Gamelan Padhang Moncar will accompany Joko Susilo's wayang kulit show (traditional Javanese shadow puppetry) presenting the story of The Fall of Alengka from the Ramayana as part of the Out of the Suitcase Puppet Festival in Island Bay.
Gamelan Padhang Moncar is a 15 piece percussion ensemble using mostly bronze instruments, such as metallophones (a bit like xylophones) and gongs. Led by a drummer, there is also a vertical fiddle, wooden xylophone, bamboo flutes and singers which add further colour to the music.
Wayang is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The story:
In a remote and terrible forest Prince Rama and Princess Sinta have lived in exile with Rama’s brother Laksmana for fourteen years. The demon- god Raksana desires the beautiful Sinta and through deception and transformation into a deer, he abducts her to his kingdom! An attempt to rescue her by an army of monkeys under the Monkey Warrior King Anoman fails, as do other legendary feats but ultimately the use of the Guwawijaya Arrow is successful.
The festival:
This is a nationwide puppetry festival running from 1 - 5 October. OOTS Puppet Festival celebrates the universal language of puppetry with a gathering of puppeteers from around the country. The festival encompasses a wide variety of puppetry styles and traditions: from giant outdoor puppets, to a whisper box for two, from classic Indonesian shadow play with gamelan orchestra, to shadows in a tipi, and from Japanese puppet and mask theatre, to Karetao performance (Maori puppetry).
