HUTAN - SHOW 1 | by The Artground (SG) Sensorium Theatre (AU) HUTAN Indonesia Artists (ID/MY)

HUTAN INDONESIA
Duration: 45 minutes.
The shows includes smells and tastes but can be adapted to individual needs

SYNOPSIS
Step into the enchanted world of Hutan.

Wiggle your fingers and toes through textured leaves, smell the spices and flowers, and play hide-and-seek with The Snails. Let's hear to the pounding feet of The Rhinoceros, and when the tropical rain arrives, meet a group of cheeky OWA bringing fruits and foods from the forest to share with their new friends.

HUTAN is a multisensory and inclusive performance adventure created for children with access needs and their friends. Through touch, sound, movement, scent, and play, children are invited to experience the story in their own way and at their own pace.

HUTAN INDONESIA — A CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE
Some collaborations begin with a project. Others grow slowly through years of meeting, sharing, and learning from one another. HUTAN Indonesia grows from the latter.

HUTAN began through a mentorship programme in 2019, when Singaporean artists worked with Sensorium Theatre (Australia) to explore sensory-based performance-making and co-create a sensory-friendly work for neurodiverse young audiences. Since then, the work and its methodology have continued to evolve through presentations and exchanges in Perth, Singapore, and Adelaide.

Through PESTA BONEKA, this journey now takes root in Indonesia.

Together with The Artground (Singapore), Sensorium Theatre (Australia), and Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia), HUTAN Indonesia brings artists from the region into a shared process of learning, experimenting, and creating inclusive performance. The collaboration itself is rooted in relationships that have grown through PESTA BONEKA over many years. Artists from Singapore and Australia have long been part of the festival’s journey, building trust, shared understanding, and friendships with Papermoon and the wider puppetry community in Indonesia.

This history allows HUTAN Indonesia to move beyond a one-time exchange. It becomes a space where different practices and experiences meet: Sensorium Theatre’s sensory methodology, The Artground’s work in inclusive arts for young audiences, and Papermoon’s experience in puppetry, storytelling, and community engagement in Indonesia. Through an intensive collaborative process, 12 selected participating artists from Indonesia and Malaysia explore how sensory-based performance can respond to their own cultural contexts, communities, and ways of working.

For us, HUTAN Indonesia is ultimately about more than learning a methodology. It is about growing knowledge together, building lasting relationships, and asking a simple but important question: How can we create artistic experiences where every child is invited to belong?

SENSORIUM THEATRE — AUSTRALIA
Sensorium Theatre is Australia’s only theatre company dedicated to creating live performance specifically for young audiences with disabilities.

Based in Western Australia and established in 2010, the company creates immersive, multisensory theatre designed to spark imagination and offer children with diverse access needs meaningful ways to experience live performance. Over the years, Sensorium Theatre has shared the magic of theatre with thousands of young people, developing a distinctive sensory methodology that places access, play, care, and individual experience at the heart of performance-making.

THE ARTGROUND — SINGAPORE
The Artground – A Curious Place to Be is Singapore’s first multidisciplinary arts centre dedicated to children from birth to nine years old.

Managed by The Ground Co Limited, a registered arts charity, The Artground creates positive and meaningful arts experiences across different disciplines while building connections between artists, educators, parents, children, and diverse communities. At the heart of its work is curiosity, participation, and the belief that children should have the opportunity not only to experience art, but also to explore and create through it.

HUTAN INDONESIA — PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
12 selected artists from Indonesia and Malaysia

• Yun Xin Lim — Malaysia
• Jason Ong — Malaysia
• Iin Valentine — Indonesia
• Ahrman Sandikusumah — Indonesia
• Yohanes Rikat Parikesit — Indonesia
• Muhammad Alfan Suri — Indonesia
• Syakirina Rahmatuzahra Utami — Indonesia
• Rachmi Dewi Pertama — Indonesia
• Khairul Hakim — Indonesia
• Gaga Rizky — Indonesia
• Febby Nur Syahvira — Indonesia
• Sora Gia — Indonesia

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

The project in Indonesia also supported by:
National Art Council - Singapore.

also as part of UNESCO - Embracing Shared Heritage through Performing Arts: Co-Creations project supported by TEMASEK FOUNDATION.