Review: Studio Merpati’s WETWARE

Review by Nabila “Hana” Hananti with contribution from Zahira, editing by Rakaputra Paputungan

On the night of August 27th 2026, Merpati Performance Laboratory brought WETWARE <3 onto the stage of Gedung Teater Bulungan. This show was part of Festival Teater Jakarta Selatan 2026, winning as one of the top three best groups and securing their position to perform again at Festival Teater Jakarta 2026. Merpati Performance Laboratory dubbed this show “a new media staging about the oldest technology: love”. 

As a whole, this is a very difficult show to pull an interpretation out of. This is because the format itself is unconventional. WETWARE <3 was a devised theatre—a form of theater-making in which the team works together in order to create a set of performances, instead of working on executing a pre-written script. The entirety of the show was constructed by ideas that don’t always correlate or have a connection to one another. It is a very ensemble-driven process, hence the results may vary. In WETWARE<3, the show itself came off as very random. And the scenes themselves were not conventionally acted out with a goal of expressing the material (typically, story and/or emotions) that need to be conveyed. In hindsight, it felt like utter nonsense.

The scenes within WETWARE <3 don’t always have dialogues. Whenever they appear, they come off as rather nonsensical. To me, this show felt more like a dance or a choreography in comparison to a script being acted out. Unfortunately, this lack of purpose or easy comprehension in consuming this show has made me, an audience member, fall asleep midway through. While I wouldn’t say that WETWARE <3 was a terrible show, perhaps my brain capacity was simply not enough to comprehend this show nor be entertained by it to stay awake.

A possible interpretation I took away from WETWARE <3 is that it was about chaos. The random things happening on stage had a sense of allusion to real life, but it all felt too nonsensical. Chaotic. The conclusion that I pulled was that people are inherently chaotic, but that doesn’t make them any less human. In a sense, the theatre presentation that was WETWARE <3 taught me that we should embrace the chaosness of humanity. 

It also highlighted the uncaniness of the digital world if they were to be presented in reality—that is, through real-life human interaction. They projected digital circumstances onto the stage, onto reality. In one of the scenes, the show’s characters acted as if they were Roblox characters. They were mimicking the interactions that happen in a digital setting in real life, and it felt bizarre and dare I say, cringe. They reenacted these digital interactions in the physical world and satirized the ridiculousness of these interactions, how genuine communication has been transformed into something nearly unrecognizable. Another example that they presented were memes—specifically, brainrots; things that we would laugh at in a digital setting but only stare in confusion with when presented in person. People are so easily entertained by brainrots in a digital setting, but when these brainrots are brought into reality, it becomes something rather… confusing?

Occasionally, it also mentioned some social issues that are happening in the world right now, though it didn’t really expand upon them. These issues they mentioned were only touched on a surface level, as if they were simply saying that they are aware that there were issues happening. In a way, it felt as if they were trying to be progressive without actually practicing progressiveness; to be open and knowledgeable about social and political issues without diving into anything deeply. Still, there’s a possible interpretation that, in this modern era, because the whole world is at your fingertips, that would mean we only ever deal with the surface level of everything. Perhaps that was the thing WETWARE <3 wanted to critique.

While our lead writer (Hana) fell asleep somewhere amidst this show, one of our other writers (Zahira) who also happened to watch WETWARE <3 was also having the same difficulty in comprehending this show. She kept her eyes open during the entirety of the show, watching WETWARE <3 in its entirety, and she was still unable to understand it in full. The post-show discussion she engaged in afterward was discussing the philosophical meaning behind this show, but after the discussion, although the show talks heavily about allegories and analogies, she thinks that having a deep philosophical background shouldn't be a requirement for enjoying theater.

Zahira opined it’s laudable to create a show full of meaning, but it’s also important to also be able to convey this intended meaning to a majority of the audience. She found that the participants of these discussions who managed to understand WETWARE <3 were fellow artists and perhaps even philosophy enthusiasts who can find meaning behind everything. However, the rest of the audience seemed to be left clueless and found little to discuss – because they didn’t know what they just watched. She finds this scenario unfortunate. In a way, she thinks of this show as self-indulgent; allowing only people ‘in the know’ to connect with the show rather than the wider audience. 

In hindsight, this show still comes across as nonsensical. This is not unique to WETWARE <3, but a common problem with art festivals nowadays, as the presentation focuses more on the meaning behind the surface. But it can make the surface performance itself less impactful; the allegories were presented in a way that is only able to be understood through deeper thinking and substantial prior knowledge of art, dramaturgy, or philosophy.

Zahira asks the question, “Wouldn’t it be nice to both entertain your audience and allow them to contemplate this show?” She thinks that it is unfortunate when a show tries to convey an important message while presenting it in such a way that it excludes a majority of people. In the end, this was still an acid trip of a show, and by the time she wrote this, she still hadn't quite solidified her own interpretation on what WETWARE <3 was about. 

WETWARE <3 is a difficult show to understand fully, and it didn’t help that there was a lack of control over the pacing. Some scenes extended too long that it eventually loses its meaning. Music and sound were the only thing making WETWARE <3 mildly entertaining. Perhaps entertainment was not the core value of this show, but entertainment is the easiest way for audiences to find value out of an artwork, especially while experiencing the performing arts.

All in all, WETWARE <3 was a show that shows the malleability of our world. Regardless of how chaotic the world is, it is still reality. If one was able to pay attention to this show in its entirety, and they have the framework to dissect it, it might be a work that they can reflect upon.