Bengkel Mime:
Directed by Inyang (Ari Dwianto) and Andi Sri Wahyudi this is a dedicated group of mime artists who meet regularly to make mime works – currently they are working on a show called The Soldier about an old soldier recalling his past. They have no formal training in mime in the traditional (western) sense and this has given them the freedom to do exactly what they want. Bengkel means a workshop to fix things (we see them everywhere here) or to make things too – like a laboratory and this is true of this group as they gather to experiment in their methods in mime.
They work from both directions – emotion memory (in to out) and action memory (out to in). They like to frock up (being only a group of lads) and have a playful approach to their work. The Soldier is a more melancholic show than their previous work, so I‘m led to believe and I got a snapshot of it in rehearsal. And wow what a rehearsal space – a private pendopo made of marble and carved wood!
Inyang is a supremely watchable performer and the others too were grounded and clearly searching for the impulse to move their characters. A personal anxiety of mine as (an inadequate) performer and (a determined) theatre maker is the role of stereotype in performance. It has its place as it is there as a common description of something recognizable, known, inherited…but still…Age and aging is a classic– the ubiquitous shaking hands and jellied knees - but I have no clear access to this in Javanese culture – is this a stereotype and does that matter anyway?
I find it really interesting that theatre groups really choose their specialization – mime or realism or puppets – they work hard to promote their niche.
As I sit here blogging away, being munched by mozzies, zapped by minor electric shocks from this computer and an unpredictable electricity supply, listening to the multiple muezzins’ call to prayer at 20decibles…. I imagine that making theatre here in this deeply layered culture, rich with sounds, religions and histories is a way of carving through it all to say – yes I know all that is going on around you but hey look at this….this one thing this idea, this puppet, this mime, look at this which we have carved from the creative chaos. So I’m not at all surprised there is breakaway mime group working hard to make theatre in the most beautiful pendopo I’ve seen to date in the back streets of Yogya.
Did I mention nearly everyone is an artist here? Bertool. True.
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