Phenomenology of a Puppet Theatre: Contemplations on the Art of Javanese Wayang Kulit (review)

While puppetry has attracted scholarly attention in recent years, and performing objects of every kind appear on Broadway and in avant-garde houses alike, the field of puppetry criticism has yet to define itself fully. Books on puppetry range from short descriptions of traditional forms to more substantial works, often from an anthropological or historical perspective, which may use puppetry as a way of uncovering larger social or political patterns, but can veer quickly away from performance concerns. Some scholars have found the work of the Prague semioticians valuable because of their seminal understanding of puppetry as a unique art rather than merely an inferior form of live-actor theatre. Jan Mrázek's Phenomenology of a Puppet Theatre, a revealing, detailed study of the multiple elements that make up the shadow-puppet tradition of Java and how these function together in performance, also offers scholars a promising alternative method for studying all forms of puppetry. Mrázek's phenomenological approach pushes through the often cumbersome language of semiotics to a more direct description and understanding of puppet performance.

At over five hundred pages, the book might strike some as a prime candidate for a bit of editorial downsizing. But Mrázek's methodical analysis, his attention to every detail of the performance experience, his mulling over particular elements, seeing how each fits with and influences the others, is what affords him the interesting insights that appear on nearly every page. It is well worthwhile following his step-by-step path with patience and attention.

Mrázek begins by contemplating the shadow puppets themselves, seeing them as a mixture of pictorial and functional aspects, which sometimes contradict each other, but which suit the puppets to both the aesthetic and the practical demands of performance. The puppet figures' stance—body facing sideways, head, with disproportionately large eyes, looking forward—allows the dhalang or puppeteer to create the impression of both long-shots and close-ups. Mrázek then looks to the pictorial aspects of the puppet screen overall, especially in static moments when dhalangs have "tanceb-ed" or stuck the puppets down in the banana log, under the screen. Here dhalangs are concerned with the overall arrangement of the puppets. Their own presence as shadows on the screen is part of the phenomenological experience of the whole and is a physical manifestation of their pivotal work in orchestrating all aspects of the performance. Observations such as these show that thoughtful attention to the experience of performance can reveal how the physical world of the puppet stage creates meaning.

Further chapters show the variety of options available to dhalangs at each moment of performance, and how they choose a story, music, dialogue, and physical gestures to fit characters, scenes, and other performance elements to create a fully structured dramatic piece. Mrázek uses short examples from actual performances, analyzed with great specificity, to illustrate principles at work throughout. He shows, for example, how gamelan music structures all aspects of performance: alternating musical moods set an overall rhythm; crucial dramatic events culminate with emphatic musical beats; the beat pattern of a fight scene indicates the winner at the outset, with the weaker character landing his blows on a weak beat sequence and the stronger character alternately hitting on a strong sequence.

Mrázek stresses that, as with all art forms that use montage, each element of the shadow play is intentionally incomplete, leaving room for it to interact with other elements, and allowing the audience to complete the work of the performance. A dhalang may represent a character in three different ways—through dialogue, narration, and action—often at great intervals. Each contributes a different view of the character, leaving the audience to fill out a full, multidimensional picture.

At 177 pages, chapter 8, "Gara-gara! Or wayang in the times of comedy," could stand as a book on its own. But its theme both follows from...