A Version of the Ramayana Epic: Denpasar, Bali

With the Bali Arts Festival drawing to a close and also the Ramayana Festival of which it is part, a new take on the performance by Suardana and the Arti Foundation was performed.

The first time I ever saw the Ramayana performed was with a backdrop of the Prambanan Temple Complex in Yogyakarta by the light of the moon, so to speak. At that time I was spellbound and subsequently have seen numerous performances since.

Some theatrical performances leave you with awe and wonder, the others with dry disappointment. Then there are the performances where you thank your lucky stars for going, for making the time to be a witness to such exhilarating beauty as I Wayan Juniartha said upon seeing the performance.

Satyasih Hanuman (The Loyalty of Hanuman) was one such performance. Staged in the majestic open-air Ardha Chandra theater in downtown Denpasar, the sendratari (dance-drama) was a clear example of how a seasoned director and creative troupe could transform a rustic story into a vividly fresh tale.

The ancient tale was the Ramayana, the Hindu epic first composed somewhere between 400 and 200 BC by Indian sage Valmiki. The seasoned director was Kadek Suardana, the multi-talented founder of the Arti Foundation, the island's leading cross-cultural contemporary performing arts company.

"You have to be creative, very creative, if you want to grab the spectators' full attention especially if the story is an ancient and widely popular one" Suardana said.

Ramayana is indeed a popular story in Bali. Its plots and subplots grace many of the island's arts forms from dances to poetry, from paintings to sculpture. Most Balinese can effortlessly recite the story of romantic love and personal struggle of the tale's main protagonists, Rama and Sita.

Suardana's Satyasih Hanuman captivated the attention of hundreds of people with its refreshing storytelling, dynamic choreography and emotionally charged musical repertoire.

Divided into three acts, Satyasih Hanuman first dealt with the mortal battle between the monkey warriors' twin rulers, Sugriwa and Subali, while the second act narrates the white monkey Hanuman's reconnaissance mission to Alengka where he meets the imprisoned Sita.

In the final act there is the deadly battle between the monkey warriors and Alengka's ogre battalions. Satyasih Hanuman reaches its dramatic coda with the demise of the King of Alengka, Rahwana, in the hands of the righteous Rama.

Clearly it wasn't the plot that won the hearts of the spectators. It was Suardana's straightforward approach to the plot that did the job. Refusing to succumb to Ramayana's complexity of character Suardana employed only eight principal characters in Satyasih Hanuman.

A shorter traditional wayang wong masked dance drama for instance could involve up to 15 main characters in a similar plot. Rejecting the traditional Ramayana's elaborate prolonged opening and linear storytelling, Suardana jumps right into the most dramatic scenes. He cleverly packs the Ramayana's main emotions - separation, over-aching longing and brutal revenge - into one concise performance that glued the audience to their seats.
"Suardana is an expert in modern theater and he surely use that expertise to his advantage in creating Satyasih Hanuman.

Look at the way he manipulated the lights and artificial smoke to convey certain emotions" a theater buff Dewa Gde Palguna said.

Satyasih Hanuman isn't Suardana's first attempt at blending Western and Balinese theaters. In the late 1980s he won much praise nationally and abroad for his Gambuh Macbeth narrating the Shakespearean tragedy through the ancient court dance drama of Gambuh.

The greatest innovation he made with Satyasih Hanuman concerned his determination to present it as a visual and musical rendition of the text.

"I don't want to make a verbal rendition. Everybody else has done this and sadly it has taken much of the visual and musical quality out of the sendratari" he said.

Unlike the Balinese traditional sendratari, a juvenile performing arts genre that reached a peak of popularity in the 1980s, Satyasih Hanuman didn't employ a narrator to verbalize the characters' dialogue and emotions.

Instead Suardana and principal choreographer Wayan Sutirta devised various gestures, movements and compositions to create or enhance specific emotions in each of the scenes.
The wild scattering movements of the monkey warriors, the militaristic march of the ogres, the defiant steps of Rahwana and the fast-paced acrobatic maneuvers of Hanuman were more than enough to convey the emotions that traditional narrators would take forever to verbalize.

The most beautiful example of Satyasih Hanuman's choreographic excellence was a scene depicting Rahwana's effort to deflower Sita. Angered by Sita's constant refusal Rahwana swoops her frail body up and in a series of movements, clearly inspired by western ballet, swings her repeatedly before fluidly taking her in a circular motion up and down his brutish torso. The scene was simultaneously erotic and violent.

The performance's dramatic effect was further enhanced by a musical repertoire which was created by a unique set of instruments including the ancient metal xylophone, the Selonding, a large size Kendang Sasak drum, and an electric guitar.

"The music is one of the high points of the performance. The principal composer Ketut Lanus has done a fabulous job in interpreting the text into a rich emotionally-charged musical accompaniment" noted playwright Mas Ruscitadewi said.

Suardana and the Arti Foundation have managed to present the best performance in the International Ramayana Festival. Held in conjunction with the 28th Bali Arts Festival, IRF featured Ramayana performances by visiting troupes from the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore and India, as well as by home troupes from East Java and Bali.