Reviewed by: New Indonesian Plays ed. by Cheryl Robson Y. Joned Suryatmoko Ndaruhadi NEW INDONESIAN PLAYS. Edited by Cheryl Robson. London: Aurora Metro Books, 2019. 192 pp. Paperback, £14.99. New Indonesian Plays (hereafter, Plays) offers new perspectives through which to see contemporary Indonesian theatre and society. It is different from previous anthologies, such as Island of Imagination, Volume One: Modern Indonesian Plays (Stewart, McGlynn, and Gillitt 2015), because it consists of seven new plays over the past two decades during Postauthoritarian Indonesia. This perspective allows Plays to focus on contemporary issues like critical history, identity politics (including race and gender), and the environment. The "Foreword" and "Introduction" begin the book by explaining how the Indonesia Dramatic Reading Festival (IDRF) in London initiated the collection. In the "Foreword," Gunawan Maryanto (IDRF Former Artistic Director) and Muhammad Abe (IDRF Director) explain that they selected most of the plays in the book for the showcase and presented them in London through the invitation and support from Indonesian National Book Committee. The Introduction, written by independent critic and curator Rebecca Kezia, provides an historical overview of Indonesian plays and critical commentary. Cheryl Robson as the editor provides a brief preface, explaining genres, methodologies, and a sufficient summary of each play in the section "About the Plays." All three sections appeal to readers who have not been familiar with the history and current state of Indonesian theatre. Critical reading of national history, especially in the Indonesian political conflict and massacre of 1965, is one of the significant themes in Plays. Faiza Mardzoeki's The Silent Song of The Genjer Flowers, translated by Gratiagusti Chananya Rompas and Mikael Johani, tells a story of intergenerational perception of the political conflict through the story of five elderly women who spent their youth in prison. A conversation with a granddaughter brings back happy memories from before they were imprisoned in 1965 under the military regime's [End Page 360] crackdown on communism. Ibed Surgana Yuga's Red Janger, translated by Andy Fuller, features a dark and surrealistic humorous play with two headless ghosts from the 1965 massacre in a village in Bali. Also featuring conflict of two generational families, Red Janger—based on a real event—critically revisits the uncovering of a mass grave that was hidden near a schoolyard and how it affects the contemporary lives of the villagers. Riyadhus Shalihin's Cut Out, translated by Alfian Sa'at, shows not only a new perspective on Indonesian history but also new playwrighting devices. In Cut Out, Shalihin overlaps the grand narrative of history through the idea of the nation and national heroes with smaller stories from ordinary people in the kampong. To heighten the continuum between the past and the present, Cut Out is richly devised through cutting and pasting many archival images and projecting them to the giant stage screen. With alternative historical narratives and theatrical genres, whether the plays are naturalistic, surrealistic, or visually presented, Mardzoeki's, Yuga's, and Shalihin's plays deal not only with conflict reconciliation but also provide voices for the voiceless. Along with Faiza Mardzoeki, Plays also features another three female playwrights. Two of them, Hanna Fransisca and Agnes Christina, happen to be playwrights of Chinese descent, a rarity in postcolonial Indonesian theatre history. Hanna Fransisca's Bedfellows, translated by Cobina Gillitt, takes place in a coffee shop in a town with a large Chinese Indonesian community in West Kalimantan; most characters are ethnically Chinese-Indonesian. The drinking place reminds the reader of the genre of Indonesian quasi-bar plays in the 1950s, such as Utuy Tatang Sontani's Awal and Mira (1951) (Sontani 2017). Bedfellows questions self-identity and doubts the idea of multiculturalism. The female protagonist is troubled by not only her sense of belonging in the city but also her coexistence with her husband in their relationship. In contrast, Agnes Christina's Break In, originally in English, tells an absurd story about a girl frightened to go outside through her conversation with a gecko, a kettle, a girl in the mirror, and her mother. The story represents the inner-thoughts and experience of many Indonesian ethnic Chinese especially women, who encountered sexual violence during the Indonesian Reformation...
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Feb 12, 2021
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