#1424 ... Puppetry - Complex + Simple

Rumi has been at it again ... roving the city with camera. These are images from the The Indonisian Puppet show at the Asian Night Market event at Shed 6 over the weekend. The left image is the behind the screen action with an amazing array of unusual musical instruments and the puppet master .... right image is what the audience can see from the front ...

SOME BACKGROUND INFO
Wayang originally meant shadow, but it has also come to mean a puppet or a performance.
Wayang kulit (kulit - leather) is the best known of the Javanese puppetry traditions and can be used to describe any puppet theatre using flat leather puppets which cast shadows on to a screen.
The puppets are carved from buffalo hide and painted. As a general rule they have jointed arms, which are manipulated with horn sticks (tuding). The puppets are supported by another piece of horn (gapit) which is split down the middle with one half extending up each side of the figure.
The most popular stories (lakon) are those based on episodes and characters from the great Indian epic poems – the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The performances follow a formalised dramatic structure and include humorous interludes featuring a number of clown characters.
A performance is given against a large screen, traditionally lit by an oil lamp. The dalang (puppeteer) is in overall charge of the performance and not only voices all the puppets, but also sings and controls the musical accompaniment by means of a variety of cues.
 THANKS RUMI ... great interesting images