The productions were directed by five women theatre directors based in Banda Aceh, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Makassar. Faiza also translated the play (from the English), published in Indonesian in December as Waktu Tanpa Buku (Time Without Books), which was written by Lene Therese Teigen. The translation was supported by the Norwegian Literature Abroad.

This is a Norwegian play, but about Uruguayans, presented to Indonesians. There are many aspects of the human condition or of history that can be appreciated across borders and historical periods. In this case, it is clear what is shared by both Urugauy and Indonesia is the catastrophe of military dictatorship and the suffering it generated. And not just that, but also the issue of memory – what is to be remembered and what is to be forgotten.

For Faiza, this was not a new issue. She had written, directed and produced a play, Silent Song of the Genjer Flowers (Nyanyi Sunyi Kembang-Kembang Genjer), performed in Jakarta in 2014. A stage to screen version of the play is available on YouTube, with English subtitling.  

Faiza’s play, like Waktu Tanpa Buku, deals with what should be remembered of such dark experiences – oppression, death, disappearance, rape, imprisonment – and, crucially, the why and how of remembrance

Teigen’s Time Without Books realism is not of the naturalist kind. There are hints of that Brechtian style of making the audience conscious of their role as thinkers about the play at the moment they are watching. The narrative is not driven by the logic of drama but by a logic of questioning.

In some respects, the play is a long series of questioning embodied in a juxtaposition of scenes. Not surprisingly the phenomenon of being questioned, in a scene built around the interrogation of prisoners, carries a powerful punch.

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