VIVAnews - Internationally acclaimed Indonesian poet, playwright, director and actor Rendra died last night at 10.05 pm local time in Mitra Keluarga Hospital, Depok, the outskirt of Jakarta.
Since last June, he had been admitted to the hospital three times due to heart complications.
Born on November 7, 1935, as Willibrordus Surendra Broto Rendra, more popularly known as WS Rendra, to Javanese Catholic parents, Rendra "the peacock is considered the most influential figure in Indonesian modern theater and the most recognized literary and artistic personality in contemporary Indonesia.
In 197, he converted to Islam, changing his name to Wahyu Sulaiman before dropping the "WS" altogether.
During the repressive years of President Soeharto (1966 - 1998), he was seen as the most overtly political theater artist. He was jailed, placed under house arrest, banned. He had to struggle to obtain the permission to perform.
After studying Western literature in in Yogyakarta, and at Harvard and New York University in the early 1960s, he entered the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York in 1964.
Rendra returned to Yogyakarta in 1967, establishing Bengkel Theater. There he introduced a new method of actor training in Indonesia who concentrates on process-oriented approaches to theater. Leading Indonesian poet and intellectual Goenawan Mohamad named Rendra's innovation 'Teater Mini kata' (mini word).
Rendra's mini word plays (Bip Bop, Rambat, Rate Rata, and Piiipppp, 1968) were groundbreaking movement pieces based on dialog-free, improvisatory excercises called Beautiful Movements protesting social conditions and conventional theater practice.
Rendra died at 73 and left behind 11 children from his three wives namely Sunarti, Sitoresmi and Ken Zuraida.
