My First Shadow Performance

The proprietor of an Ubud music store told me that he plays gamelan for a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performance and offered to take me there – my first performance on Bali. Perched behind him in his elaborate gamelan costume on a moped, we arrived, not at the village ceremony of my fantasies, but at a tourist hotel – exactly what I had been avoiding since arriving on Bali. 

A kerosene lamp burned behind the spandex screen. My musician friend peered from behind, reminding me that I could go backstage at any point during the show. A local tour-guide gave an introduction with the good news that the performance would be just under an hour instead of the night-long duration of most shadow puppet performances. I Ketut Darsana, the dalang (puppeteer) was remarkable in the dexterity and variety with which he changed voices, giving each character a unique quality. The music, as well, was exciting and very well played to my untrained ear. 

The story was, like virtually all traditional shadow puppet plays, taken from the Ramayana. The excitement mounted as our hero single-handedly took on the forces of evil and in true ‘action’ picture fashion mangled and maimed the Demon and his evil monster cohorts. It was everything I expected from Balinese shadow theatre. It was fascinating to see how the puppeteer managed to give dimension and shape to the shadow figures by bending them away from the screen and taking them in and out of focus. I took some good video footage from front and behind the screen. After the show, I was able to look at the puppets and arranged with the dalang to visit his atelier and purchase some puppets.