'Wayang Ukur' enriches shadow puppet play

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

In flashes of colorful lights, the arrows fly in the sky, hunting down their enemies. The arrows seem to have eyes and wings of their own, fully cognizant of where they are going.

On the battlefield, two knights -- Arjuna and Ekalaya -- were standing face to face. They attacked each other, fighting until only one remained.

The scene was part of a Wayang Ukur performance entitled Durna's Trap by puppet master Ki Sukasman at the Purna Budaya building in Yogyakarta recently.

The performance was intended to further popularize the shadow puppet play to a wider audience.

According to the show's production manager Bambang Paningron, people are mostly familiar with the classical Purwo (leather puppets), wooden or Balinese shadow puppet shows despite the presence of other kinds of shadow puppet plays like Wayang Ukur.

"We hope this performance offers a breakthrough," he said.

He said that Wayang Ukur was a manifestation of Ki Sukasman's restlessness

The puppet master did not agree that the shadow puppet play had come to its esthetic peak and could no longer be improved. He expressed his restlessness by measuring his puppets, seeking the ideal, secret proportions. In his hands, new varieties of puppets were born, which were then named Wayang Ukur -- with ukur means measure.

His creative process started in 1987 and since then, Ki Sukasman has staged dozens of Wayang Ukur shows along with shadow puppet artists of different styles. He also featured this shadow puppet play at the International Puppet Theatrical Festival in Magdeburg, Germany in 2000.

In Wayang Ukur show, the screen (kelir) and colorful lighting were attractively prepared. The audience could also watch the show in front of the screen, enjoying dynamic images created by the puppets and three performing puppet masters.

Though differently presented, Ki Sukasman still blends the original Surakarta and Yogyakarta style of the shadow puppet play, but giving his special touch, like exaggerating body parts of each puppet character.

At the recent show, the puppet master even included a dance performance, giving a different but fresh nuance to the shadow puppet show.

"By collaborating with other art genres, this performance will become more lively. Newly created puppets by Ki Sukasman become different on the stage. These inanimate objects will come to life and the screen will look three dimensional thanks to colorful lighting," Bambang said.

But the show, which was also supported by Hibah Seni Kelola group, was not solid, flat while the puppet masters, musicians, dubbers and lighting people failed to work harmoniously.

Every time there is a change of scene, the screen was left empty, and the use of Indonesian in dialogs, which made the show understandable to most audiences, disturbed puppet show lovers who were familiar with the Javanese dialogs.

In general, the performance, which took three months to prepare, was not as successful as its previous shows, like the one at Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta several years back.

The story itself started with Durna who was teaching the art of shooting an arrow to the children of Hastina Kingdom at the palace's yard. From far away, a young man watched the practice. He was Ekalaya, the crown prince of Parang Gelung Kingdom.

Ekalaya wanted to study with Durna but rejected, since the man promised only to teach children of Pandawa and Kurawa. Still, Ekalaya was not angry nor revengeful. His strong will to study from Durna influenced him go to the forest and create a statue of Durna as a symbol of Durna's presence.

With this statue as his imaginative teacher, Ekalaya learned how to shoot arrows by himself. The result was astonishing, Ekalaya turned very skillful in shooting arrows just like Arjuna, Durna's favorite student.

Ekalaya finally encountered Arjuna, who was hunting in the forest. Arjuna was surprised to find than an arrow struck the animal he was hunting. It turned out the arrow belonged to Ekalaya. Innocently, Ekalaya said he was Durna's student.

Durna was surprised when Arjuna told him about Ekalaya. When he met Ekalaya, Durna trapped him, saying he would admit Ekalaya as his student if he cut off the thumb of his right hand as evidence of his loyalty to his master.

Ekalaya followed the request but then realized he had been cheated. Angry and disappointed, he knew Durna did not want anybody to rival Arjuna.

Ekalaya became angrier when he was told by his wife that Arjuna was in love with her and challenged Arjuna to the duel.