Setjangkir Kopi Dari Plaja: Classic Love Story in an Antique Shop
03 Januari 2012 | Views (17)
By Jaya Limas
http://www.indonesiakreatif.net/index.php/id/news/read/setjangkir-kopi-dari-plaja-classic-love-story-in-an-antique-shop
Yogyakarta - When the light is on, on top of a desk not far form the audience a puppet of man is seen sitting alone. Meanwhile in a table not far from the desk a puppet of a girl is stirring a cup. The cup is then brought and served to the man. The two sit side by side telling stories in silence. Keroncong music could be heard vaguely. Suddenly rain starts to fall heavily and they try to cover each other, but an umbrella opens and protects them from the rain. They continue their conversation.
The rain stops and the couple move away. Walking on air toward an old bicycle. He sits on the saddle, ringing the bell. She sits on the back of the bicycle and then he starts to paddle, they move forward in silence. Along the way they converse, holding hands. Occasionally he will ring the bell. Arriving to their destination, they float to a chair with flowers nearby. She pulls out a book and they get absorbed in it turning pages by pages.
A photographer suddenly appears and offers to take their photos. A piece of photographs is produced by his polaroid camera. the man puppet receives the photo and shakes it around. He seems stunned by the photo and then give it to the girl puppet. For quite a long time they sit looking at the photo while embracing each other. At the end of the desk in the corner of the room, another male puppet appears, watching them from afar.
At the front left corner, silhouettes of a head and a microphone appears along with the sound of a radio news. The news is about the nation best sons and daughters are being sent to study under the service bonds in Russia. The couple return to their seats by the table with the cup. Sadness descent upon them as they sit apart from each other. She bows her head and looking forlorn. He bows his head too, but then turning his head to her as he tries to get her attention to see the small red velvet box containing a ring. She turns he head to see the box and was startled, happy and bows her head again. She receives the red box, still bowing her head. Eventually they both stare at each other.
He stands up, carrying his suitcase. She stands up, holding the red box in her hands and moves toward him. He kissed her in the forehead and then floats away to a big suitcase and sits on top of it. She floats away to a box at the other end of the room and opens the box, turning the box handle so it shows gloomy images representing her feelings. At the opposite side of the room, a group of people wearing kopiah approach the man puppet with cheerful excitement as they put on a kopiah on his head. The atmosphere turns merry. The man puppet looks spirited. Two other people show up and put on a red and white scarf around the shoulders of the man puppet and the other persons standing with him. After giving a salute the crowd disperse and the man puppet is left by himself. He sits on the big suitcase again with his own small suitcase next to him. Suddenly the suitcase he sits on floats. He waves his hand to here and there.
All these time the girl puppet is still turning the images inside the box. At the background small figures of the man puppet siting on suitcases are floating around. Finally the man puppet appears again. He has landed safely and is welcomed in the new land. Time flies as he is shown getting occupied by the small puppet figure version, dancing on the keys of a typewriter.
The room once again becomes silent. At the right side the man puppet reappears. This time siting inside a wooden window frame, writing. An alarm clock sits in front of him. The girl puppet sits at the left side of the room, facing a table where she writes. An alarm clock also sits next to her table. A girl comes up and tries to see what she's writing about. At the same time a boy with a cigarette is blowing the smoke toward the man puppet, teasing about the letter he writes. He then asks the smoker to post his letter into the letterbox. The girl puppet also asks the same thing to the girl who's been teasing her. Letters are exchanged.
Suddenly everything goes chaotic. A mob enters the room wearing masks resembling a regime leader. They grab the man puppet from his window frame. He struggles to escape but alas he's helpless. Time seems like going really slow. He is slowly being carried and put inside a suitcase, where he is shut inside and abandoned.The masked mob stand still, staring the audience down.
The girl puppet sits alone with her face down by the table. In front of her are the cup and the red velvet ring box. Behind her appears the other man puppet that had appeared previously, he brings a bouquet of white flowers. He approaches her. Awkwardly. Making sure the bouquet smells lovely by sniffing it a couple of times. He proceeds by sitting next to her and handing her the flowers. They sit together on the small table. She is facing the other way, being shy. Suddenly two persons appear, putting a white veil on both of them while shouting "Legit?", which is replied by others by saying "Legit!" People claps their hand and congratulating both in turns.
And the room return to silence. Colorful lanterns descent from the ceilings as two persons open the suitcase where the first man puppet has been shut inside and abandoned. He slowly rises and gets out of the suitcase. Only to discover that he is all alone. He takes a look at the nearest lantern and tries to reach it, again and again. Eventually he bolds himself up to jump to the nearest lantern that immediately lit up. From the first lantern he jumps to the next lantern, and again to the next lantern, and again until in the end he falls to the floor.
The lanterns rise up back to the ceiling. The man puppet is lift up by two persons. Now he's wearing glasses, crouches a little and his hair is grey. A desk with white table cloth is prepared for him. A typewriter and telephone are put on top of the table. A woman enters the room and she puts on glasses to the two persons. The man puppet sits down and starts typing. Not long after the phone rings. He lifts the phone and listens to the voice speaking through it. Suddenly the room turns festive. A red and white scarf is again being tied around his shoulders. The kopiah is once again put on his head. The man puppet receives a passport. He keeps staring at it with disbelief and showing it to the audience.
On a table at the corner of the room the girl puppet reappears. This time her face is wrinkly and a shawl is draped around her shoulders to keep her warm. With a duster she starts to clean up the table. She then opens the cover of the table that is actually a box. From it she takes a piece of polaroid photograph, a memento of her memory with the man puppet. She looks at it before putting it away back inside the box. When she lifts her hand from the box again, there's the cup this time. The cup she had used to serve drinks to the man puppet. She reflects on it, as if recalling the memories. She then floats to the box of images carrying the cup, where she rediscovers the book she had read together with the man puppet. After looking at the book she leaves the cup there and returns to her corner table.
Now the man puppet that has turned old appears. He finds his old bicycle. He tries to ring the bell and it still sounds exactly the same. He jumps to the saddle and paddles. The bicycle advances in its stillness. A small puppet figure of the girl puppet appears on the back seat of his bicycle. He tries to hold her hand. At the same time, small puppet figures of both the man and girl puppets can be seen in the chair where they used to read the book together. These small puppet figures then disappear.
The man puppet gets off his bicycle. He floats toward the box with images where he finds the cup he used to drink with. At the table in the corner, the girl puppet sits together with the other man puppet, conversing in silence. Vaguely a conversation between a woman and children can be heard. The man puppet stares at the cup. He floats to the small table in the middle of the room. The room turns gloomy. He hangs his head low, reflecting on the cup in his dangling hand. The room turns dark instantly.
This was Setjangkir Kopi dari Plaja (A Cup of Coffee from Playa), a puppet show presented by the Papermoon Puppet Theatre inside an antique shop in Yogyakarta on 16 to 22 December 2011. The play is adapted from a true story of Widodo Suwardjo, a man born in Mojoagung who was sent to study in Russia under a service bond during President Soekarno era. Widodo and tens of other students were trapped in Russia when their passports were revoked by the Indonesian government following the G 30 S/PKI incident.
Before Widodo left Indonesia in 1960 he promised to marry his girlfriend Widari once he returned to the country. The promise cannot be kept since without any passport he was stateless thus he couldn't go to any country at all. Widodo only just regained his citizenship last 2007 when during the 62nd Indonesia Independence celebration in Wisma Indonesia Havana, Cuba, he was given an Indonesian passport. The story of Widodo Suwardjo colored the news in Indonesian mass medias mid 2006.
The puppet theatre play Setjangkir Kopi dari Plaja is special because it was a site specific show and was not being shown in a regular theatre. The show took place in an antique shop with its antique merchandises being used as properties of the show. The location itself was being kept as a secret to the audience as they had to gather in Kedai Kebun Forum before being taken in a bus to the show location, accompanied by a tour guide who gave interesting information regarding some of the places en route to the location.
Even as the audience arrived to the antique shop they weren't told that it was the location. The shop owner smoothly took over the guiding role by giving tour around his shop. He offered his guests to see his warehouse at the back where he kept more interesting antique items. When he's busy telling stories on how he attained particular items the light suddenly was off. As the light was back on again, the audience were presented with the puppet theatre play itself.
Papermoon Puppet Theatre was established in 2006 by Maria Tri Sulistyani who's often referred to as Ria. Starting from creating puppet shows for kids in kampong, now Papermoon chooses to explore artistic experiments using puppet theatre as the medium for a greater audience. Aside of producing plays, Papermoon often organizes puppet theatre workshops in Indonesia and abroad in between organizing Puppet Theatre Festival that presents foreign puppet theatre annually.
Setjangkir Kopi dari Plaja is dedicated to Widodo Suwardjo whose story was heard by Ria as she was doing research for the play Mwathirika, which was a big hit in Yogyakarta in Jakarta last year. Mwathirika itself will be shown in several cities in the United States in 2012. It tells the story of missing people in a period post September 1965. From one of her sources Ria first heard the story of Widodo Suwardjo that made her curious enough to trace until she finally was able to contact Widodo. And thus, Setjangkir Kopi dari Plaja, a smart puppet theatre show that manages to bring its audience deep into the emotion and obtaining a piece of history.
