Article from Yogya Daily

 

Article Text:

SLEMAN - Richard Pettifer, seorang sutradara dan artis pertunjukkan dari australia menunjukkan kebolehannya bermain pantomim di Warkop Lidah Ibu, Jalan STM Pemangunan, mrican, Selasa (20/2), Tampil dihadapan belasan penonton, Richard mengusung tema People Spoke atau orang berbicara.

Dalam pementasan berdurasi selama 40 menit itu, Richard menyuarakan jeritan orang orang yang tertindas. Tema tersebut diambil Richard karena merasa prihatin dengan orang yang merasa dirinya merdeka. Menurut dia, kesejahteraan yang dimiliki oleh orang sejatinya belum menjamin kemerdekaan sosorang. "Di Australia orang orang berpikir dirinya merdeka namun bagiku itu keliru. Misalnya, mereka berpikir kesejahahteraan adalah kebebasan. Tapi bagiku kesejahteraan bukanlah sebuah kebebasan. Kadangkala kebabasan seseorang hadir dengan konsekuensi tidak bebasnya orang lain" terangnya kepada Harian Jogja.

Pandangan Richard perihal kebebasan itu direpresentasikan dengan melakukan berberapa gerakan unik saat melakukan pertunjukan pantomim. Ia bakan memasukkan aksi para biksu Tibet membakar diri dalam melakukan perlawanan terhadap pemerintah tiran. Dalam aksinya itu, ia sempat menyalakan korek gas untuk ditempelkan kepakaian yang ia kenakan. "ide ini sebenarnya spontan karena aku dapat ide waktu sehingga tidak sempat latihan khusus. Api itu kemudian sempat mengenai tubuhku" ujarnya sembari terkekeh.

Kebatangan Richard ke Jogja tersebut merupakan salah satu rangkaian turnya ke beberapa salah satu rangkaian turnya ke beberapa negara dunia. Setelah tampil di Jogya, secara berurut ia akan menyambangi Iran, Turki, rumania dan terakhir Jerman.

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Translation to English

SLEMAN - Richard Pettifer, a director and performance artist from Australia showed skill in pantomime at Warkop Mother Tongue, Jalan STM Pemangunan, Mrican, Tuesday (20/2), Shown in front of dozens of spectators, Richard’s theme is People Spoke.


In a staging lasted for 40 minutes, Richard voiced the cry of the oppressed. The theme is taken as Richard was concerned with people who feel themselves independent. According to him, the welfare of which is owned by someone does not guarantee freedom. "In Australia people think themselves free, but for me this is wrong. For example, someone might think prosperity is freedom. But to me, prosperity not a freedom. This liberation comes with consequences for both the individual and for others – and these are not independent" he told Daily Jogja.

Richard's view is about freedom represented by a unique couple of movements when performing pantomime. He even put the action of the Tibetan monk burning himself to take the fight against government tyranny. In that action, he had struck a gas to be attached to clothes he was wearing. "This idea is actually spontaneous because I have no special training. The fire was all around me" he said as he chuckled.

The arrival of Richard to Yogyakarta is one of a series of his tour to several countries of the world. After performing in Yogyakarta, sequentially he will be visited Iran, Turkey, Romania and finally Germany.

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Comment:

This is only a brief overview of the work I was doing and, as usual with the media, sometimes does a disservice through simplification (necessary because of those pesky ever-reducing column sizes). I particularly like the line "This idea is actually spontaneous because I have no special training. The fire was all around me" It brings to mind a kind of devilish amateur appropriation that I hope I was not guilty of in the performance, especially of something so personal as the suicide of a Tibetan monk, which is not a chuckle. Having said that, the journalist bothered to engage with the idea rather than fetishising me with 'foreign superstar' status, which is more than can be said than many Australian media sources in the way they report on visitors.

Many thanks to Kurnianto for penning the article.