Tradisi Baru: A "New Tradition" of Indonesian Theatre

Abstract

baru (the new tradition) by Putu Wijaya, an Indonesian theatre and film director, writer, and cultural critic. Tradisi baru has been used to describe works of art produced by directors, playwrights, choreographers, composers, and writers who use aspects of the many traditional cultures of Indonesia and present them in innovative and experimental ways in order to address contemporary society. In theatre, five directors in particular-W. S. Rendra, Teguh Karya, Arifin C. Noer, Putu Wijaya, and Nano Riantiarno-have made significant innovations over the past twenty-five years and are the forerunners in developing issues surrounding tradisi baru in theatre today.' Indonesia has long been recognized for its rich and varied regional performance traditions, yet to date very little attention has been given to Indonesian experimental theatre by performance scholars and Indonesianists. With the hope of beginning to fill that void here by examining one direction some theatre artists are taking, I offer a brief introduction to what constitutes the new tradition in Indonesian theatre by locating its sources, noting some of its characteristics, and giving some examples of tradisi baru performances. Rather than analyze the thematic or political content of specific productions in detail, my intent is to show how tradisi baru is part of a contemporary cultural movement struggling with the question of what it means to be Indonesian in a postcolonial nation.2