Arts and Culture, Entertainment

Wishing You Are Happy

Wishing you are happy, that was the title of Teater Aristokrat's performance that I attended at Graha Bhakti Budaya - Taman Ismail Marzuki, Cikini Raya, Jakarta, in the evening of December 18, 2008. Yes, the original title was in English, not in Indonesian. I'm not so sure whether it's grammatically correct or is a common expression, but artists can use words in whatever compositions they wish, can't they?


Here's the synopsis, written in English, exactly as it was typed in a 11x12cm plain white paper:

Go far away after getting all...
You know that I was disappointed
You know that I was hurted and
You already know, I am getting anger
But who's can help?
Who's deserved for help
Whether love could still holding on
Wishing you are happy


The performance surprisingly started at 8 p.m. sharp, and I took a seat in the middle of the spacious theater hall that was filled less than half of the capacity. Many people, young and old alike, still prefer spending times in shopping malls, cafes, or in front of TVs rather than enjoying and appreciating cultural works. Only a few big names could draw significant crowd when they organize performances.


The curtain lifted, and a group of young people were seen sitting in various positions, heads were down, bodies were immobilized, lights were dimmed, and then there was a sound of a female voice, singing a kind of traditional Javanese song while she’s walking slowly across the stage.


It seems that there were little or no connections at all between scenes. In this fragment, a man who looked like a bossy boss, were shown with (seems to be) his faithful followers only to find out that every one of them despised him when they were not attended.


All of sudden the room was darkened, and the spotlight shot a young man who was ducking on an unthinkable position, on the top of a big loudspeaker on the far right location, out of the stage. He sang a mellow song, something about woman and love, with excellent voice and expressions. This is one of the best scenes of the show.





This scene was too long and too slow, and not that funny. I'm not so sure what message that they tried to put across, except that I saw a man who was repeatedly disturbed when he was just going to hit the ball with his golf stick, and in turn he disturbed the other man when he was reading a newspaper.





This is another excellent fragment among the scenes, even though initially it copied the way Mr. Bean fell to the ground from nowhere with the spotlight shone right on his body.


The man tried real hard with all available tricks to be right in the spotlight, but it teased him and ran away every time he was in it and just going to speak.
It shows that relentless efforts really matter, and when people tried hard enough, things start changing when hopes are almost gone. It requires sacrifices as well.




Teater Aristokrat was established in 1987 in the Jakarta Institute of Arts as a place for crafting creative works outside of the campus. Since then it has produced 18 performances and has received a couple of awards.

Wishing you are happy was directed by Ucok R. Siregar and co- director Carolus D. Gatot, lighting by Faisal Aidit and Birkud, and make up by La Tulipe and LT-Pro. It's rated three out of five stars.

, seorang pejalan musiman dan penyuka sejarah. Penduduk Jakarta yang sedang tinggal di Cikarang Utara. Diperbarui: December 20, 2008.

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