Today’s wayang kulit performances are still based on the ways of the ancients, but with many modifications to suit modernity.
In our frenetic, multi-tasking world, few have seven spare hours to spend watching puppets in the late evening. To adapt to this situation, a three-and-a-half hour show is the longest you’ll see, with only the best practitioners captivating the audience’s attention for this long.
There have been many ingenious new puppets created over only the last few decades: Tantri, with an Aesop fables animal-style theme is a notable innovation which now a number of puppeteers perform .The 3-D stick puppets , have strangely enough not taken on .
In our frenetic, multi-tasking world, few have seven spare hours to spend watching puppets in the late evening. To adapt to this situation, a three-and-a-half hour show is the longest you’ll see, with only the best practitioners captivating the audience’s attention for this long.
There have been many ingenious new puppets created over only the last few decades: Tantri, with an Aesop fables animal-style theme is a notable innovation which now a number of puppeteers perform .The 3-D stick puppets , have strangely enough not taken on .
For the most part , wayang of the 21st century seems to eagerly imitate the modifications of the Javanese shows: bigger orchestras, more singers, louder sound systems, modern lighting, fancy decorations and costumes.
Today, some puppeteers no longer use the oil lamp in preference for an electric one, as well as additional coloured lights, spots and strobes. There are no night performances that don’t use sound systems: a mike and a (normally feeding-back with treble on full) speaker system is all part of the kit.
Large gamelan orchestras with more grunt and power, playing in many different scales are the modern preference. Traditional ones, such as gender wayang and suling gambuh, are used occasionally, but contemporary favourites are semarandhana, semar pegulingan, and angklung. Conservatives go white in horror when the choice is selonding or the bamboo joged, but what really is more the case is whether it suits the story-telling atmosphere or not. Now an orchestra is considered ‘complete’ if it features female singers (sindhen), but this is an adaptation from our neighbouring Java.
More radical brainwaves include multiple puppeteers zooming back and forth on skateboards; sampled sound effects; smoke machines; and techno strobes—all this promises more explosive, adventure-sport style shows in the future!
More radical brainwaves include multiple puppeteers zooming back and forth on skateboards; sampled sound effects; smoke machines; and techno strobes—all this promises more explosive, adventure-sport style shows in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment