The Big Stage of Oase Theater is the first performance in the Arabic language in Solo that performs Middle East literary works. This performance is held annually, with the last performance in 2020 being held online because of the Covid-19 pandemic with the title Majnun Laila. This year, the theater performs a different theme on ‘HWJN, Kala Lengkara Dihempas Ego dan Cinta’ (when the impossible struck with ego and love), a horror romance story. Noval, HWJN assistant director, stated that this drama tells the meeting and first introduction between human and jinn.

“The jinn named Hawjan lives in an old house. One day, there was a human family who lived in the house. Shortly, Hawjan’s mother does not like a human, but Hawjan likes one of the house residents, Sawsan,” Noval explained.

Almost similar to the OUIJA film from Stiles White and Mike Flanagan, Hawjan and Sawsan, who live in two different worlds, communicate and interact using the Ouija board. Sawsan needs to arrange the letters on the board to communicate with Hawjan, making them closer and interested in one another. To uns.ac.id team, Noval stated that the HWJN story was inspired from Saudi Arabia literature from Ibraheem Abbas with the same title. His team added ‘Kala Lengkara Dihempas Ego dan Cinta’ in their performance title.

“Lengkara is an impossibility, but on another side, the impossibility of the boundary between jinn and human to have a connection and love each other can be eliminated by the ego of the jinn because it needs to do something outside the law and love it has,” Noval explained on Tuesday (16/11/2021).

The idea to perform an Arabic novel appeared at the beginning of 2021 when the Oase Theater script team conducted research on Arabic manuscripts to be performed. The team agreed to perform the Ibraheem Abbas’ novel, although the script preparation process was unique and took a long time. Noval explained that the script preparation started in early 2021 by the team who translated the novel into the Indonesian language. “From the Indonesian, we prepared the drama script, and then the script was translated back to Arabic,” Noval explained.

After completing the script preparation, Noval and the team opened the registration and casting process to find appropriate casts. The team worked hard in two months to train, usually four times a week around Building 1 FIB UNS from afternoon to evening. In several opportunities, the team also train the Agro Budaya UNS. Despite the current pandemic, Noval admitted that his team did not find significant challenges during the rehearsal, but they paid attention to each cast’s health and provided a permit to the cast to take a break when they are not fit.

Getting near to the scheduled performance, Noval stated that viewers’ enthusiasm was really high that their pre-sale tickets were all sold. However, Noval and Oase Theater ensure that there are on-site tickets that could be purchased on the performance night.

“Although the performance is in Arabic, through the acts and feelings delivered by the actors, inshallah, viewers could understand. HWJN is interesting because it shared the story between jinn and humans that is rarely raised (in literature works). The performance also has moral messages that could be learned, such as not all what we want will be achieved,” Noval concluded. Humas UNS

Reporter: Alinda Hardiantoro
Editor: Dwi Hastuti

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The music started to be played. Two dancers entered the stage. Their moves were on rhythm, just the same. Their costumes are identical as well, in the shades of navy blue and white. That night (8/12/2016), Kembar Sepasang dance became the opening dance of International Festival of Karawitan Gadhon 2016, a karawitan (traditional music performance) festival held by Javanese Language and Literature of Cultural Sciences Faculty UNS.

After the opening ceremonial done by UNS Rector, Pandawa Community (Paseduluran Kadang Jawa) presented Garapan “Gatra Mutiara Jawa”. As the first performer, Pandawa Community was being able to heat the atmosphere in Taman Budaya Jawa Tengah Theater Arena. The community from Javanese Language and Literature Students Association succeed in presenting energetic karawitan performance with the strong Karawitan Gadhon essence and soul. The development of this work was showed through the instruments, vocal and the way they presented the performance.

The voice of Marshalia Rose (sinden) and friends agitated the audiences’ emotion. The song lyrics sang were so ear catching. Once in a while, the audiences laughed out loud for the funny verse and the touch of theatrical action in Gatra Mutiara Jawa performance. Jamane globalisasi/ jaman ingkang sarwa nggegirisi/Budaya manca ngrusak tradisi/Tradisi mati dha ra preduli/ Dirusak dening acara televise sing nggegilani/ Goyang ngebor goyang ngecor goyang itik lan goyang meri/ We lha dalah gendheng puniki//. That is what one of the lyrics sang by Pandawa Community. It is funny, isn’t it? Anyhow, it is actually nggegirisi lan nggilani (pathetic).

Karawitan Gadhon is a gamelan performance in main instrument composition, such as gambang, rebab, gender, and kendhang. Pandawa Community adds extra instruments, such as keyboard, saxophone and also bass guitar for their performance. It is claimed as the other way to enjoy Karawitan Gadhon.

The performance of Manunggal Rasa whose members come from 5 countries (America, Japan, Italia, Hungary, and Indonesia) can steal the audiences’ attention. If you listen to the beat of kendang, the sound of siter and the other instruments played as the backsound of the singer’s voice while closing your eyes, you may not realize that the performance is done by those foreign students under the lead of Kitsie Emerson.

The Karawitan Gadhon Festival is also filled by the performance of Solo Kolektif Community(Wales), Garam Masala (England), Gadhon Mangkunegaran Modern, Laras Triyagan, Gajah Nada, Sido Mukti, Laras Kumenyar, Saraswati, Gora Swara, SOLO Junior. Their performances are done in two days; August 12-13, 2016.

Endang Tri Winarni, the Chief of Karawitan Gadhon Festival hopes this first-held festival can be a promotion media for Indonesian culture on the international scene. The performance of Karawitan Gadhon Festival as a part of Lustrum 8 UNS is a corporation momentum between UNS and various art and cultural educational institutions on the international level.

Meanwhile, UNS Rector Ravik Karsidi appreciates the foreign artists for their consideration in this Festival Karawitan Gadhon. “Through this occasion, Javanese culture can be flourished, without neglecting the root of Indonesian culture,” he explained. Ravik said that UNS should give appreciation to the foreign artist joined in this agenda of conserving karawitan. The accomplishment of this international festival is a step forward taken by UNS to be world class university by introducing karawitan to the people worldwide.

….
Pring reketeg gunung gamping ambrol
Tekad kudu jejeg, yen ra eling jebol
( A Javanese song entitled Ladang Wilujeng)

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