The Sounds of Ketoprak Castanets

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

LONG a dying art, the ketoprak tobong theater slowly disappeared and changed to become ketoprak tanggapan. The first form represented not only art but also a communitythe performers and crew who live for months in non-permanent spaces which are dismantled, carried and assembled wherever they perform.

Ketoprak tanggapan is a more simplified form: the performers only congregate to perform upon request. On the northern coast of Java, groups have been growing and depending on performing for this type of theater for their livelihoods. The tobong era is finished, particularly since the Siswoyo Budoyo Tulungagung group ceased to operate in 2001. Other tobong groups barely survived: spectators are unwilling to go and watch tobong performances as they prefer to sit and watch soap operas and dangdut music on television.

At the end of last February, a ketoprak (traditional Javanese dance-drama) festival was held in Solo, Central Java. The sound of keprak, a small wooden box that is tapped and produces castanet-like beats to mark the change of scenes, evidently has never totally disappeared.

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SULARTO was beating the kendang (small conical-shaped leather drum) by himself below the stage. His rhythm was somewhat disorderly, but it was clear that the 36-year-old man was enjoying himself. On the stage, four men were sitting and resting as they talked. The air was extremely hot. That afternoon, Ki Anom Suroto and his colleagues had just finished practicing at his tobong performance location in Timasan, Sukoharjo. In the evening, they will

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