by Nigel Jamieson
at Malthouse until November 4, 2000
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
This telling of the story of The Theft of Sita is
distinctively Australian-Indonesian. It is told evocatively not only with
Indonesian shadow puppets but with contemporary Indonesian images of
environmental destruction, rebellion, mostly English dialogue with heaps of
Aussie slang.
The narrative is a funny
and moving portrayal of the Sanskrit epic, The Ramayana. Director, Nigel
Jamieson, collaborated with composer, Paul Grabowsky, Director of Puppetry,
Peter Wilson and Dalang, (Indonesian
chief puppeteer) I Made Sidia to create a rich visual and aural world.
The production's great
strength is its successful parallel of the mythical story of King Rama's wife,
Sita's abduction by the demon Rawanna with modern issues of ecology, power,
wealth and urbanisation.
The beautiful Sita is
stolen as she wanders the forest with her husband. She is kept caged in a
sprawling city by Rawanna. Sita's kidnapping comes to represent the rape of the
exotic landscape of Indonesia that is flooded for tourism, deforested for
building and rid of native fauna for profit.
The form of the
production is in the style of the Indonesian Wayang Kulit, or shadow puppetry.
Jamieson uses the clown servants of King Rama, Twalen and Merdah, as the
protagonists in the narrative.
This father and son duo
go on a quest to rescue Sita and face forest fire, famine, wood-chipping, white
water rafting and a surreal urban chaos.
The shadow puppets are
innovative. Not only do we see traditional characters but there are shadow
forest animals, musical instrument creatures playing rock songs, and huge
electric pylons and buildings.
In addition, there is
distressing film or photographic imagery of real riots and blasted landscapes
in Indonesia The images are thrown onto
a small screen and then a full screen that covers the entire front of stage.
The musicians, puppeteers
and actors and singers are secreted for most of the 95 minutes, at the rear of
the stage .They create magical and disturbing images for us that are designed
by Julian Crouch and lit by Damien Cooper
Not least of the elements
is the spectacular musical composition by Grabowsky. He combines the sounds of
Indonesian Gamelan music with melodic or cacophonous contemporary western
music. The music is transporting.
Sita is challenging both
theatrically and sociologically. It is also a hoot for the family. Kids loved
it.
By Kate Herbert
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