The distinguished dalang (puppet master) Midiyanto from the University of California, Berkeley joined Sumunar to present a shadow puppet play titled Wahyu Cakraningrat (Three Princes, One Blessing) at the Heart of the Beast Theater, 1500 E. Lake St. in Minneapolis. This presentation was accompanied by the gamelan orchestra and the Sumunar Dance Ensemble also performed.
Here's a short summary of the performance to introduce you to the characters and plot of the story:
The Story
The story Midiyanto performed is the same one Sumunar members saw performed at an all-night wayang kulit show in Yogyakarta in July, 2010. The play, which is based on characters from the great Hindu epic Mahabharata, concerns three young princes who compete for a blessing from the Gods that will grand wisdom, power, and kingship to the one who succeeds. The princes are Lesmana, Samba, and Abhimanyu. Each goes out into the wild forest to meditate and seek his fortune. They are exposed to dangers from ogres, monsters, and evil-doers. And each is subjected to temptations of forbidden pleasures.
The characters in this story are all from powerful and important families in Hindu mythology. Lesmana was a member of the Kurawa family whose conflict with the Pandava brothers is the central theme of the Mahabharata. Samba was the son of Kresna (the king of Dwarawati and the wisest man in the world). And Abhimanyu, was son of Arjuna (the greatest warrior on Earth and son of Indra, the King of the Gods) of the Pandava family.
Lesmana and Samba fail the tests to which they're subjected, but Abhimanyu is successful and is chosen to be the head of dynasty that will rule the world. He actually dies before assuming his kingship, but his son Parikshit becomes the King of Hastinapur. The play also features the divine clowns Semar and his son Petruk and a host of ogres, monsters, and evil gods. When Abhimanyu finally passes the final test, a male god named Cakraningrat (thus the name of the story) and his female consort come down from heaven to bestow the blessing on him.
When Abhimanyu is fighting the red ogre it looks as if he's about to lose, but, suddenly, his cousin Gatutkaca appears and quickly finishes off the ogre. Gatutkaca is the son of the giant, Bima (the strongest man in the world), who is one of the five Pandava brothers. This demonstrates the benefits of having family and friends to help you face life's challenges. Wayang shows almost always have morally-uplifting messages, instructing us on how to live our lives as responsible citizens. We think this story is particularly applicable to the Asian imigrant experience of moving to a foreign land and overcoming the many trials and temptations that face one in a new place, but ultimately acheiving success through hard work, faithfulness, and fortitude.
Sumunar members attended a performance of the same story in Indonesia in 2010. Here’s an eight-minute summary of that event.
Click on the full-screen button in the bottom-right corner of the frame to see a larger version.
Background
The Javanese wayang kulit or wayang purwa is one of the great dramatic forms of the East. Above and beyond its value as a wonderful entertainment, it is important to the Javanese as a ceremony: It provides many spiritual lessons and establishes an atmosphere of serenity and balance; it is a means of educating the young in the wisdom of the culture; and it employs, as a frame of reference, philosophical and mystical ideas relating to the esoteric self-discipline known as semadi.
No one understands all the facets of a wayang performance. One is not expected to pay constant attention throughout the night-long course of the play, and may wander away for some tea or food. Children, who form a large part of the audience in Java, often fall asleep during the longer and more philosophical dialogues and wake up when the clowns appear.
In general, a play falls into three main divisions defined by the planting of the kayon or gunungan (tree or mountain) in the center of the stage, thus marking the line between the forces to the dhalang’s right, usually positive, and the forces of left, usually negative. (The Javanese are, of course, too subtle to imagine that human nature is all bad or all good — even the great heroes have certain weaknesses, and some of the villains have a great nobility.) The division of the wayang play into three sections is paralleled in the accompanying music by its corresponding division into three pathet (modes).
The dhalang, or puppet master, is in a complete charge of the performance. Before it begins, he meditates; during the performance he manipulates the puppets, delivers all the dialogue in many voices, describes the scene, comments on the meaning — often drawing on events of the day — and signals the orchestra what and when to play. He must know the stories and characters of more than two hundred puppets. A good dhalang may be able to perform as many as two hundred lakon (wayang episodes). In Java, he is often revered for his deep understanding of life and his role as a teacher and spiritual guide. Through him, one is initiated into the “secrets of earthly existence” and educated in the philosophical and mystical composition of life: the nature of order in the world, of cosmic justice, and of the laws of the universe.
In all-night wayang performances, the core scenes are interspersed with comic scenes featuring clown figures such as Cangik, Limbuk, Gareng, Petruk (especially popular) and others. This allows the dalang (puppeteer) to include topical jokes, comment on current events, tease members of the audience, and other entertaining diversions.
GAMELAN
A gamelan (orchestra), using various combination of instruments, is traditionally an essentially accompaniment to puppet shows, dances, feasts, and ceremonies in Java. Most of the instruments are bronze: tuned gongs, suspended vertically or horizontally; and instruments with tuned keys, suspended over tubular resonators or a resonant cavity in the base of the instrument. Other instruments include a two-stringed fiddle, xylophones, flutes, and drums. A full Javanese gamelan comprises two sets of instruments, one in each of two tuning systems: sléndro, with five tones per octave, and pélog, with seven. The three pathet used in the course of the wayang all have their distinct manifestations in both tuning systems. In the overall sound of the gamelan, no instrument predominates: each has an important function that relates to the whole. As for the music, rather than harmony and development in the Western sense, the primary organizing feature is vocally-inspired modal polyphony of a highly melodic character. Gendhing (composition) are quite formal, for all their quality of ethereal improvisation. Every gamelan piece is cast in one of a small number of forms defined by the mutually subdividing cycles of certain of the gongs, most prominently, the gong ageng (great gong).
The cyclic organization allows great flexibility in the creation of pieces of differing character; even within a piece, subtle (or dramatic) shifts in feeling occur as cycles slow down or speed up.
Resources
UNESCO has a great video on shadow puppets that shows them being made as well as some excellent performance clips. It's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfydro4X2t0
Midiyanto, gamelan music, and wayang performance are featured on the University of California, Berkeley Music Department web page at http://music.berkeley.edu/performance/ensemble/gamelan.php
