NYAI ONTOSOROH (Adaptation from Pramoedya Ananhta Toer's THIS EARTH OF MANKIND)

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The Jakarta Performance of NYAI ONTOSOROH

A theatrical adaptation from Pramoedya Ananhta Toer's THIS EARTH OF MANKIND will take place on 12, 13 and 14 August in the Graha Bakti Building, Jakarta. The play, adapted from pramoedya's novel by Faiza Mardzoeki, will be directed by Wawan Sofwan. (See Press release further down in this Post.)

Local theatre groups have already performed teh play in Bandung, Jogjakarta, Solo, Pontianak, Surabaya and Lampung. for a review of the Lampung performance from THE JAKARTA POST, see below in this post.



Press Conference announcing the August dates for the performance.

PRESS RELEASE

NYAI ONTOSOROH IS COMING!
August 2007, to be directed by WAWAN SOFWAN

Wawan Sofwan, has been active in theatre since 1985. He was active also in the Bandung Theatre Study Club. Among the plays he has directed are: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, by Bertold Brecht (2006); "Mozart's Opera". And "Nuri and the Lipang Locomotive" (Malaysia 2004), and among others. He has also performed monologues overseas in the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Australia and Russia.

Supporting Wawan Sofwan as director is a dedicated artistic team. The team includes Dolorosa Sinaga, Gallis A.S, Rin Threesia, Fahmi Alatas, Mogan Pasaribu, Jerry Pattinama, Azis Dying, and Faiza Mardzoeki, as author of Nyai Ontosoroh.

Among the actors who will build a new team working together are: Happy Salma, David Chalik, Madina, Andi Bersama, Teuku Rifna Wikana, Join, Margesti, and Willem Bevers.

This is the team that will poroduce and perform Nyai Ontosoroh this August in Jakarta.

Meanwhile other theatre groups have been performing Nyai Ontosoroh in other areas of our country: in Bandung by Theatre Bersama, in Solo by Theatre Gidag Gidig, in Jogjakarta by Gajah Mada University Students Theatre, in Pontianak by Theatre Topeng and in April it will be performed in Lampung by Theatre Satu, and in Surabaya by Theatre Unesa.

The organisers of this production - Perguruan Rakyat Merdeka, Institut Ungu, Jaringan Nasional Perempuan Mahardhika – supported by many other individuals and organisations will be working hard and with great enthusiasm to bring you the Jakarta performance in August, 2007.
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The Jakarta Post, 21 April 2007
Oyos Saroso HN, Bandarlampung

"We fought back, child, as well and as honorably as possible."

This is the final line uttered by Nyai Ontosoroh, the female protagonist in Nyai Ontosoroh, a play staged by the leading local theater troupe, Teater Satu, at the Lampung cultural park on April 13-14. It concludes an Indonesian woman's struggle for her honor and dignity against the hegemony of Dutch colonial laws.

Set in 19th-century Tulangan, East Java , the play was adapted by Faiza Mardzoeki from senior writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), and portrays rather vividly the emancipation of a Javanese woman ahead of her time.

Pramoedya's original character of Nyai Ontosoroh deconstructs the image of a nyai -- a local mistress of a Dutch man during the East Indies era, defined as a woman of low morals.

In the 1800s, when Indonesia was a Dutch colony and women were deprived of their self-esteem, Nyai Ontosoroh (a strong performance by Ruth Marini) resisted not only the culture of her birth, which looked down upon women, but also her own ill fate and colonists' domination.

Unlike Indonesian heroines of noble birth such as Raden Ajeng Kartini and Dewi Sartika, Nyai Ontosoroh is an uneducated villager. But despite her limitations, she fights against the subservience of the native people as well as the European value system and Dutch law.

The drama is important not only because it is about nationalism with a woman as its lead character, but also because it was written by a former political prisoner. Bumi Manusia is the first volume of Pramoedya's Buru Island Quartet, written at the prison camp where he was incarcerated without trial for a decade. The other three are: Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations ), Jejak Langkah (Footsteps) and Rumah Kaca (House of Glass). The late Pramoedya's remarkable works made him a candidate for the Nobel Prize several times, though he never won.

Only after its first theatrical rendering did many in Indonesia begin to realize the nationalist and feminist spirit Pramoedya advocated in the story. It is therefore ironic that the tetralogy glorifying such lofty values was banned during the New Order regime under Soeharto.

Nyai Ontosoroh, or Sanikem, is the daughter of Sastrotomo, a clerk at a sugar mill in Tulangan. Sanikem is sold by her opportunistic father to a wealthy Dutchman, Herman Mellema (a fair performance by Rendy Dadang), and becomes his mistress. She is thus called Mrs. Herman Mellema, but is better known as Nyai Ontosoroh.

In the Dutch colonial era, life as a mistress was equal to being a slave, who could be abandoned if her master tired of her.

The more refined Javanese term nyai originally meant a lady of some status, but it later became frequently associated with a prostitute or a woman of loose morals. The Dutch East Indies government did not recognize marriages with a native nor the offspring of such a union.

Nonetheless, Nyai Ontosoroh was different. Conscious of her position as mistress, she strived hard to learn European customs and read many books, and eventually came to control her husband's company and give their children a European upbringing.

Nyai Ontosoroh cultivated herself into a blend of attractive Eastern looks and European diligence, courage and intellect.

Her great skill in managing Boerderij Buitenzorg, Herman's company, made her very famous in the areas of Wonokromo and Surabaya.

"Een Buitengewoon Gewoone Nyai die Ik ken (An extraordinary ordinary nyai that I knew)," said Nyai Ontosoroh of herself as described in a newspaper story. "I have to prove to them that whatever they have done to me, I will be more worthy of respect, though only a nyai."

In the Mellema family, she became a strong central figure amid the weak. Annelies Mellema, Nyai's daughter, is a pretty girl who becomes traumatized after she is raped by her older brother Robert, and she finds it hard to mingle with her peers, instead seeking her mother's protection.

Herman and Robert become mentally frail through debauchery, indulging themselves every night at a brothel owned by Babah ("boss" in Chinese) Acong, which leads to Herman's death there.

This is a disastrous turning point for Nyai Ontosoroh, who then loses everything: Annelies, whom she wished would become as tough as herself, Herman's company, which had thrived under her management, while Robert has gone missing.

Under Dutch colonial laws, Nyai Ontosoroh loses her custody battle for Annelies, who had been formally recognized by Herman. The girl is thus "repatriated" to the Netherlands according to a district court decision.

Despite her loss and tragic fate as she is separated from her beloved daughter, Nyai Ontosoroh had struggled with all her might, fighting back -- as she said -- "as well and as honorably as possible". This is her triumph; resisting as well she could against her fate and the colonists' hegemony of power.

Featuring around 30 actors, the 2.5-hour production put the creativity of its director to the test.

Over the two days playing to a full house -- consisting mostly of students -- Lampung-born woman director Imas Sobariah presented a gripping drama.

Conflicts were staged by its juxtaposition with attractive details. For example, Herman's death scene at the brothel was off-set by a garish Chinatown with its Chinese houses, colorful lanterns and sex workers in Chinese dress, enhanced by Chinese dances, songs and dialog.

When Nyai goes to court to fight for custody over her daughter, the stage was converted into a courtroom with prosecutors and judges wearing European garb. Such features amplified the different roles and evoked an air of olden days.

Imas exposed the elegance of Javanese, Dutch and Chinese cultures -- even the Madura tradition through Nyai's bodyguard Darsam -- at the same time, although against a backdrop of tragedy.

Following its success in Lampung, Teater Satu is to tour its Nyai Ontosoroh to Surabaya, East Java, and to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this year.

Those who are concerned with women's rights and the ideal of fighting for one's self-worth will identify with this highly commendable production.