WAYANG KULIT

Wayang kulit play usually takes all night. It may begin at eight or nine o’clock in the evening and end nine hours later. A few stories take more than one night. In many countries shadow puppet shows have been becoming less popular in the last fifty years but these shows are still very popular in java.
The dalang, who is the leader of the show, and the dalang must be a clever man. He must a good knowledge of this language, agood sense of humour, and a good ability to tell stories. There are about 400 characters and each has his or her own way of speaking. And the dalang must sing too. People want the dalang to be good, and he knows that they usually want to watch the show all night if everything goes well.

We cannot, or course, think of wayang show without gamelan orchestra. It helps the dalang to make the situations that he wants. The show contains many kinds of situations, some sad, some happy, some serious, some dangerous, as many kind as you find in life.

The Sinden, or lady singer is also someone to listen too. Sometimes, she sing alone, sometimes together with the man who play in gamelan orchestra and dagelan. Some people think that the sinden is as important as the gamelan orchestra. They say that a gamelan without her may become boring.

The dalang sits in front of a screen. The part of the screen in front of him, the midle, is the place where he moves the puppets.

In some countries several people move the puppet, but in java the dalang moves all of the puppets himself. To the left of the dalang are the bad characters. The good are to his right. The big giants with their sharp teeth are on the left, and the ksatrias or knight on the right. These two sides always fight each other. The bad sides, may win at first, but it is the good side that always win in the end.

Most of the wayang stories some from indian books, the  Ramayana and Mahabharata. They have changed since they came here. Let us take for example the character Durna. In mahabharata, he is agood teacher and a good soldier. In the present javanese wayang stories he is clever, but bad man.

The three clowns Semar, Gareng, and Petruk are not in Mahabharata. They are the servants of pandawa family, a group of knights. During the shows these characters appear in the early morning when everyone is beginning to feel very sleepy. After many seriously fights it is good to see these clowns with their humour. People laugh and laugh and soon they are not sleepy any more. Petruk is a tall clowns with avery long nose, Gareng a short one with anose like a pingpong ball, and Semar, their father, a short and very fat one. People who do not know wayang stories very well think that Semar is just a servant like the others. He really has two things to do. He is a servant, but he is also the man who advises the pandawa family when they need help. And he can enter the country of the gods, and discuss things with them.