Performance the Sick People

As the hall entry of the Indonesia
Menggugat Building was
opened, the lights went on
with maximum brightness.
The audience were surprised by somehow
entering the waiting room of the Barayaku
Yasadaya Hospital. From the front can be
seen the registry, and to the left and right
side the quarters were set.

Commuting to and fro were actors playing
their parts as patients, visitors, nurses, doctors,
medical students, even the baker and
newspaper vendors with scientific dialogues
and patients’ complaints accompanied by
fresh humor – opened the first scene of
Laskar Bandung Panggung as the recipient
of the Kelola Hivos art grant titled Sikat Sikut
Sakit, produced and directed by Director
Yusef Muldiana.

The innovative performance of Sikat Sikut
Sakit with the form of naturalist theatre
involves the audience in real-time with
interactive responses. The performance
presented humans’ sickness due to “love
for the world” not physically, but more to
the psychological and emotional conditions.
Seen was a mad painter who considers
himself as Van Gogh (Tisna Sanjaya),
a stressful patient (Rusli Keleeng), and an
old lady who constantly rant on the old time bitterness (Ria Ellysa Mifelsa).

Sickness came as a wake-up call. “When
we see a healthy person, we actually see
someone with a hidden illness. While
those sick and paralyzed actually have a
healthy soul. They pray and stay close to
God. Life is nothing but a mere worldly
business,” such was revealed by Mr. Sampoerno
(Muhammad Sunjaya), and his
encounter with Sugiyati Suyatna Anirun
(Putri Kawih) gave a new hope in compassion.

Yusef Muldiana criticize the stigma of
scooping financial advantages that the
hospital has mostly been doing. When
patients are no longer able to pay, they
would then no longer receive righteous
treatment. This drives Giri Mustika (Bargas)
with his stressful and confused face
offered samping cloth to every visitor for
her wife’s (Anita Bintang) hospital registry
fee.

The last scene came out as the climax of
the conflict. The entire cast with gestures
of smashing their bodies, walking in staggered
phase, arms folded and hair pulling
showed the hidden expression behind the
human body stature that holds chronic
psychological sickness.