Willibrordus S. Rendra
Encyclopedia
Willibrordus Surendra Broto Rendra (7 November 1935 - 6 August 2009 in Depok
, West Java
- aged 73), widely known as Rendra or W. S. Rendra, was an Indonesia
n dramatist, poet
, activist, performer, actor
and director.
in 1970. After studying English literature and culture at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta (Central Java), he didn't make time to graduate because with his first theatrical project he was already gainfully employed. In 1963 he staged his first play ( "Dead Voices"), became fascinated with the craft, and from then on, with his traditional religious ritual performances, as well as Western avant-garde experiments, captured and kept large audiences. Because of the nature of his poetry readings and his sexy performances on the stage, he was given the nickname "Burung Merak“ (the Peacock) by the press.
dubbed these experimental performances as “mini-word theatre.” During the 1970s, his plays such as "Mastodon" and "The Condors” and “The Struggle of the Naga Tribe” and “The Regional Secretary” were often banned because they openly criticized Suharto’s development programs that often alienated indigenous
people and tended to side with multinational corporations.
Rendra performed Shakespeare, Brecht
, and the ancient Greek-oriented socially critical pieces and as a keen student of the Indonesian martial art Persatuan Gerak Badan, (White Crane Silat), Rendra always looked a lot younger than his age and played Hamlet
when he was well into his sixties.
On top of this, Rendra translated works of world literature (including Aristophanes
, Sophocles
and Brecht) into the first Indonesian performances and staged them, solidifying his role as a pioneer and leading spirit in contemporary Indonesian literature
. After a period of study at New York
's American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Rendra founded the Bengkel Teater in 1967. He brought his Western experience into the traditional Indonesian theater form to merge them into something profound. His productions were highly innovative, and are an enormous influence on the artistic variety of Indonesian art to this day.
During the repressive New Order era, Rendra was one of the few creative people in this country who had the courage to express dissent. When the novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer
was returned from Indonesia’s gulag — the prison island of Buru
— he said Rendra was “one man who has the courage to resist the power of Suharto, under his own name. If you cannot respect that, you should learn to.”
) visited. Throughout the seventies Rendra was increasingly important as a poet and his performances and poetry readings were mass events. In 1979, during a poetry reading in the Ismail Marzuki art center in Jakarta, Suharto’s military intelligence agents threw ammonia bombs on to the stage and arrested him. He was imprisoned in the notorious Guntur military prison for nine months, spending time in solitary confinement in a cell with a ceiling too low to stand up and only mosquitoes for company. When he was released, without ever having being charged, his body was covered with sores from mosquito bites.
, Solo, Bandung
and Jakarta
). Rendra repeatedly stood on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature and he saw international publications of his texts and made numerous appearances at literary festivals around the world. Until his death, he worked continuously on books, literature, and various projects and productions, and occasionally as a movie actor.
His last home, in Depok, south of Jakarta, was a farm and until recently was also the home of the Bengkel Teater, where Rendra and his actors and artists lived, worked and also maintained an ecologically sustainable farming operation.
Depok
Depok is a city in West Java province, Indonesia on the western border of DKI Jakarta in the Jabodetabek metropolitan region. The "de" in Jabodetabek refers to Depok, while the word "depok" itself comes from Sundanese language meaning hermitage or abode of one living in seclusion.It has an area of...
, West Java
West Java
West Java , with a population of over 43 million, is the most populous and most densely populated province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but with nearly double the population...
- aged 73), widely known as Rendra or W. S. Rendra, was an Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n dramatist, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, activist, performer, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and director.
Early life
Born to a Roman Catholic family (His father was a Catholic English teacher) and baptized as Willibrordus Surendra Bawana Rendra, he changed his name to 'only' Rendra when he embraced IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in 1970. After studying English literature and culture at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta (Central Java), he didn't make time to graduate because with his first theatrical project he was already gainfully employed. In 1963 he staged his first play ( "Dead Voices"), became fascinated with the craft, and from then on, with his traditional religious ritual performances, as well as Western avant-garde experiments, captured and kept large audiences. Because of the nature of his poetry readings and his sexy performances on the stage, he was given the nickname "Burung Merak“ (the Peacock) by the press.
Career
In the 1960s the company of Willibrordus Rendra was instrumental in inaugurating a stream of innovative, modernist, and controversial theatre performances that were based to a large extent on Western models. In the seventies and eighties, he was one of the most important critical voices of the multi-ethnic culture in the largest island nation in the world (2009, approximately 240 million inhabitants). In 1969 he created a series of dramas without any dialog where actors employed their bodies and simple sounds such as "bip bop", "zzzzz" and "rambate rate rata". The journalist poet Goenawan MohamadGoenawan Mohamad
Goenawan Mohamad is a renowned Indonesian poet and man of letters.Goenawan Mohamad was born in Batang, Central Java. His early writings include Potret Seorang Penyair Muda Sebagai Si Malin Kundang and Seks, Sastra, Kita ,'"Kesusastraan dan Kekuasaan' Goenawan Mohamad (born 29 July 1941) is a...
dubbed these experimental performances as “mini-word theatre.” During the 1970s, his plays such as "Mastodon" and "The Condors” and “The Struggle of the Naga Tribe” and “The Regional Secretary” were often banned because they openly criticized Suharto’s development programs that often alienated indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
people and tended to side with multinational corporations.
Rendra performed Shakespeare, Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
, and the ancient Greek-oriented socially critical pieces and as a keen student of the Indonesian martial art Persatuan Gerak Badan, (White Crane Silat), Rendra always looked a lot younger than his age and played Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
when he was well into his sixties.
On top of this, Rendra translated works of world literature (including Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
and Brecht) into the first Indonesian performances and staged them, solidifying his role as a pioneer and leading spirit in contemporary Indonesian literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. After a period of study at New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
's American Academy of Dramatic Arts
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with facilities located in Manhattan, New York City – at 120 Madison Avenue, in a landmark building designed by noted architect Stanford White as the original Colony Club – and in Hollywood, California...
Rendra founded the Bengkel Teater in 1967. He brought his Western experience into the traditional Indonesian theater form to merge them into something profound. His productions were highly innovative, and are an enormous influence on the artistic variety of Indonesian art to this day.
During the repressive New Order era, Rendra was one of the few creative people in this country who had the courage to express dissent. When the novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Pramoedya Ananta Toer was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemic and histories of his homeland and its people...
was returned from Indonesia’s gulag — the prison island of Buru
Buru
Buru is the third largest island within Maluku Islands of Malay Archipelago. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon and Seram islands. The island belongs to Maluku province of Indonesia and includes the Buru and South Buru regencies...
— he said Rendra was “one man who has the courage to resist the power of Suharto, under his own name. If you cannot respect that, you should learn to.”
Activism
During the Suharto era, Rendra lived for a long time in a poor district of Jakarta, where artists from all over the world (including Günter GrassGünter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
) visited. Throughout the seventies Rendra was increasingly important as a poet and his performances and poetry readings were mass events. In 1979, during a poetry reading in the Ismail Marzuki art center in Jakarta, Suharto’s military intelligence agents threw ammonia bombs on to the stage and arrested him. He was imprisoned in the notorious Guntur military prison for nine months, spending time in solitary confinement in a cell with a ceiling too low to stand up and only mosquitoes for company. When he was released, without ever having being charged, his body was covered with sores from mosquito bites.
After Suharto's ban
After he was released from prison he was banned from performing poetry or drama until 1986, when he wrote, directed and starred in his eight hour long play “Panembahan Reso,” which discussed the issue of the succession of power that was a taboo at that time. Before the performance at the Senayan sports center, he told his cast of 40-something actors: “Pack your toiletries, because there is a chance that we might get arrested.” The play took six months to prepare and was performed for two nights. “Modern Indonesian theater has no infrastructure. We must create it ourselves,” he used to tell his performers. After the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 and the beginning of democratization, Rendra was a dominant figure in the emerging world of modern Indonesian literature and theater and became the patron of an unrestricted, free and socially engaged artistic community.Literary legacy
Rendra continued to create numerous literary and cultural projects. In 2003, now long recognized internationally as a great poet, he hosted the first international poetry festival in Indonesia (in MakassarMakassar
Makassar, is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the largest city on Sulawesi Island. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a precolonial fort in the city, and the two names are often used interchangeably...
, Solo, Bandung
Bandung
Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's third largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, with a population of 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 km southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler...
and Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
). Rendra repeatedly stood on the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature and he saw international publications of his texts and made numerous appearances at literary festivals around the world. Until his death, he worked continuously on books, literature, and various projects and productions, and occasionally as a movie actor.
His last home, in Depok, south of Jakarta, was a farm and until recently was also the home of the Bengkel Teater, where Rendra and his actors and artists lived, worked and also maintained an ecologically sustainable farming operation.
Quotations
“I learned meditation and the disciplines of the traditional Javanese poet from my mother who was a palace dancer. The idea of the Javanese poet is to be a guardian of the spirit of the nation.”Awards
- First prize of Sayembara - Writing Arts Drama Section of the Faculty of Education and Culture, University of Gajah Mada Yogyakarta (1954)
- National Literature Prize BMKN (1956)
- Art of the Indonesian Government (1970)
- Prize of the Academy Jakarta (1975)
- Main Book Prize of the Ministry of Education and Culture (1976)
- Adam MalikAdam MalikAdam Malik Batubara was Indonesia's third vice president, a senior diplomat, and one of the pioneers of Indonesian journalism.-Early life:...
Award (1989) - The S.E.A. Write AwardS.E.A. Write AwardThe S.E.A. Write Award, or Southeast Asian Writers Award, is an award that has been presented annually since 1979 to poets and writers in Southeast Asia....
(1996) - Achmad Bakri Award (2006)