Puppets rule

This weekend, B and I went to the theatah. We saw A (Balinese) Tempest. It was a really a great experience. One of those rare experiences that you just keep thinking about it and talking about it for days.

I knew there were puppets involved, but frankly, I didn't really have any idea what it would be. (Had I read this write-up in the Advertiser, I would have been much better informed.)

The play is the text of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with some abbreviation and editing, done in a style derived from Balinese shadow puppet theater combined with human actors and masks. (As the director Larry Reed points out in the program notes, it's A Tempest, not The Tempest.)

The entire performance was shadows and reflections cast onto a screen. The ultimate effect was absolutely magical. It took a little bit to get into it -- I think one of the problems was actually just that the first scene is all explication with mostly one speaker (Prospero) -- but once we grew accustomed to the style, we were completely drawn in.

One of the reasons it was so easy to become completely involved was the live gamelan orchestra -- a university group -- and the original music. This music was essential to the performance. (Here's a video of a Balinese gamelan group.)

This show was a level of professionalism and refinement above anything else I've seen on campus. Reed is currently an artist-in-residence here and brought his unique application of these Balinese theatrical arts with him. He is the founder and artistic director of ShadowLight Productions based in San Francisco.

We stayed for a Q&A afterward and it was really interesting. We got to see how their masks worked and how they'd created the scenes and other details.

And then after the performance, B's moped wouldn't start -- a dead battery -- and the actor who had played Ferdinand gave him and the dead moped a ride home in his truck. All in all, a perfect evening.

Photo by Seema K K