Indonesian Postcolonial Theatre: Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces

279 Pages·2010·4.48 MB·English

by  Evan Darwin Winet (auth.)

Studies in International Performance
Published in association with the International Federation of Theatre Research
General Editors: Janelle Reinelt and Brian Singleton
Culture and performance cross borders constantly, and not just the borders that define
nations. In this new series, scholars of performance produce interactions between and
among nations and cultures as well as genres, identities and imaginations.
Inter-national in the largest sense, the books collected in the Studies in International
Performance series display a range of historical, theoretical and critical approaches to
the panoply of performances that make up the global surround. The series embraces
‘Culture’ which is institutional as well as improvised, underground or alternate, and
treats ‘Performance’ as either intercultural or transnational as well as intracultural
within nations.
Titles include:
Patrick Anderson and Jisha Menon (editors)
VIOLENCE PERFORMED
Local Roots and Global Routes of Conflict
Elaine Aston and Sue-Ellen Case
STAGING INTERNATIONAL FEMINISMS
Christopher Balme
PACIFIC PERFORMANCES
Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas
Susan Leigh Foster
WORLDING DANCE
Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo
PERFORMANCE AND COSMOPOLITICS
Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia
Helena Grehan
PERFORMANCE, ETHICS AND SPECTATORSHIP IN A GLOBAL AGE
Judith Hamera
DANCING COMMUNITIES
Performance, Difference, and Connection in the Global City
Silvija Jestrovic and Yana Meerzon (editors)
PERFORMANCE, EXILE AND ‘AMERICA’
Sonja Arsham Kuftinec
THEATRE, FACILITATION, AND NATION FORMATION IN THE BALKANS AND
MIDDLE EAST
Carol Martin (editor)
DRAMATURGY OF THE REAL ON THE WORLD STAGE
Alan Read
THEATRE, INTIMACY & ENGAGEMENT
The Last Human Venue
Shannon Steen
RACIAL GEOMETRIES OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC, ASIAN PACIFIC AND AMERICAN
THEATRE
Joanne Tompkins
UNSETTLING SPACE
Contestations in Contemporary Australian Theatre
S. E. Wilmer
NATIONAL THEATRES IN A CHANGING EUROPE
Evan Darwin Winet
INDONESIAN POSTCOLONIAL THEATRE
Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces
Forthcoming titles:
Adrian Kear
THEATRE AND EVENT
Studies in International Performance
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Indonesian Postcolonial
Theatre
Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces
Evan Darwin Winet
© Evan Darwin Winet 2010
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010
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First published 2010 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-36121-2 ISBN 978-0-230-24667-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-24667-6
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
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country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Winet, Evan Darwin, 1971–
Indonesian postcolonial theatre : spectral genealogies and absent faces / Evan
Darwin Winet.
p. cm. — (Studies in international performance)
Summary: “Drawing examples from as early as a 1619 production of Hamlet
and as recent as 2007 performances by Indonesia’s most famous presidential
impersonator, this book considers how theatre functions as a uniquely effective
medium for representing the contradictions of Indonesian identity in the urban
colonial/postcolonial metropole”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-230-54688-2 (hardback)
1. Theater and society—Indonesia. 2. Theater—Indonesia—History—
20th century. I. Title.
PN2904.W56 2010
306.4’84809598—dc22 2009048533
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2013
For Anne,
yang menabahkan kemauanku terus dan terus
and for W. S. Rendra (1935–2009),
flights of angels sing thee to thy rest
Frontispiece A promotional packet of Djarum cigarettes depicting W. S. Rendra as
Hamlet, 1994 (Author’s collection)
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Series Editor’s Preface xi
Preface xii
1 Introduction: Colonial Foundations and Precessions
of Postcoloniality 1
Spectral genealogies 1
Between Batavia and Indonesia 8
The first Indonesian play 20
Absent faces 33
2 Unimagined Communities: Theatres of Eurasian
and Chinese Batavia 38
Neighborhoods and buildings 38
The foreign metropole 40
Mestizo nationalism and Komedie Stamboel 44
Karina Adinda 48
Chinese Batavian theatre 58
The Living Corpse 61
Jakarta 2039 65
3 Sites of Disappearance: Expatriate Ghosts on
Ephemeral Stages 69
Jakarta after 1949 69
Cryptic memorials for distant homelands 73
The Schouwburg Weltewreden 77
The Death of Jan van Schaffelaar 80
A zoological garden and an empty frame 85
Tableaux at the ephemeral centers of struggle 95
Soekarno’s theatre in exile 98
Eccentrics at Parangtritis 103
4 Despite Their Failings: Spectres of Foreign Professionalism 108
The last two luminaries 108
‘Gifted queer’ amateurs and professional actresses 110
Mina Kruseman and the nativization of modern theatre 116
Dr Samsi and Dewi Dja 120
The Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere 124
The first (amateur) Indonesian troupe 128
Indonesian method acting 134
vii
viii Contents
5 Hamlet and Caligula: Echoes of a Voice, Unclear in Origins 141
The wandering woman 141
‘A stretch of beach binding dry land to a spiritual sea’ 146
Rendra, pemuda of Denmark 150
Caligula in the wake of Soekarno… 156
…and in the twilight of Suharto 164
6 Umat as Rakyat: Performing Islam through
Veils of Nationalism 174
Devotions of the revolutionary youth 174
The limits of anti-theatricalism 177
The nationalist as perfect man 179
The lonely path of the liberal infidel 186
An actress haunted by martyrs 190
7 Teater Reformasi: The Lingering Smile of the Absent Father 196
Performing the face of Suharto 196
The haunted graveyards of Payung Hitam 204
President of the Republic of Dreams… 208
…and bridegroom to global capitalism 213
Conclusion: forgetting the monotonous nation 216
Appendix: A Timeline of ‘Indonesian’ and ‘Batavian’ Histories 219
Notes 226
Works Cited 240
Index 252
List of Illustrations
Frontispiece A promotional packet of Djarum Cigarettes depicting
W. S. Rendra as Hamlet, 1994 vi
1.1 The kasteel of the VOC under siege by the British East India
Company and Wijayakrama’s forces in January 1619 13
1.2 Teater Kami’s production of Roestam Effendi’s Bebasari, 2001 30
2.1 Jali-Jali, a production by Komedie Stamboel, 1906 47
2.2 The debut performance of Victor Ido’s Karina Adinda at the
Schouwburg Weltewreden, 1913 53
2.3 Studiklub Teater Bandung’s revival of Karina Adinda at Gedung
Kesenian Jakarta, 1993 57
2.4 Clara flees ‘to the ends of the earth’ in a vain attempt to become
‘quiet, alone and at peace,’ in Asnar Zacky’s comic book
adaptation of Seno Gumira Ajidarma’s Jakarta 2039, 2001 67
3.1 A view of the Schouwburg Weltewreden from the Chinese
‘New Market’ around 1900 78
3.2 An audience at a farewell performance for Poldi Reiff at the
Schouwburg, 1912 84
3.3 The zoological garden on Raden Saleh’s estate in Cikini
in the 1870s 86
3.4 The Batavian Exposition at the zoological gardens, 1893 87
3.5 The Teater Terbuka (Open Stage) at Taman Ismail
Marzuki, 1974 90
3.6 View of Graha Bhakti Budaya from across the open pool created
by the demolition of the Teater Terbuka, 1999 91
3.7 The exterior shell of the new theatre building at Taman Ismail
Marzuki, 2004 91
3.8 A Monte Carlo performance in the Gedung Royal Cinema at
Bengkulu, 1939 100
3.9 W. S. Rendra and members of Teater Bengkel at the Urakan
Campout on Parangtritis beach, 1971 106
4.1 An advertisement for Teater Dardanella’s production of Asmara’s
Dr. Samsi, featuring the young ‘Miss Dja,’ 1931 123
ix