Wayang shadow theatre In Bali Part 1

The shadow-puppet theatre. The puppets represent animals, demonic beings, mythical figures, human beings of all social strata, heavenly beings and scenic props or figures. In a Wayang Kulit performance, a dalang puppet master silhouettes these flat, cut-out figures against a translucent, white screen with an oil lamp as a single source of light. While Wayang theatre has a fixed structure and dramatic characters, its performance invariably involves the creativity and improvisation of the dalang. He (although the dalang can be male or female, for ease of convention the dalang is referred to as ‘he’ throughout this book) is the creator and central focus of the Wayang performance, because he unites the role of dramatist and performer. The dalang has been responsible for passing down

culture and tradition from one generation to another. He is also an interpreter of philosophy and religion and an accomplished actor responsible for the detailed vocal characterisation of each puppet. In addition, he demonstrates complex musical skills in his interaction with the live gamelan orchestra that always accompanies a performance. He frequently drums with one foot, against a wooden box, as percussive punctuation to the performance and as a system for cueing the orchestra. So, he is simultaneously solo performer, adaptor, director, puppeteer, musician and musical director. Sometimes, when a performance has a ritual purpose in certain temple ceremonies, he also functions as priest.

Broadly speaking, Asian theatre forms are presented in the West as strictly codified. Many tend to believe that stylisation equals repetitive reproduction in performance of a series of gestures and musical sequences learned by rote; the subjects of creativity and improvisation in this art are unfortunately overlooked. Wayang Kulit is a good case study of how a performer blends detailed personal interpretation within a complex structure of rules and traditions.

Behind the Wayang Kulit screen

This creative element is known as kawi dalang, which means the creativity (kawi) of the puppet master (dalang). The kawi dalang is not only crucial in perpetuating the genre, but it also allows each production to be distinct and unique, even though the dalang may perform the same story over and over again. Kawi dalang demands that each performance changes in accordance with the fluctuating place–time–circumstances, desa–kala– patra, so in fact every performance is in some ways unique. Thus, kawi dalang is a term in the Balinese traditional theatre that solely deals with the dalang’s creativity and improvisation in his performance. Kawi refers to two different things: an action of aesthetic creation and the name of a language. With reference to the action of aesthetic creation, it means creation, improvisation, invention, or modification. One who composes a play is called pangawi, meaning creator or composer or poet. This term is composed of the prefix pa, a tool or an agent, added to the root word kawi, creation. Kawi also refers to the old Javanese-based language that court poets (pangawi) traditionally used and developed. They translated and transformed the Sanskrit source version of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata into the new Javanese version known as kakawin, which is the plural form of Kawi. This is all important as it indicates another layer of complexity in the world of a dalang – he has to juggle linguistic problems as he decides when to use Sanskrit (the source language of the two key epic stories, Mahabharata and the Ramayana, on which all performances are based) and when to use Kawi or the vernacular. Neither Sanskrit nor the Kawi language are much understood by the majority of audiences, so most of the language is spoken in the vernacular with some sections of Kawi interlaced. Kawi, for example, is much further removed from everyday speech in Bali than Shakespearian English is for a contemporary audience in England or the USA. In the context of kawi dalang, however, Kawi is not primarily used as the name of a language, but rather refers to the created arts and improvisations of a dalang. According to the ancient sacred treatise, Darma Pawayangan, the dalang is entitled to say anything that can be said (Hooykaas, 1973: 18–19), including making a new interpretation of any established name or term. In effect, this means that he is free to change and adapt the stories as he wishes and in Bali one may see radically different presentations of the same source material.

Historians suggest that the performance of Wayang theatre represents the peak of development of shamanism. Expanding the traditional role of the shaman, the dalang serves as an artist and a priest to create a Wayang performance and bless holy water. Employing a white screen and an oil lamp to cast the shadows of the Wayang puppets from inside a booth, the dalang performs his various roles to the accompaniment of gamelan music.

Based on the two Indian epics or other domestic narrative repertoires, the dramatic characters are presented by about 125 carved flat leather puppets with highly stylistic form and colour. These figures were and are created through a wide range of spiritual experiences or meditations. Since, to the Balinese mind, spiritual experience is holistic and the ultimate experience a human being can have, its expression and explanation can only be visualised through symbols. Symbols developed worldwide in every stage of human history and various forms of cultural arts record their formulations; the oldest known Balinese theatre that elucidates and records those symbols is Wayang. In addition to what the casual outside observer might see in the form of narration, character and plot, there is a highly complex exhibition of symbols at work, linking the performance, for both the Balinese spectators and the performers, to a spiritual context.

The performance may be completely sacred, without needing human audiences, as seen in the daytime performance of the Wayang Lemah, or entirely secular, as seen in several tourist performances. However, the majority are ceremonial, which are held for numerous religious and ritual celebrations such as temple anniversaries, rites of passage and numerous holidays. Coming to a performance of Wayang, the audience is not required to pay an admission fee, but is expected (apart from within a touris tcontext) to wear the traditional Balinese temple dress. Several kinds of local entertainments and enterprises, such as gambling events and food stalls, temporarily spring up outside a temple and around the performance site to cater for the taste of upwards of 300 or 400 people; most performances are social gatherings on a large scale. While a performance is in progress, the audience may smoke, drink, eat, chat, in addition to responding or reacting to the performance itself; a few children may be playing around the edges of the performance area or even sleeping until their favourite comic and fighting scenes commence; dogs may be barking and fighting for discarded food in the near vicinity. However, in spite of such distractions, at most performances the dalang is trained to concentrate totally on the performance and uses many theatrical devices to control audience concentration. This ability to concentrate intensely in the midst of apparent noise and chaos is a strong characteristic of Balinese performers in various forms. Often during special temple festivals, simultaneous or overlapping performances of dance, masked dance and shadow puppets occur in the same temple area. Orchestras play different music at the same time and seem to have no problems concentrating. Villagers watch one particular performance or change to another at will. It is also extraordinary to the Western observer that small children exhibit an intense ability to concentrate as members of an audience at a performance that lasts many hours. It is interesting that the audience experience is entirely different when watching the two types of shadowpuppet performance. During the daytime performance, the audience gives little attention to the narrative and technique as the performance is intended to increase the sense of ritual as a means of assisting devotion. However, the night-time performances, although often related to temple events, are designed to provoke a noisy and active audience response as the narrative, humour and extravagant demonstration of technique hopes to receive a lively response. In contrast, tourists find night-time shadow performances difficult to enjoy, largely because of the length and problems of language. The topical humour is lost and the techniques are not understood or well recognised.

Unlike in most Western traditions of performance, the events in a temple ceremony/festival are for the primary benefit of the gods and not humans. Humans are welcome to enjoy the performance, but their presence is incidental. This is essential in considering why such an ancient form of performance has such durability. Numerous performance forms are dying out and completely disappearing at a phenomenal rate across Asia, especially since the advent of the electronic age. European soccer matches are broadcast to small towns and villages in the region and American movies are standard viewing. Local television soap operas, video games and pop videos combine in an assault against traditional performance forms. The economics of modern-day existence in the region conflict with long training periods for performance, often of many years duration; the need to earn a living forces people to migrate to cities and abandon family and/or village performance heritage. In Bali, however, a longevity to performance forms exists that defies much of this regional trend; this is largely because of the almost complete entwining of performance with religious devotion and ceremony. Wayang is a prime example of a form that, in its very essence as an archaic, moving picture projection, should have logically been long eclipsed by electronic media. However, it is still current and popular when performed at ceremonies, private and public, within and outside the temple, continually throughout Bali. It is mandatory for certain events and often chosen when optional at others. In fact, unlike some Balinese forms of performance, such as Legong, Wayang has not largely been perpetuated by tourist performances. On the whole, it is a form that appeals almost exclusively to the Balinese communities within their village environment. It is the ceremonial and religious function that drives the continuance of the form.