THE SHADOW-PLAY
MYSTICISM AND SLAPSTICK

As the popularity of the wayang grew, it became stylized theatre with a moral lesson, but it has never lost its mystic function. A performance of wayang is prescribed in ceremonials at important stages of the life of the Balinese like children's anniversaries, the coming of age of girls, teeth-Filings, marriages, cremations, and temple feasts.

The mg may be performed in the daytime, without a screen and without an audience, but with a specified story, as magic support the ceremony. Hardly a night goes by when the fluid music of the wayang cannot be heard somewhere. The fantastic adventures of the little leather puppets have a powerful hold on imagination of young and old alike, who seem to prefer a wayang show to the more spectacular performance by human being.

Traveller watching a shadow-play become bored after a short time and cannot understand why the great crowds sit listening with profound attention to the plays that do not end till dawn. But to the Balinese the wayang is more than vague shadows on a screen. It is the medium of their classical poetry, for their humour; and, most important of all, it is the greatest factor in the spiritual education of the masses.

In a performance given by an inspired story-teller, there prevails the curious mixture misticism and of slapstick humour that the Balinese love Object and every move of the marionettes has a symbolical significance aside from the purely entertaining aspect of the show. The dalang is an artist and a great spiritual teacher.

Years of training, a thorough knowledge of the stories and their moral value are required of a good dalang. his popularity depends his inspiration, his humour, and his ability to handle marionettes while he improvises comic dialogues. But his reputation also depends on his sakti, his magic power. He is invariable star of the show.Before the dalang can perform publicly, he must be ordained by a priest in the mawinten ceremony, when mystic syllables are inscribed on his tongue with the stem of a tjempaka flower dipped in honey. Then he can perform the magic tjalonarang and may wear the knot (prutjut) worn on the hair by priests.

There are no announcements made when a wayang show is to take place. Somehow the rumour spreads from person to person and there is a crowd even before the dalang arrives. By the time he begins to stretch his screen, a great mob has gathered, sitting quietly on the ground, giving no signs of impatience at the customary endless wait for the play to begin.

It seems as if they deliberately waited until midnight to start, timing the show to end at dawn. Women and children sit in the front ranks facing the screen, the men are divided between the last rows and " backstage," the side of the screen where the dalang sits, where they can watch the actual puppets. In Java it is a rule that the men look at the puppets, while the women see only the shadows.

The screen (keIir) is a piece of white cloth stretched on a wooden frame and lit by a primitive oil lamp (damar) that hangs directly above the dalang's head. The shadows are thrown on this screen by means of the lamp. At the foot of the screen is a section of the soft trunk of a banana tree, where the supports of the marionettes are stuck to hold them in position when they are not in motion. The dalang sits cross-legged next to a long, coffin-shaped wooden chest (kropak), where he keeps his puppets.

Behind the dalang is the orchestra, the gender wayang, four xylophones, each played by a musician. Between the toes of his right foot, the dalang holds a piece of horn, a hammer, with which he knocks out rhythms on the wooden chest - indications to the orchestra.

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