Communities of Imagination: Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatres

Chapter 3. Looking Within: The Balinese Rwa Bhineda and Readjusting Complementary Opposites

91 CHAPTER 3 Looking Within The Balinese Rwa Bhineda and readjusting Complementary opposites The outdoor performance of Oedipus Rex was not out of place on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2004.1 The tragedy’s rituals undertaken to purge Thebes of the plague, the proud king taunted by a blind fortune-teller, and the revelation of coincidences that expose his guilt had resonance for the local audience after the terrorist bombing in 2002. When confronted with disease, crop failure, and other disasters, Balinese traditionally employ the performing arts to appease their deities and attempt to restore the cosmic balance. Narratives for communal exorcism include the story of Mayadanawa, the defeat of a powerful king who prevented people from carrying out their rituals for the gods; that of Rangda, the Widow of Dirah, whose evil power turns men’s krises (ceremonial daggers) against themselves in the dance-drama Calonarang; and Sidha Karya, the well-known last figure in topeng (masked drama), whose story exposes the pride of the king, which, like that of Oedipus, must be purged, and is rarely performed though it received new attention in the wake of the 2002 bombing. The Oedipus performance by Teatre Tanah Air was billed as a teatre moden, modern theatre not only because of its relevance to contemporary events, but because it was a Western spoken drama that used a scripted text rather than improvised from an epic or historical legend. The presentation was also made modern with the use of modern dance in the chorus’s opening appearance yet distinctly Balinese by the improvised sallies of the two guards at the city gate. By joking about the situation and their own discomfort on duty, they took on the traditional role of the penasar, “those who provide a foundation,” the comic 92 | ChAPTer 3 interlocutors who mediate between the gods, nobles, and the common people. As Michel Picard explains: As mediators, the penasar juxtapose contemporary problems and the exemplary situations of ancient times, thus establishing a continuity between the past and the present. By constantly placing the ancestral values in new contexts, they give them a pertinence that is always fresh, while by framing the changes that affect the daily life of the Balinese in the perspective of a well-established tradition, they are able to soften the shocks of what is new. In this way, the penasar help the Balinese to make sense of the modern world by integrating it into their cultural heritage . . . .2 The function of the penasar exemplifies the importance the Balinese ascribe to maintaining equilibrium between complementary opposites, the concept of rwa bhineda. Their obsession with ritual to preserve or restore harmonious balance applies to both the catastrophes of macrocosmic proportions and the microcosmic problems in daily life, all interrelated in the tri buana, the three worlds of gods, humans, and demons. The forces of good and evil are always jostling for supremacy, but neither one is allowed to eliminate the other because both are part of a cosmic whole. The best humans can do is attempt to keep a balance between them. Harmony is never static, however, and requires constant dynamic adjustments, hence the Balinese sensitivity to disorder as well as a concern for following the proper norms to preserve order. While rwa bhineda permeates Balinese culture, even the perception of how “opposites” are defined is not absolute; changes in Balinese society challenge how binaries have been customarily applied. Thus while the performing arts themselves are also subject to social change, acts of performance are simultaneously employed to further the understanding of what constitutes harmony in the modern world as well as restore it. In the twenty-first century the “shocks” Picard mentions generally refer to the complex impact Westerners have had on Balinese arts and society since the 1920s, and even more so since the 1970s when the ease of jet travel increased the number of visitors exponentially. Balinese performing artists have been incorporating technological and artistic innovations from foreign performers, while trying to resist negative aspects of mass tourism. “Shocks” also refer to national government impositions to reform the island’s distinct Hindu culture to support a centralized Indonesian and predominantly Islamic culture, such as the recently passed “Anti-Pornography Law.” They have retained and defended the The BAlineSe rwA BhineDA | 93 significance of the Hindu roots of their performances, both sacred and secular , to address imbalances—whether between Balinese and foreigner...