Now the story may finally reach a larger audience. This week Singapore’s Esplanade Theatre will present the world premiere of “I La Galigo,” a four-hour music and dance production based on the ancient tale and performed entirely without dialogue. The production will tour in Europe later this year, and end up at New York’s Lincoln Center in 2005. Rhoda Grauer, a 59-year-old filmmaker and dramaturge, first got the idea for “I La Galigo” back in 1997, when she heard about the text while researching another project. She worked closely with a small group of “Galigo” scholars to shape a script. “‘Sureq Galigo’ is one of the great epics of the world, not because of its massive size, but first and foremost because of its poetic power and narrative genius,” says Roger Tol, director of the Jakarta office of the Dutch Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology. “It is really first-class world literature.”
The epic depicts the creation of the world and the battles, loves and adventures of the first six generations of Bugis. It centers on the relationship between a pair of twins, who are separated at birth and each grow up to marry and have children with someone else. Later in life, they meet, fall in love and vow that their children will marry. This decision–essentially promoting incest–provokes chaos, as the gods of the Upper and Under worlds call back their descendants. Eventually, the twins go back to the Middle World, but the gates connecting the three worlds are closed permanently.
Grauer enticed Robert Wilson, the Texas-born director famed for his avant-garde style and striking visual images, to bring the tale to the stage. Wilson says he decided to make the entire cast Indonesian because they would be better “equipped” to bring their heritage and culture to life. And since few of them speak English–and the production is slated for a worldwide audience–he omitted all dialogue. “My work is movement-based and dance-orientated,” says Wilson. “Stories are told through gestures, movements of eyes, fingers, feet… There are 100 different ways of walking.” Still, it makes for challenging rehearsals. During one recent practice, Wilson sat in the dark, addressing the cast of 50 dancers and musicians through a translator. With the dancers slowly gliding across the stage holding fishing lines and baskets, Wilson tried to explain exactly how each prop should be held to achieve his aesthetic goal.
Music plays a critical role in the story. For Indonesian composer Rahayu Suppangah, the main challenge was to keep what he calls the “archaic atmosphere of the piece” while presenting something new. “If you listen to the music alone you might feel it is very traditional,” says Suppangah. “But when it is combined with the visual it has more of a modern feel.” He worked the score around the ancient chants of bissu priests–androgynous, transgender shamans–who play an integral role in “Sureq Galigo,” acting as intermediaries between the twins and the gods. Saidi Bin Rudding, one of only four actual bissu high priests in southern Sulawesi, will be onstage throughout “I La Galigo,” providing the chanted narration of the story. Saidi, who performs ceremonial duties at the royal courts as well as at daily events like births, funerals and the planting of the first rice crop, has never left Indonesia before. He considers this an opportunity to bring “La Galigo”–his “bible”–to a global audience. “This project is the first gate to open ‘La Galigo’ to the rest of the world,” he says through two translators (from Bugis to Indonesian to English). “It is part of a continuous circle. It is my duty.”
Grauer hopes “I La Galigo” will spur interest in native Indonesian theater. “There is more music and dance diversity in this country than I have encountered in any place,” she says. “I’m hoping people will be sparked to learn more about this culture, and it will help open the door for more international cooperation.” At the very least, it will make the world aware of Indonesia’s most obscure epic.
