Wayang Kulit

Yogyakarta

The action behind the screen of Wayang Kulit is much more lively and colorful than the shadowed view in front (see previous page.) During a performance, the audience wanders all around to see what's going on from every side. The spade-shaped cutouts, seen here, are used for separating scenes and can also represent mountains, forests, etc. as needed.

To keep things well-organized, the dalang, who speaks all the dialogue and leads the orchestra as well as manipulating the puppets, racks his puppets that represent the good characters on his right, while the bad characters are similarly arranged on the left.