Kill the West in Me - musical theatre about East-West clash

These days, we are bombarded to death with opinions on the pros and cons of multiculti. Depending on their political preferences, people are either very enthusiastic or very negative about the increasing 'colourisation' of our society. The gamelan ensemble Gending, the Doelen Kwartet and Het Geluid Maastricht decided to take the bull by the horns. They based Kill the West in Me on feminist letters by Javanese princess Adjeng Kartini (1879-1904) and topical texts on exploitation by writer/journalist Ayu Utami (1968). The theatrical concert will premiere 12 November at The Goals in Rotterdam.

The libretto introduces two characters: princess Kartini and her modern-day near-name counterpart Katini, a Javanese worker. Soprano Bernadeta Astari sings the role of the princess, actress Romy Roelofsen portrays Katini. The music was composed by Dutchman Boudewijn Tarenskeen and Spaniard Jonás Bisquert. They wrote for the unusual combination of traditional Javanese instruments and string quartet. Although the gamelan is tuned differently from western instruments, strings can adjust their pitch with different fingerings.

Acculturation East-West

The idea for Kill the West in Me: Kartini & Katini, two stories came from Jurrien Sligter, artistic director of Ensemble Gending. 'With my ensemble, I am looking for meaningful ways to work out the idea of acculturation between East and West. I had long been walking around with the plan to do something with Kartini's beautiful letters. These form an extraordinary time document. She began by boundlessly admiring the West and ended - far too young - full of criticism of colonialism.'

Searching for a contemporary addition to Kartini's texts, Sligter soon stumbled across Ayu Utami, also Javanese. 'She already wrote frankly about sex in her first books. Utami opposes Indonesia's increasing Islamisation and anti-porn laws. Incidentally, she is also critical of Kartini, as she ended up bravely marrying an old sultan. In her her text, she performs a maid who - like many today - goes to an Arab country to earn money for her family.'

Meaningful missing R

'Her father wanted to name her after the now famous Kartini in Indonesia, but is illiterate. When registering, he forgot the letter r, so she was registered at the civil registry as Katini. Not an insignificant detail as the r turns out to stand for Rape; Katini is raped by her employer. In the end, she kills her employer.'

'Our play opens in the prison, where Katini awaits her execution. She calls Kartini to account: "You with your fine intentions, see what has come of it!" Indeed, it turns out that very little has come of Kartini's conviction that women would have more rights.'

Ensemble Gending has collaborated with the Doelen Quartet before. Sligter: 'In 2013, we participated in a project composing for gamelan and string quartet of the Gaudeamus Music Week. Even in such combinations, we always look for acculturation or confrontation.

This time, moreover, this combination has a theatrical function: gamelan is East and string quartet is West. How can these go together - or not? Initially, we had set up the performance as a diptych. Jonás Bisquert would compose music for the historical princess before the interval, Boudewijn Tarenskeen for the modern maid afterwards. But soon a confrontation of the two figures and musical styles proved more interesting.'

Gap bridged or not

Music is the leading medium in this performance, according to the press release. 'Musical differences run parallel to political, social and personal differences between Kartini and Katini. Two soloists with their own metier, two composers with their own language, two ensembles with their own tradition. This is the 'battlefield' in which the composers create order, balancing between stunning syntheses and unbridgeable contradictions. They bring together two traditions, Eastern and Western. The apparent gap between musical types, texts and actions is at times smoothly bridged, only to (b)seem insurmountable.'

More info and playlist: http://www.tetterettet.net/producties/killthewestinme/

For the performance at Theatre Kikker on 19 November, a crowdfunding project has been set up at Fordekunst.