Ins Kabaret, du Cabaret, In Cabaret
Arting in elevators
I don’t have anything prepared for today. The past few days have been consumed with writing projects and auditioning belly dancers. The depths of my suffering are profound indeed.
In addition to 135 pages of research documents that need editing, with tables, captions, footnotes, and references, I am opening the cabaret in just over a month. Our magician has won first-place awards in four countries, so far. I am desperate to find just the right Emcee, and we still have to do run-throughs to time out the show and block the technical transitions.
All in a day’s work here on the Far Side.
As committed as I am to libertarian principles, it’s very hard to maintain that perspective in the arts. If I wanted to create an app to measure your toenail growth, the money would be piling up at my door. If I want to create beauty, harmony and entertainment, well good luck buddy. Let me know where I can buy a ticket.
Indonesia does absolutely nothing to support the arts, aside from a hearty handshake and an escort to the door. Grants are virtually non-existent, and those who get the pittance are state-sponsored entities devoted to preserving, rather than evolving traditional art forms. As someone taking a very old Western style of theatre and mashing it together with Eastern dance, music and comedy, I might get an introduction to someone who will nod appreciatively and compliment us on doing something brave and wonderful for the arts. By the way, have you met our door lately?
No money.
The theatre is a fascinating thing. It is over 3,000 years old and has a long, storied history with some of civilization’s greatest creations. In the 1600s, the Italians invented the proscenium (picture frame) stage, which has become the horizonal aspect ration of film and television.
Words like mask, theatre, orchestra, chorus, actor, and scenery all come to us from the ancient Greeks. The idea of achieving catharsis comes from use of the theatre as a religious event, designed to inspire and absolve. The lives of the gods, portrayed on the stage, provided the audience with examples of virtue and vice, with their attendant rewards and punishments.
Thespis of Icaria is credited with being the first actor as we know them. Around 534 BC, during the Dionysia festival in Athens, he became the first person to step out from the chorus and perform spoken lines as an individual character. And so the Hollywood star system was born, and the old joke, “Some of my best friends are thespians,” was heard far too many times to be funny at West End cocktails parties.
The cabaret is subversive, evolving out of underground (literally and figuratively) entertainment venues. It was born out of censorship, where speaking against the Powers That Is meant public beheading.
The word “cabaret” comes from the old Pict language in northern France. It referred to what we might think of as a bed and breakfast—a small inn or tavern, often with wine cellars where daring or subversive performances were held, along with a copious supply of wine and fried pig knuckles. Some folks may remember Beatnik bars, which were likely quite similar.
By the 1800s, cabaret had become an art form in its own right, with legendary venues like The Black Cat and the Moulin Rouge. The modern conception of cabaret comes from decadent 1920s Berlin, with cousins in the US called “speakeasies”. Vaudeville was a direct descendant of cabaret, as was the burlesque. Again for us geezers out there, the Ed Sullivan Show or the Lawrence Welk Show were derived from cabaret.
Cabaret maintains its subversive connotations, and there are six distinct forms—named after their countries of origin—spanning the entertainment spectrum. I intend to create the seventh.
I’ve partnered with a bar/lounge on the 30th floor of an office tower. The wrap-around windows look out over Jakarta’s central business district, on the two days a year it can be seen through rain clouds and smog. It’s a very picturesque setting, though not what most people would envision as a “theatre”. That makes it all the more fun, subverting expectations and wrapping the show around and in the audience, while folks enjoy food and beverage and hob-nobbing with the thespians.
Indonesia has no theatre culture, as we conceive of it in the West. In the past ten years, I’ve opened and managed the country’s first two international-standard venues, but the calendars are sporadic and the owners prefer to be rental agents, rather than production houses, and most of the renters are primarily one-off concerts and corporate events.
There are a handful of small, semi-professional troupes and a couple of small venues I would refer to as community theatres, but there’s no large-scale venues producing original shows. I want to change that.
Jakarta has no national symphony, opera, ballet, or theatre of any kind. You have to work pretty hard to find anything more challenging than house bands and karaoke. Considering this is the second-largest city by population in the world (Tokyo is #1), it is sadly bereft of cultural experiences. I intend to change that, too.
Indonesia has set its sights on creating a shiny new “green” capital city in the jungles of east Borneo, and the plans are notable for the singular exclusion of a national theatre. Having spent 52 of my 64 years in the arts and entertainment, I find this shocking.
For someone coming from Houston, where downtown alone has six major theatres, not to mention dozens of semi-pro and amateur venues, I can’t imagine a major city this culturally barren. Indonesia has a government Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Economy, but its focus is on attracting tourists without giving them a reason to come.
If you want to catch a concert on the beach in Bali, this is your place, but that competes with a lot of beaches in a lot of countries with a lot of concerts. The only difference is it’s in Bali, which is world famous for being, um…Bali.
Years ago, Lady GaGa was scheduled to perform in Jakarta, but the government refused her a visa on “moral” grounds, bankrupting a good friend of mine. She recently announced six dates in Singapore, and the Indo authorities are all in a huff as to why she won’t play Jakarta. Taylor Swift did the same thing last year. Elton John was refused entry years ago on similar grounds, bankrupting other friends of mine.
Is it any wonder that Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok are the cultural hubs of Southeast Asia, despite Indonesia having the largest population and economy in the region?
I never shy away from a challenge, and it appears that Universe has decided to throw a whopper my way. It pains me to see so much talent all around me, yet they have to leave the country or work on cruise ships to find decent employment in their chosen professions.
Lawrence Olivier famously said, “The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.”
A nation without a vibrant theatre is maintaining the illusion of culture. The immediacy and intimacy of theatre as an art form is unequalled in any other aspect of culture. It is the place where past meets future, dreams breathe and speak, and technology harmonizes with human endeavor, in a spectacle of profound proportions.
Maybe I can’t change the world, but I can certainly plant a few seeds.
If you’d like to know more about what we do over here, have a look.
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I’ll bet you’re thinking I’ll recommend Bob Fosse’s masterpiece Cabaret (1972), but I’m going to subvert your expectations. Rather, you should see one of the greatest films of all time, Amadeus (1984). From the rich lighting and gorgeous compositions, to the outstanding writing, glorious performances, and the music! This is a true work of art that glorifies the position of theatre at the heart of culture. One hears such sounds and what can one say but…Mozart!
Seeking the limelight on the Far Side:
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Contact Bernard Grover: bernard (at) radiofarside . com
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Well best of luck with all that, Mr. Farside, Seriously--the world needs a lot more real theater, and a lot less of the Kabuki BS they throw around in DC and other "serious " places. But as they used to say in certain Austin circles years ago--you can lead a guitar to water, but you can't tune a fish.
B, since your looking for a whopper, maybe u can open a Burger King franchise with 20 dollar fat burgers! in Jakarta land.