Indonesian Postcolonial Theatre: Spectral Genealogies and Absent Faces

by Evan Darwin Winet

Overview

Indonesian Postcolonial Theatre explores modern theatrical practices in Indonesia from a performance of Hamlet in the warehouses of Dutch Batavia to Ratna Sarumpaet's feminist Muslim Antigones. The book reveals patterns linking the colonial to the postcolonial eras that often conflict with the historical narratives of Indonesian nationalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230546882
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	03/10/2010
Series:	Studies in International Performance
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

EVAN DARWIN WINET researches Indonesian and other Asian theatres. He contributed a translation of Roestam Effendi's Bebasari (Sweet Liberty) to the forthcoming Lontar Anthology of Indonesian Drama (2009). He is also a contributing editor to the Norton Anthology of Drama (2009) and a major contributor to the Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre (2007).

Table of 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

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

Editorial Reviews

'Winet's work has much strength in the detail and analysis of plays and productions, and he has to be commended on making the theatrical productions and movements of postcolonial Jakarta easily accessible to a readsership from various backgrounds and with different levels of familiarity with Indonesia's political and theatrical history.' - Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

'Meticulously researched...the book offers fascinating insights into each historical period...Indonesian Postcolonial Theatre is an important addition to the field of Asian performance, and is among the few works to argue for and map out an original analytical framework, making the book accessible to the reader unfamiliar with contemporary Indonesian theatre.' - Theatre Research International

From the Publisher