The Japan Foundation (JF) is proud to announce the staging of Dionysus by SCOT（Suzuki Company of Toga）, led by SUZUKI Tadashi, in Indonesia this October 2023. This production celebrates the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation and the 65th year of diplomatic ties between Japan and Indonesia. This will be the play’s first performance in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

This particular version of “Dionysus” was developed over three years, starting in 2015, as part of a Japan Foundation Asia Center project, through an international co-production between Japan and Indonesia. In 2018, it was first performed during SCOT’s Summer Season in Toga, Japan, and then at the Prambanan Temple Compounds in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In 2019, it was staged at the Singapore International Festival of Arts and the 9th Theatre Olympics in Toga, among other venues.

The 2018 production featured a cast of 15: one actor from SCOT, one from China, and 13 Indonesian actors from different Indonesian islands. In an innovative move, these actors performed in their native island dialects, a creative decision that was well received.

Over the years since 2015, Indonesian actors chosen by the Indonesian performing arts producer Restu I. Kusumaningrum have honed their skills at Suzuki’s annual summer training camps in Toga. A select few actors chosen from this pool will perform alongside SCOT’s cast in the upcoming October performances.

Through this production, JF hopes to showcase the fruits of artistic collaboration between the two countries to a wide Indonesian audience and theater community, and looks forward to promoting further performing arts exchanges between Japan and Indonesia in the future.

“Dionysus” by SCOT to be Staged in Indonesia

Date and time	Thursday, October 26 and Friday, October 27, 2023 8PM (local time)
Venue	Jakarta Art Building (GEDUNG KESENIAN JAKARTA)
Tickets	For further details including ticket purchasing method, please contact the address below. E-MAIL：dionysusinindonesia＠gmail.com (When sending an e-mail, please enter a half-width character instead of a full-width character "＠.")
Jakarta production presented by:	The Japan Foundation and Bumi Purnati Indonesia
Co-produced by:	Suzuki Company of Toga and Purnati Indonesia
Supported by:	Embassy of Japan in Indonesia

Profile

Profile of SUZUKI Tadashi

Founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), chairman of the Toga Cultural Foundation. SUZUKI founded SCOT in 1966.
In 1976, he relocated his company to the village of Toga in Toyama Prefecture before establishing Japan’s first international theatre festival, the Toga Festival, in 1982. SUZUKI has staged plays and worked on co-productions all over the world in addition to creating the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, a system which is now used to train actors at theatre companies and schools worldwide including the Moscow Art Theatre, The Julliard School in New York, and the Central Academy of Drama in China.
SUZUKI also serves as an international committee member for the Theatre Olympics. He is a founding member of the BeSeTo Festival (jointly organized by leading theatre professionals from Japan, China, and South Korea). His major directorial works include Dionysus, King Lear, and Greetings from the Edge of the Earth I & II. Published works include Engeki to wa nani ka [What Theatre is] (Iwanami Shoten) and Culture is the Body (Theatre Communications Group).
SCOT Suzuki Tadashi・Suzuki Company of Toga

Profile of Restu I. Kusumaningrum

Born in 1965, Restu Imansari Kusumaningrum is an independent producer, artistic director and performer. She has an extensive background both in Indonesia and abroad in her two major life-long fields of study: dance theatre performance and landscape architecture. In 1999, Kusumaningrum co-founded the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts as an international non-profit cultural foundation.
As a producer, she has collaborated with Robert Wilson to create a new staging of the Indonesian epic / La Galigo. She is also known for overseeing the Japan-Indonesia co-production of Suzuki Tadashi's Dionysus. Restu is a recipient of the “Ordine della Stella d’Italia” from Italian Government for her role in promoting cultural and social ties between Italy and Indonesia in 2014; and in 2019 Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture accorded her the Culture Award for her role as a Creator, Pioneer and Innovator in Jakarta.
Yayasan Bali Purnati | The Bali Purnati Center For The Arts
Bumi Purnati