Cerita Monyet-Monyet

Selepas beberapa minggu kelas "Bengkel Teater Tradisional: Wayang Kulit" dan "Dramatari" berlalu - melalui kelas-kelas pengenalan, pembentangan dan menonton beberapa persembahan termasuk Wayang Kuit di Istana Budaya, kita kini sampai dipertengahan jalan, untuk mementaskan projek akhir pelajar. Memanglah dulunya ingat nak pentaskan di Stor DBP, tapi rasanya kita terlalu besar bilangannya, 36 + 12+12. Nampaknya kita juga tak boleh buat monolog, kerana terlalu ramai. Ini perlu suatu persembahan ensemble. Walaubagaimanapun kita masih lagi ti trak yang sama, mementaskan cerita dari Hikayat Seri Rama dan Cerita Mahraja Wana dan memfokuskan kepada cerita monyet-monyet. Sekarang ini kita sudah membahagikan pelajar-pelajar kepada pengurusan produksi dan pentas dan artistik pementasan. Kumpulan artistik pementasan ini pula dibahagikan kepada 3 bahagian - lakonan, gerak-tari dan patungan. Yang menariknya pula, kita sedang berusaha untuk bergabung dengan kumpulan pelajar gamelan sinkretik yang dipimpin oleh Susan George dari Gamelan Club dan Rythym in Bronze. Dan tiba-tiba saya terbuka fikiran untuk mementaskannya secara site specific. What could be more appropriate to stage a monkey story? tentunya di dalam sebuah hutan kecil. That would be interesting isn't it? So we should work towards it and make it a successful performance. Harapnya tak hujanlah ya! Doa-doakanlah!

Watching Pop Wayang

Last Sat and Sun, 4th and 5th of August, Istana Budaya, Jalan Tun Razak, presented Wayang Kulit performance by
Wayang Kulit Saupi Bunga Adani. Two stories of traditional wayang kulit were performed by dalang Che Md. Saupi Bin Isa. On the first night, he presented Kisah Bunga Adani dan Bunga Adano, A tale of Raja Seri Rama, who dreams about the flowers Adani and Adano, and who then physically forces his servant Wok Yoh in search of them. Wok Yoh meets and old man on his journeys, who tells him that the flowers are under the care the genie named Bergah Sakti. Will Wok Yoh succeed in getting the flowers from the genie. On the second night, he presented the story of Jembalang Emas Raja WarnaPuteri Siti Dewi who asked permission from Raja Seri Rama to bathe in the pond near the flower garden. On her way there, she is seized and kidnapped by the gnome Botol Emas Raja Wana. Hanuman Kera Putih sees this taking place and sets of to rescue the princess.

Frankly, Saupi was successful in making audience happy, especially with varieties of songs from P.Ramlee to Dangdut, Hindustani and Dikir Barat as well as jokes. He spent a lot of time on these jokes and songs, he even presented his comedians playing silat and Mak Yong for demons. As the performance time were cut short to less than 2 hours, including intermission, which is quite civilised. Some might get disappointed with the content of the works, though both are taken from Story of Rama. Those who doesn't know about Wayang Kulit and Story of Rama would be happy to see the performances but those who were looking forward to see the Story of Rama would be disappointed as only 10% of the story were presented. This is the danger of making the classic art form to be popular. At the rate we are going, we surely lost a lot of stories already. Very sad indeed!