Abstract: This contribution sheds light on a fascinating and dynamic period of Indonesian theatre history through translation of a novel primary source. The emergence of popular theatre traditions in Indonesia toward the beginning of the twentieth century reflected important developments in the formation of a modern Indonesian public culture. In Batavia (Jakarta), a melting pot of Chinese, Indonesian, and European influence, new theatrical traditions crystallized that broke away from earlier relationships of patronage with the archipelago’s various royal courts and instead catered to the demands of the modern, multiethnic, and multireligious populace. In this article, we translate “Sair Opera Bangsawan,” a poem composed around 1911 which recounts the syncretic public life of urban Batavia. In it we are led to picture a city in the clutches of theatre-mania, all the while wrestling with the profound social and cultural changes of Indies society that this new form of performance reflected. The poem may also fascinate those interested in Sino-Indonesian and, more broadly, Chinese diasporic traditions of performance in Southeast Asia.

Abstract: The myth of Japanese ethnic homogeneity is challenged by the texts and performances of these two plays by Kamisato Yudai: +51 Aviación, San Borja (2015) and The Story of Descending the Long Slopes of Valparaiso (2017). The autobiographical yet also playfully surrealistic Aviación stages national borders as constitutive of a variety of Latin American-Japanese and Japanese-Latin American identities. By contrast, Valparaiso both wonders at the existing blurriness of some borders and deconstructs others, not just among countries or regions or national identities, but also among stylistic and even metaphysical borders. This blurring of borders transcends a hybrid-like fusion of Japanese with Latin American identities to create a kaleidoscopic universe in which identities and borders are multiple and constantly shifting rather than stable and homogeneous. While Aviación expands Japanese identity to include people who were exiled from Japan, Okinawans who emigrated from their homeland, and Japanese citizens who were born outside of its national boundaries, Valparaiso depicts many kinds of borders and identities as difficult, if not impossible, to delineate clearly. Chris Rumford's concept of "borderwork," conducted by ordinary citizens rather than nation-states, illuminates how these plays, and theatre more broadly, can redraw, blur, or erase borders, thus complicating notions of national identities.

Abstract: This essay analyzes the performance Selamatan Anak Cucu Sumilah ( SACS, or Selamatan for the Descendants of Sumilah), staged on 30 November 2018 at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Directed by Irfanuddien Ghozali and collaboratively created with women survivors of the 1965–1966 genocide in Indonesia, the performance honors the late survivor Sumilah. The story of her life forms the thematic core of the production and is interwoven with themes from Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet, enriching the performance with additional layers of cultural and historical significance. This analysis explores and contextualizes the performance as a medium through which memory activists shape and negotiate Indonesia's collective memory landscape .

Abstract: This article examines preservation strategies for ensuring the continuity of Malay gamelan in Malaysia. The authors observe two key areas in the preservation efforts: documentation and performance innovation. The article focuses on three documentation efforts: dance notation, sheet music, and audiovisual recording, along with two cases of performance innovations through dramatari (dance-drama) and singing. Our discussion starts with manuscripts of Tengku Ampuan Mariam, a daughter of a Malay gamelan patron and dancer of joget gamelan, a court dance, followed by key audio and video performances and musical notation. The focus then shifts to two forms of performance innovation: one that enhances storytelling through dance in the "dance-drama" format and the other that incorporates singing for greater popular appeal. Together, these strategies form a movement to safeguard and revitalize the Malay gamelan as an intangible cultural heritage as defined in the 2003 Convention developed by UNESCO .

Abstract: This article aims to map out the features of political theatre in the contemporary post-colonial society of Pakistan, with a focus on the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Though there were some sporadic developments in the earlier period, a relatively organized political theatre movement, with its ideological underpinnings within the leftist project, started in the 1980s as a response to General Zal ul Haq’s dictatorship. However, it lost its resistive fervor and performative activism due to the neo-liberalization of theatre under NGO projects. The pioneering companies of this movement in Punjab, namely Ajoka (1983) and Punjab Lok Rahs (1986), started working on the development projects of national and international donors. Their politics of resistance against the local and international dictatorial and imperialist regimes transformed into the neoliberal politics of rights, justice and advocacy, dictated by the hegemonic agendas of Western corporations, imperialist governments and think tanks of the Global North (Abbas 2023:360). This phenomenon occurred with almost all theatre companies of the 1980s in Lahore. In this context, the question arises of whether political theatre is possible in contemporary Pakistan, and if so, in what form. This article explores this question by examining the case of Sangat Theatre in order to draw a picture of an alternative aesthetic reality for political theatre that exists outside the realm of NGO influence. At the same time, by focusing on certain decolonial approaches in theatre-making and performance, the article helps to decolonize theatre scholarship and offers an understanding of working-class theatre production in a postcolonial reality.

Abstract: This article examines how theatres of migration in the professional sphere intervene in contemporary social issues around Asian immigrants in multicultural South Korea. Of those from other Asian countries , Ranui ilgi (Ran’s Diary, 2011) concerns female marriage migrants, confronting its non-migrant South Korean spectators with an uncomfortable and neglected reality of the migrant women’s cross-border marriages with ethnic South Korean men. Along with a specific focus on the group of marginalized Asian others in the country, the sexually suggestive mise-en-scène particularly calls the attention of the audience. In this article, I first offer a brief overview of the societal backgrounds and effects of an unprecedented influx of Asian brides into South Korea, a country with a long-held fetish for ethnic homogeneity. Then, I analyze Ran’s Diary in terms of the play’s critical perspective on inter-Asian marriages, its strategic focus on and staging of a sexually victimized female Asian migrant character, and the authentic as well as culturally conscious representation of lived experiences of those immigrants in the host country. In my conclusion, I argue that this sexually-charged performance functions as a protest against the dominant public, generating a counterpublic discourse .

Abstract: This play is a new interpretation of Urvashi and Arjuna from the epic Mahabharata . Immortal Urvashi of heaven was the life partner of mortal emperor Pururavas of earth, Arjuna’s fortieth ancestor. The story is that Urvashi, assigned to be an eternal virgin who was denied motherhood, experiences the bliss of motherhood because of Arjuna. Indra, Arjuna’s father, has brought him to heaven so that he might annihilate Indra’s enemies. Urvashi, who has fallen in love with Arjuna, approaches him for love but is rejected by Arjuna. Urvashi curses Arjuna to become a eunuch. Arjuna, who has realized that Urvashi was Pururavas’ wife, tells her in despair that she is no different from his biological mother Kunti and his stepmother Indrani, Indra’s wife. Urvashi’s dormant motherhood bursts forth as she hears this. At the end of the story, Urvashi embraces Arjuna with maternal love, lays him on her lap, and sings a lullaby. Arjuna and Urvashi are the protagonists of this play. The other characters include Urvashi’s two friends and two nymphs who appear in the interlude.

Abstract: In this essay by playwright, director, translator, and colleague of Betsuyaku Roger Pulvers, the author looks at Betsuyaku’s work through a variety of perspectives, sharing academic as well as personal insights about the playwright and his work. He examines the ways that Betsuyaku’s plays echo the ambiguity and circularity found within the Japanese language. He also argues for the misapplication of the term “absurd” in regards to Betsuyaku’s work, focusing instead on the influence of Miyazawa Kenji. Finally, this essay looks at how Betsuyaku explores alienation and subtle humor in his characters, especially in his best known play, Zō (The Elephant).