Puppet Shows Puppet shows!

Wow, how carried away was I in that last post? Oh well. Its about to get worse, cause the last 2 nights I was back at the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, and I saw 2 very different and amazing wayang kulit shows- the shadow puppets I'm obsessed with. The first night was a very famous puppeteer (dalang) from Java. He is my new hero, he has long hair, hip glasses, wore the hat that Javanese gamelan always wear, and a velvet track suit thing, it was awesome. I got my picture taken with him afterwards cause thats how cool I am, he and the composer are good friends with Emiko and Dewa, the founders of Cudamani,so I had a connection. If I ever go crazy and decide to get a PhD I want to just follow him on tour for a few months, I bet it would be a riot. Emiko and Dewa were even mentioned in teh clown section of the play. During this part the dalang talks about local issues or people, and makes fun of everyone, so he had one puppet as Dewa jumping up to kiss another as Emiko cause she's taller than him. He also did a lot of political commentary about corruption and religion. The religion stuff was obvious (Emiko was interpreting for me a little, I don't understand Indonesian) but she said a lot of the stuff about corruption was subtle and most people would miss it. Thats typical of Javanese wayang, they're sly. He was very highly skilled at manipulating the puppets, it was really fun to watch. The stage was set up so you could see him, and then to the right a large screen was projecting the shadow side. Traditionally everyone would sit on the shadow side but artists are coming up with new ways to do it these days, I still can't get over it that I got to see such an innovative show. This dalang has previously done one on George Bush and Saddam Hussein, that would be a great one to see. I was so excited to see this show I cried a little :-)

Last night I saw a Balinese contemporary one, very good as well but very different. This was more of a production, large screen with projected imagery, dancers, multiple screens that rose and fell throughout the production, and this kinda cheesey way over the top intro. He spoke English quite a bit which was very nice for us tourists so we could follow the story. He did a version of the Ramayana (my favorite! bring on Hanoman!!) where Ravana was revolted against by the people. He showed video clips of the overdevelopment of Indonesia, environmental problems, poverty, etc, with puppetry, and showed the masses getting fed up and doing something about it. THat kind of thing could have easily gotten heavy handed but it wasn't, and it was just amazing.

I feel so lucky right now, I'd never have the opportunity to see this stuff back home.