Straw puppets on show at Japanese Cultural Center

JAKARTA (JP): Javanese traditional art enthusiasts will have a chance to see a rare show of wayang suket by dalang (puppetmaster) Slamet Gundono at the Japanese Cultural Center on Friday starting at 7 p.m.

Wayang suket (straw puppets) basically has the same characters as the well-known Javanese wayang kulit (leather puppets), and also has the Mahabharata epic as the main source of its stories.

Wayang suket is a multimedia art which is an innovation of the traditional wayang kulit. It is a mixture of the traditional wayang, theater, dance and music. The dialog involves not only the characters but also the other members of the troupe.

Performed in cooperation between the Japanese Cultural Center and PT Eksotika Karmawibhangga Indonesia, the show will feature the lakon (story) of Anak Lanang Putra Matahari (son of the sun). A show on the same story was performed in Surakarta, Central Java, on April 11.

It tells of Kunthi who was forced to abandon her baby boy, Karna, in the Ganges River because he was the result of her affair with Batara Surya, the sun god. Karna survived and later became the commander in chief of Astina Kingdom.

In the Baratayuda war, Karna has to confront Arjuna, his half brother (Kunthi's son with her husband Pandhu). Either Karna or Arjuna must die in the war and Kunthi has to decide which.

The dialog is mainly in Javanese with occasional Indonesian. (pan)