideas but never be heard? I feel that’s the way the world treats us as women. Our voices are muffled. Our demands are drowned out. We exist but are seemingly invisible. We are real but seemingly unreal,” said Rieke, starting her monologue.

Emma countered the anxieties by being actively engaged in independence movements. She attended the Youth Congress I-II and joined the declaration of the Youth Pledge in 1928.

Back in Bandung, she set up Pasundan Istri (the Sundanese Women’s Association) on April 30, 1930.

“Women should have greater freedom to voice their thoughts,” stressed Emma, who later represented indigenous women in the people’s council of Bandung.

Three years after Indonesia’s independence, the Dutch returned with the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA), finally occupying Bandung in December 1948.

Emma, then working with the Railway Service, fled to Cisurupan, Garut, further to Gombong, Central Java, before eventually being arrested in Yogyakarta.

“But the Dutch dragged me out of the house there and sent me to Jakarta. In Jakarta, I was taken into city custody. Yes, in Jakarta. Now I’m here. I remain here on my own as a detainee. But I feel more highly esteemed,” she remarked.

Then Inayah invited the audience to follow Dewi Sartika’s expression of worries. As a teen, this lady was filled with disappointment as no schools were available to ordinary people in Dutch East Indies, let alone to indigenous women.

Endah, who wrote Dewi Sartika’s text, revealed the emotional struggle of the national heroine as she was striving the create Sakola Istri (Women’s School), the first school for indigenous women in the Dutch East Indies.

“I’m here in Cicalengka, not so far from Bandung, gathering with girls of lower nobility with a flair for love but unable to read the alphabet,” said Sita, playing the role of Dewi Sartika as a 16-year-old.

Sita several times posed as an imaginary interlocutor. Her worries and emotions intensified as she had to convince Bandung Regent Raden Tumenggung Aria Martanegara to give his consent to Sakola Istri.

On the one hand, she needed the approval. On the other, Raden Somanagara, her father, was banished to Ternate for his alleged involvement in horse-race sabotage in Tegallega to harm the regent.

“Aristocratic titles and exaltation are no longer important. It’s intellect and expertise that should be the reason for appreciation and respect. Those who have become intelligent and knowledgeable are called nobles of the mind, which everybody is entitled to be, regardless of noble or common people, males or females,” she said.

Dewi Sartika’s pursuit turned out to be interlinked with the struggle of Lasminingrat, who was born in 1843. The daughter of the head of Limbangan regency (now Garut) who was also a Sundanese literary man, Raden Hadji Moehamad Moesa, had been teaching at a free school opened by her father. Instead of studying there, local people mostly ridiculed the school for adopting western education.

“The public even branded our school an unbelievers’ institution. They say an ulema should have founded an Islamic boarding school rather than one that taught the sciences of infidels,” Maudy said.

Zulfa as the writer of Lasminingrat’s text included Tjarita Erman, a Sundanese fictional account of the story Hendrik Van Eichenfels by Christoph von Schmidt. Lasminingrat, in fact, replaced some parts of the tale before its final publication in 1875.

Maudy gracefully recounted the life of Erman, who was kidnapped as an infant by a gang of bandits. He lived in a cave with the gangsters. His world was all dark until Erman grew up as a teenager and ventured to go out. Free from the cave, Erman’s world changed, colorful with many discoveries.

“For us, the public is just Erman who is far aloof from broad knowledge. Our society is in a dark cave. Without education and books, society won’t be aware that the world is so vast, that everything around is so valuable. We’re trying to be the grandpa of the story, patiently telling and teaching people, though it’s a tough job,” added Maudy.

A spectator, Nurul Wachdiah, 34, said she had been most absorbed in the story of Erman. “The others are true stories while Erman is fictitious. Dewi Sartika was beyond what I expected as she was depicted in a part of her life that I haven’t read about. As for Emma, I’ve come to know a lot more [about her] after watching,” said Nurul.

— Photos by JP/Arya Dipa

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