In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Raja Edepus, and: Making of “Raja Edepus.”
  • Lynda Paul (bio)
Raja Edepus. Directed and produced by William Maranda. DVD. 92 minutes. Vancouver BC: Villon Films, 2009. Available from http://www.villonfilms.com.
Making of “Raja Edepus.” Directed and produced by William Maranda. DVD. 27 minutes. Vancouver BC: Villon Films, 2008. Available from http://www.villonfilms.com.

If, at first glance, ancient Greek tragedy and contemporary Balinese dance-drama seem unlikely theatrical companions, the production Raja Edepus puts any such doubts to rest. Produced by William Maranda with artistic direction by Nyoman Wenten, Raja Edepus is a compelling Balinese rendering of the ancient Sophocles drama, Oedipus Rex. Created for live performance at the Bali Arts Festival in 2006, Raja Edepus is now available to a wider public through two DVDs: one, a recording of the show, and the other, a documentary about the performance’s preparation.

The live production fuses musical and dramatic techniques used in contemporary Balinese theater with techniques thought to have been used in ancient Greek theater. As Maranda describes on the Making ofRaja Edepus” DVD, the two types of theater—though separated by 2500 years and much of the earth—have significant features in common. Maranda explains that he was inspired to initiate this project after attending performances of the Balinese gamelan in residence at the University of British Columbia; he was struck by the fact that Balinese theater uses masks—a device familiar to Maranda from his previous work on ancient Greek theater. Masks, in both Balinese and ancient Greek theater, are used to impart information to an audience about the masked character’s persona and ethos (his or her social status, level of affluence, personality, etc.). Despite the different religions, histories, and cultures of the ancient Greeks and the Balinese, Maranda points out that their world- views are remarkably compatible: broadly speaking, both societies believe in the power of fate, and in a panoply of divinities involved in its orchestration. And indeed, although Maranda does not mention this, both societies also use theater to articulate these world- views, imbuing theatrical performance (especially in ritual settings) with the power to reveal cosmological truth. [End Page 141]

The Making of . . . DVD, featuring Maranda (both talking to the camera and briefly conversing with two Balinese artists who worked on Raja Edepus), does not make clear precisely who made each decision during the show’s artistic creation. However, Maranda’s discussion of the creative process—supplemented by photographs and video clips—suggests that he collaborated in significant part with a cadre of expert Balinese performers and designers. It seems that, on Maranda’s initiative, this inter- artistic team of mostly Balinese directors treated the Sophocles play as the show’s basic “script,” which they subsequently infused with Balinese elements in the months leading up to the performance.

The directorial team inflected Oedipus Rex with a variety of Balinese concepts and theatrical devices, some subtle and some more striking. Most notably, they added to the cluster of Sophocles’s speaking roles a large, powerful kecak ensemble and an active, dynamic gamelan. As can clearly be seen on the DVD of the Raja Edepus performance, each of these two ensembles is employed strategically throughout the show, to great dramatic effect. The kecak ensemble in particular seems to fulfill a variety of important dramatic functions, a few of which I outline here.

First, the kecak performers supplement and support the Greek Chorus. Although the production clearly differentiates the kecak chorus from Sophocles’s Chorus (the two groups wear different costumes, gather in discrete groups for much of their time on stage, and one group recites the text of the Chorus while the other chants kecak syllables), the kecak performers add weight to the Chorus’s commentary. As a crowd of neutral, non- “speaking” performers, the kecak ensemble—physically present throughout the show—seems to bolster the Chorus’s commentary. They act as observant and anonymous members of the group, making the Chorus seem even more “present” as a synecdoche of society.

Second, the kecak ensemble (as well as the gamelan) sonically expresses the dramatic pace of the production. The almost continuous music alerts the audience to the level of...

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