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.
---
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.
---
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.
