“Look, there’s no more sun today!”

It was the first sentence shouted by an actor in the performance of Teater Gapus, Faculty of Humanities Universitas Airlangga titled “Kalamambung”. Kalamambung was opened with dramatic music. Reddish spotlight then showed an actor acted as Time. Time moved following the music rhythm towards properties looked like a pyramid and a ship. Not long, two actors appeared from the fabric rolled by Time.

Both actors then filled the empty side of the stage and made facial expression and gestures with profound and philosophical dialog. The performance presented a lot of absurd scenes. The story was started when a character impersonating a person making a phone call with a brick, eating some brick shaped bread, muttering to himself and for the climax they smashed a pile of brick and floundered. “Kalamambung” finally ended with a dialog between both characters and followed with a dance before the light went out and the music stopped.

“Kalamambung performance depicted a condition where human was devoured by the time, so they chose to be a slave or to die. The property of a pyramid means the concept of God, while the boat was the endless cycle of time,” said Yusniar as the director of Kalamambung.

Feast of Absurdity
The second performance was titled “The Feast” which only used simple prop such as chair and dining table with food like in a party. The performance was tarted with the appearance of three characters Doh, Kuh, and Lah hand in hand under the reddish light.

All of them performed a simple dance hand in hand. The next scene was as if they were in a party. The three of them discussed about the disaster Lah saw in his dream. Doh and Kuh did not believe him and tried to stop his nonsense which started to ruin the moment.

Lah suddenly move his seat from the party spot and then the light went out fast. Slowly, the spotlight then showed three actors got scared and hurt with various gestures. Then, Doh and Kuh attacked Lah until he died. Then the show ended with with Doh and Kuh carried Lah on their shoulders and laid him to the table before the light dimmed and went out.

Like “Kalamambung”, “The Feast” focused on the absurdity. The talks and gestures showed demand deeper interpretation. Teater Gapus is known as a theatrical community with surrealism performance, so it was not weird if for their 118th and 119thth performance they performed plot which went beyond realistic and conventional performance.

“The first response of normal audience was amazement, but when they were asked about the meaning, none. They who are not theatre enthusiasts will be difficult to understand. But it is what they are, holding firm their idealism, performing more non-realistic plays,” said Riswan as the director of “The Feast” and the Head of Teater Gapus Household.

Both play were held in Siti Parwati Hall FIB UNAIR, on Saturday December 17. It marked the 27th Anniversary of Teater Gapus.

Author: Lovita Martafabella
Editor: Defrina Sukma S