Review: IDEALITA Teeters on the Boundaries of Idealism and Reality

IDEALITA is the tenth original theatrical work by SVATUHARI that ran for five shows between 9-11 June 2023. It is also the result of their inaugural SANGGAR SVATUHARI, a theater program that seeks to teach the art of theatre-making holistically, from performance, design, management, to digital campaign.

With script by Rizky Bayuputra, direction by Rinaldy Zulkarnain, music direction by Joseph Morris (who’s also the producer), IDEALITA seeks to observe the hard-hitting reality of the average corporate life, and how the idealism of a better, freer life may disturb said reality.

Ivan (Agra) is an office worker who’s deeply entrenched in his career at a big company in Jakarta. The humdrum of his daily routine is broken upon a chance meeting with Dea (Elizabeth Aldy), a freewheeling artist who invites him to an art event at a local club.

On his first visit, Ivan is immediately enticed by the life of Dea and her bohemian friends: fun, liberated, and vivacious. Even after returning to the reality of his work, he returns, night after night, to spend an evening full of art and music.
 
But Lita (Nicole), Ivan’s partner at work, takes notice of his new routine. She eventually confronts Ivan and asks him to commit to a project that they’re both working on. Just as Ivan is torn between the two worlds - one of idealism, and the other of reality - a police raid descends upon the art club, dispersing the dream-like scene and flung Ivan back to reality.

While IDEALITA does deliver on its premise of presenting a look into the reality of a typical urban life and juxtaposing it with the idealism of exploring art, it stops a bit short of dissecting the underlying causes. Both sides (the office and the nightlife) are also represented perhaps a bit too one-sidedly.

It should also be taken into account that this is the first work of SANGGAR SVATUHARI and therefore there’s still a lot of room to grow. Keeping that in mind, IDEALITA is a pretty complete work, with a decent number of original songs (there was a pretty ambitiously crafted song sung by Ivan, Dea, and Lita that further highlights the show’s main theme) and a solid performance from the whole cast. The production design also supports the story by bringing the settings to life, using both digital imagery on the LED and physical set pieces.

While it would be nice to delve deeper into either the characters’ psyche and thoughts (or, inversely, into the system that creates this split between a stable, if boring, job and the arts), it was well-executed for the story they wanted to tell. Regardless, for young people who are dealing with this dilemma, I’m positive IDEALITA can make them feel seen and represented. And sometimes that is just what we need to tide us over the day-to-day grind.