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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, February 2, 2005

STAGE REVIEW
Indonesian dance drama a treat for audience

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

The chorus is the star in "Luck and Loss: Manandin's Gamble," an Indonesian dance drama performed in English at the University of Hawai'i.

Ryan Burbank, center, and Annie Lipscomb, right, team up in "Luck and Loss: Manandin's Gamble."

Andrew Shimabuku photo

And the most notable aspect of the chorus is the percussion they produce by slapping the stout fabric baggy pants stretched between their legs to form a natural drum. It's a bit like the sound of the wind suddenly filling a sail or a snapped locker-room towel. Add vocal cries, hand-clapping and a small orchestra with percussion and wind instruments, and it reflects what occurs in a remote West Sumatra village where the randai art form is at home.

This martial arts dance, silat, dominates the production in which even the leading performers take their turns playing an instrument or dancing in the chorus circle. Angela Price re-creates a village atmosphere by placing the audience on three sides of the playing area, as well as in the auditorium.

Reminiscent of classical Greek tragedy, the randai was first staged at the University of Hawai'i four years ago in a production translated and staged by Kirstin Pauka. This time, Pauka has enlisted master teachers Saparman Bin Jamaludin and Muhammad Halim, who spent the past six months coaching students in movement and music.

'LUCK AND LOSS: MANANDIN'S GAMBLE'

• 8 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday

• Kennedy Theatre main stage, University of Hawai'i-Manoa

• $15 general, $12 seniors, military and UH faculty/staff, $10 non-UH-Manoa students, $3 UH-Manoa students

• 956-7655

The plot unfolds as a version of "The Prodigal Son," as a young man pleads with his parents for permission to journey to the big galanggang festival. After cautioning him against the gambling and cockfighting that pervade the celebration, they agree. He accepts a purse of gold, bids goodbye to his sweetheart, and sets off to see the world.

Not unexpectedly, he quickly loses all his money. Worse, he is falsely accused of stealing and bound at the city gates as an example to would-be criminals. The rest of the story traces his escape and his attempt to regain his good name by "joining the cockfight one more time."

The story unfolds between the chorus numbers, while musicians play and singers chant a narrative.

The translation also provides some unexpected and naive humor. The heroine's father seriously announces he must make a journey "to see a man about a water buffalo." Later, a hopeless task is pronounced to be as futile as "searching for an armpit on a snake."

Gilbert Molina plays the hero with the stamina required by the dances and the pathetic hopelessness demanded by his bad luck. Cassandra Wormser is the steadfast sweetheart and chants some of the narrative. Together, they create an almost operatic sensibility in a reunion scene in which the battered and unrecognizable hero returns home.