Theatering

The redness splashed in Gedung Kesenian Jakarta this early February. To celebrate Imlek, Teater Bejana presented a play based on novel from Kwee Tek Hoay, a famous Chinese-Indonesian journalist in early 1900-ies.  A story about a very grumpy bad old Tan Tjo Lat accidentally got in somekind of trouble with the authority because of two boys gave fake id's and address when a couple of polices caught them riding an unlighted bicycle at night.
The message was strong, when you made a mistake you have to acknowledge it big heartedly and bribing people is never right.

My thumbs went up for Didi Hasim who played Tan Tjo Lat and Endang Ayu as Ang Pauw Sian. Didi successfully woke everyone up that night when he made a spontaneous joke "I think my mustache just fell off" when his fake mustache keep flapping in a weird way every time he made dialogue, before he run backstage excused that his character need to change his clothes.  And his chinese accent was awesome.

Endang Ayu's voice was very soft and tender... even when she cried I still feel like she was singing and whispering gracefully instead.

I enjoyed the play very much although it's a bit too long - got a very sleepy eyes after that, and the chance to get a couple lovely ladies came and see it together with me (and my brother) was great.
I still have high hope that one day I could find a/some friend(s) out there who like to see this kind of play with me.  

Body Nothing Performance

My first 'come back' to Gedung Kesenian Jakarta after 5 years and was happen in same time with Jakarta Anniversary Festival. I've been carefully picked a couple of performances from their program this month. One of it was The Body Monologue Performance 2010! (Tubuh Mengambang di tiang-tiang). I was interested on the genre - contemporary dance theatre, the brief and how the poster look.

Anyway, my expectation was dropping to my knee level when I looked at the synopsis flyer (badly designed) and after steped in to the auditorium because there wasn't much people came actually, I'm pretty sure most of the audience are their (dancers) own family. And they decided to change the title to: The Body Nothing Performance, although the staff said the whole concept were not changed.
The Body Nothing Performance is the performance to listen the strength and the ways the body heal it's social wounds, far from the mainstream identity loudspeakers that lasted through politics and arts.
Director/ Choreographer: M Aidil Usman

The last gong was hit, Lights were dimmed down. A moment after that six bald males in various body shapes in their stripes boxers just charged in to the middle of the stage doing chaotic movement - It was so confusing, I re-read the synopsis again just to make sure we were not seeing Gollums Monologue.




Then everything started to get interesting. I'm not loving it, but have to say I enjoyed all their body movement, how they tell the story with their bodies, limited vocals and lighting on stage. I love Wirman Simago, his solid yet flowing movement. In the synopsis, they mentioned about a body of an old actor which haven't been on the stage for a while. Was it him? And how come he looks familiar?

It was a great performance, they all make sense after we discussed it again on the way home. Too bad they closed the performance by playing "We Are The Champion" - I was screaming in my head "why, why, why, why?" with painful smile while clapping my hands off.

photos: courtesy of Antara Photo by Fanny Octavianus

Comedy night

I intend to spend my last days in Adelaide enjoying the festivals which start to kick in this February. Not much but I still could see 2 comedy shows last night.






Justin Hamilton's Idiot Man Child was hilarious. His first review just came out at dbMagazine yesterday and seems not bad. I cant stop laughing when he said "you are not as interested as you think you are". That was a joke about the tram with 3 people sitting next to him. And the vibrating!! hahahahahahaha hilarious!



Second performance was Red Bastard from USA. Eric Davis act as The Bouffon, first thought cross my mind was.. gosh this guy look like deformed red capsicum. We might not had the greatest audience (only 65 people out of 350 seats) but we had fun because that means The Red Bastard could touched every single of us.
Check the website, I learnt alot about Eric Davis and The Bouffon there.

CATS now and forever

CATS back to Australia and this time they play in Adelaide. Seats were alright, although we came in late but it didn't matter after the Rum Tum Tugger came in and swang his tails. Sizzling HOT! -

Yes, he was in tight spandex costume..
No, I actually really enjoying the performance, not the other stuff.

So.. Cats (The London Cast) is in my playlist since this morning. But I have to say that John O'Hara's Rum Tum Tugger sounds more sexy than the original cast. Oh.. just wished that someone could upload his act in youtube..

The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious sexy hot cat
And it isn't any use for you to doubt it
For he will do as he do do
And there's no doing anything about it!