Part I Changing Forms of Theatre and Drama

Notes Part I Changing Forms of Theatre and Drama 2 Modernity and the Self in Singapore: Emily of Emerald Hill 1. Peranakan, broadly speaking, means locally born, or descendant of immi- grants to South East Asia. 2. ‘Singlish’ is a creole with its roots in English, but with a vocabulary comprised of Hokkien, Malay and Mandarin words as well as English. It also features a mixture of syntactical structures from the contributing languages. 3. For a comprehensive review of what was staged in the decades since independence, see David Birch (1997). 4. Towkay (Hokkien): head of the family; patriarch. A common term of address for men of high social standing in the Straits Chinese community. 3 Modern Drama and Postcolonial Modernity in Indonesia 1. The simple set and costuming and relatively straightforward political reference of the 1971 production accorded with the improvisational style and boldly critical political stance of Rendra’s work at the time. By 1976, Rendra had experienced increased government pressure and repeated bannings of his plays. His Hamlet production of that year expressed a conscious political caution, and used Javanese costuming and musical accompaniment in keep- ing with the embrace of a more local, traditional theatrical style, as discussed later in this chapter in relation to his 1975 play The Struggle of the Naga Tribe. Rendra’s portrayal of young prince Hamlet in the 1994 production, at the age of 58, was critiqued by some as vain and self-indulgent, while others found in it an added layer of political meaning – an aging actor in blue jeans waving a Javanese sword urging Indonesians to shake off their Hamlet-like vacillation and stagnation and recover their progressive culture (Winet, 2010: 151–6). 2. Such critiques range from reference to the recently deposed despot Sukarno and the atheistic dogma attributed to the reviled Communist Party in a production of a full translation of Camus’ play staged in late 1966, to the shared ‘madness’ of the late Suharto era in productions by Teater Sae in 1991, Teater Garasi in 1995 and Payung Hitam in 1996 (Winet, 2010: 156–62, 166–73). 3. Popular theatre continued to thrive through the first half of the twentieth century, with active involvement of and support from Eurasian and Chinese communities (Winet, 2010: 44–68). 4. Boedi and Margesti Otong, personal communication (see Hatley, 1995). 4 Hirata Oriza’s Tokyo Notes and the New Modern 1. In October 2009, Hirata was appointed as a counsellor in the former Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio’s secretariat for culture, education and 222 Notes 223 international affairs. See: http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20091016k 0000m010104000c.html (accessed 8 November 2009). 2. Originally the play’s setting was 2004. The year is updated to keep the sense of something that has not yet happened. 3. This is a reference to a previous conversation where Yoshie recounts that Yûji will not buy battery-operated toys for their child because batteries always run out and the toy becomes useless. Part II Mobile Performance and Fluid Identities 5 Solid and Liquid Modernities in Regional Australia 1. For an extensive discussion of the role of kinship and moiety in the performance see Maryrose Casey, 2011. 2. The funeral is of the Chooky Dancer’s visionary mentor, Frank Garawirrtja. 3. Molloy is most likely based on the famous anthropologist, Alan Thorne (1939–2012), who used DNA testing on ‘Mungo Man’ and ‘Mungo Lady’ to reset the date for modern man’s presence on the Australian mainland to between 56,000 and 68,000 years ago. This predates the movement of Homo Sapiens out of Africa. Mungo Man, Thorne argued, probably evolved out of Asia (The Age, 2012: 18). 6 Staging Indonesian Modernity After Suharto 1. The original charter for the establishment of the Special Region of Yogyakarta, consisting of the city and four surrounding districts, provided that the positions of governor and vice-governor be held respectively by the reigning sultan and the head of the junior royal house of Yogya. The current sultan thus also holds the position of governor. The fact that the renewal of this charter, including the conditions of the governor’s position, has been the subject of drawn-out government deliberation and vigorous public debate gave added suggestive- ness to the sultan’s contribution to, and representation in, the parade. 2. See Barbara Hatley (1982, 2008) on the performance of nation and community in Independence Day celebrations over time. 3. The Jember Fashion Carnaval, an initiative of local fashion designer Dynand Fariz, in which hundreds of local young people create and display spectacular costumes, on new themes each year, has been held annually since 2003. For the event’s history see its website, http://www.jemberfashioncarnaval.com/ main.php?com=about. 4. See Barbara Hatley (2012) and Paul Mason (2008) for examples from Java and West Sumatra respectively. 5. Religious proselytizing sessions by skilled religious orators are very popular among these social groups. The monthly gatherings of the Maiyah movement, led by the renowned religious and cultural figure Emha Ainun Nadjib, consisting of prayers, religious talks, open discussions and innovative musical performances by Emha’s gamelan group, kyahi kanjeng, give a strongly per- formative cast to such sessions, which move ‘back and forth between artistic performances, sacred spiritual expressions, and pragmatic meditations and discussions of worldly affairs’ (Daniels, 2009: 138). 224 Notes 6. See Ariel Heryanto (2009) on the Inul story in its connections with key divisions in contemporary Indonesian society, and Ceres Pioquinto (1995), Susan Browne (2000) and Andrew Weintraub (2010) on dangdut. 7. On the issue of the anti-pornography law and resistance to it, see Pam Allen (2003); for discussion of the local-level impact of its eventual introduction in 2008, see Jennifer Lindsay (2011). 8. ‘Susah emang punya bini cakep. Kalo sering ditinggal mulai gatel-gatel tuh… diba- wah, Mending cari bini yang biasa-biasa aja, Di luar boleh cari yang semok-semok. Di rumah, cari isteri yang soleh.’ 7 ‘Youth is not the only thing that passes at sonic speed’: Speed and Private Lives in Okada Toshiki’s The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise 1. Reading Sonic Life in connection to Noh was suggested by performance theorist Stanca Scholz-Cionca. 8 Dramaturgy of the Liquid: Cargo Kuala Lumpur–Singapore 1. The former British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak were formally merged on 16 September 1963 to form the new nation of Malaysia. The merger was short-lived, however, and Singapore was expelled from the federation in 1965 and forced to form its own sovereign state. The two nations share more than a history as British colonies. Both are multi-ethnic. Malay, Tamil, Punjabi, English and various Chinese dialects are spoken in both countries and cross-border traffic is constant. 2. http://www.internationalpsa.com/factsheet/pdf/Singapore.pdf Part III Beyond Regionality: The Asia-Pacific’s Global Reach 11 Performing ‘Authentic Indonesia’ Transculturally 1. Indonesian performing arts represented the colonial possessions of the Netherlands at international exhibitions held in Amsterdam in 1879 and 1883, Paris in 1889 and 1900 and Chicago in 1893 (Cohen, 2010: 10). 2. In 1988 Rendra’s Bengkel theatre group travelled abroad for the first time to perform his work Selamatan Anak Cucu Suleiman (A Ritual for Suleiman’s Descendants) at the first International Festival of the Arts in New York City. In 1990 Bengkel went to Japan to stage the same play within the Japan Foundation’s Contemporary Theatre programme. 3. See the example of an Australian-Indonesian collaborative hip-hop festival held in Yogyakarta and Jakarta in 2010 (Dewan, 2010; Richards 2010). 4. In an exception to this pattern, a review of the London production in the Guardian newspaper commends the fact that despite the Australian- Indonesian political frictions recalled in the anti-Suharto critique of the work, artists from the two countries have collaborated to ‘produce both a celebra- tion of theatrical craft and a scathing attack on unrestrained market forces and environmental destruction’ (Billington, 2001). Notes 225 5. The production was performed from 2004 to 2011 in Singapore, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, New York, Jakarta, Melbourne, Taipei and Makassar. 6. From 1990 onwards Firman was involved as a volunteer artistic assistant in a university-led project compiling Bugis and Makassarese texts and is able to read and write the ancient Bugis script. 7. Titled Mencari Benua I La Galigo yang Hilang (Searching for the Lost Continent of the I La Galigo), the work involved a huge, tiered bamboo installation and depicted the tragic felling of the tree of life, the Pohon Walenreng, for human use, simply to create a boat for Sawerigalang to travel in. 8. Entitled Chenglong Spiral, this work consists of spirals of bamboo on the surface of a swamp, representing the branches of the genealogical tree of the characters in the epic. References Plays cited Bovell, A. (2000) Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, in Melbourne Stories: Three Plays (Sydney: Currency Press). Bovell, A. (2001) Holy Day (Sydney: Currency Press). Bovell, A. (2009) When the Rain Stops Falling (Sydney: Currency Press). Bower, H. (2010) Grace. Adapted from the novel by Robert Drewe (Fremantle: Prickly Pear Playscripts). Davis, J. (1986) No Sugar (Sydney: Currency Press). Enoch, W. and D. Mailman (1996) The 7 Stages of Grieving (Brisbane: Playlab Press). Harrison, J. (1997) Stolen (Sydney: Currency Press). Hirata, O. (1995) Tôkyô No-to (Tokyo Notes) (Tokyo: Banseisha). Hirata, O. (2002) ‘Tokyo Notes: A play by Hirata Oriza, translated and introduced by M. Cody Poulton’, Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1–120. Kawamura, T.

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