The aftertaste of Bunga Penutup Abad
Coming from a middle class family who sent the kids to local and public school, Pramoedya Ananta Toer (let’s address him by his nick “Pram” from this point onward) is a classic for my generation. Him alone and his books were omnipresent throughout my school years. Not only his books were records with heavy criticism to situation during that era, his personal story as political prisoner was also legendary, that made him and his books are hard to miss from school materials.
But I never make it to half way of his books when I was young. Probably couldn’t comprehend the complexity of each character in his books, nor I understand the meaning of repression. Only in my 20s then I started to reread his books, starting obviously from the famous Buru tetralogy. With better understanding on how colonials and repression works, I was blown away by Nyai Ontosoroh character introduced on Bumi Manusia. Her story probes a tough and passionate mother-love to her daughter, Annelies, fighting for Annelies’ legitimate status as a descendant of a Javanese and Dutch, a combination that deemed sinful during that era.
Nyai Ontosoroh wasn’t only a mother, she was also a concubine to a Dutch settler, the father of Annelies, and a self-taught businesswoman, whom responsible for the expansion and success of trading business of his illegitimate husband, Herman Mellema. Nyai Ontosoroh was an almost impossible figure of a woman; a beautiful Javanese woman, sold as an escort by her own parents, to then make her way to gain power through business in the district.
One can only relate this character to Mayangsari (pardon my reference), however inaccurate as her fight probably revolved around the acceptance of the almost-monarch Cendana clan (wow how I know well about this rumour) and never about inequality between natives vs. colonials.
So when a friend told me there’s a play that interpreted Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa last year, I was skeptical, specifically on the interpretation of Nyai Ontosoroh. This is the character I deem sacred that I put in the pedestal. The complexity of this character put her in the brink of fact and fiction. I know her only from the book, but as a great book always does, it comes with attachment. And attachment is always personal; it doesn’t have any fair and objective ground.
When I came to learn about Happy Salma (not Mayangsari; don’t judge me) as Nyai Ontosoroh , somehow she fits this Nyai character. She embodied this Javanese beauty as well as powerful attitude that makes her believable as Nyai Ontosoroh. I have always imagined Nyai Ontosoroh as a rather curvy woman in her late 30s.
But for this round of play, Marsha Timothy was crowned as Nyai Ontosoroh. I went for the play with high anticipation as Timothy was nothing, physical wise, as I imagined Nyai Ontosoroh to be. Though Timothy has proven herself as an above average actress with her award winning performance on Marlina the murderer in four acts, but I wasn’t convinced.. yet. I kid you not, attachment is damn personal.
And I’m glad that I was proven wrong. Timothy’s performance is out of the world. From the first lines of her performance, it’s undoubtedly Nyai Ontosoroh speaking in front of me. Her dialect was perfectly tuned between Javanese accent and a hint of well-educated with harsh life experience woman. The sound of her voice was totally convincing each and every audience that she’s that powerful woman people talking about. She had this graceful defence, with much of persuasion all over her; from her voice to her gesture. My doubt over Timothy’s skinny appearance was instantly wiped out.
As the play put each character to become a story-teller, and brought audiences to understand the plot through flashback, Timothy remarkably put the right emotion in every line she delivered. As an audience, I felt the ache to my bones when she told Minke (the protagonist performed by the always brilliant and the most celebrated actor Reza Rahardian) about the confrontation she’s forced to encounter when Dutch law ruled the status of Annelies as illegitimate daughter of Nyai, despite the fact that Nyai is biological mother of Annelies.
My heart was equally heavy when she’s screaming on top of her lungs upon arrival of a letter telling her and Minke the tragic departure of Annelies in Netherland. She wasn’t crying; she showed her anger instead, anger over the fact that Europeans were nothing but stone-cold colonials taking everything they can, in the name of white supremacy. And the emotions, oh how Timothy delivered all of this emotion with perfect lines from Pram’s books.
To match her level of performance, Reza Rahardian, expectedly delivered his brilliant performance as Minke. The innocent young student fell in love with daughter of Nyai Ontosoroh. One thing I always admire about Rahardian is how easy he can just transform from one emotion to another.
Within 2.5 hour of his unstoppable performance, I was brought over the moment of his innocence as a young and yet educated student falling in love to a Dutch-Indonesian girl to become a full-grown man filled with grim experiences and his careful calculation to decide over life matters. He became a companion to Nyai Ontosoroh and matched her level of intelligence.
If something has been lost in this adaptation is Chelsea Islan’s performance. Probably it took the hell out of vocal training to become a good stage performer, and obviously Islan was lacking on this. Her vocal and articulation wasn’t clear, and most of the time, it came out too strong. In some scenes, when she had to express her excitement over meeting her friend, her voice expression was a vex; it’s forced upon and got me cringed.
And just like everything great in this life, it comes with the aftertaste that lingers and you take personally. I take Timothy personally that if you give me a low-rated movie that she was in, I’d still say she’s brilliant. The only thing I probably question is her taste in man. But well..
