Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet by Jan Mrázek

Abstract

Reviewed by: Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet by Jan Mrázek Made Mantle Hood Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet. By Jan Mrázek. Singapore: NUS Press, 2019, xiv, 349 pp, list of illustrations, index. ISBN 978-981-4722-95-7. The title of Jan Mrázek’s monograph, Wayang and its Doubles: Javanese Puppet Theatre, Television and the Internet, conjures up the disturbing notion that modern media may be drastically altering traditional wayang. Indeed the stability and continuity of this puppet theatre has long been portrayed in academia as an enduring reflection of a timeless Central Javanese culture and society. The thought of television supplanting traditional wayang or YouTube replacing village performances is menacing. But as Mrázek quickly clarifies in the first few pages of this volume, television has, for decades, been just as intimately woven into the fabric of storytelling as its shadow puppet counterpart. As the subsequent chapters reveal in a compelling analysis underpinned by decades of research, television has developed an intertwined but contentious relationship with wayang, ultimately becoming its doppelganger. This book is a relevant read for students and academics of ethnomusicology, cultural studies, media and technology who are interested in changes and tensions in performance between tradition, modernity and media. The book interrogates a ‘difficult marriage’ between televised and live wayang puppet shows through provocative discussions surrounding performance aesthetics, audience experiences, and contested powerplays between superstar dhalang puppeteers and ‘big wig’ television producers. The strength of this work stems from its analytical lens: its combination of media and technology theories from the likes of James Siegel, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jacques Derrida among others who, through the author’s clever use of a metaphorical coffee shop, ‘localize their thoughts’ through dialogue with Javanese theorists, audiences and practitioners. The hypothetical conversations are the author’s creative way to present narrative where no single top-down theory dominates and instead the ‘actuality of wayang and television invade, interrupt and check the discussion’ throughout much of the volume. The book situates wayang’s evolving contexts, mutating spaces, malleable timeframes, and social movements in relation to television and the internet. It makes a valuable contribution to expanding how we think about media’s influence on traditional performing arts. It will be an asset to graduate student seminars in ethnomusicology, cultural studies, theatre and other disciplines where live and virtual performances are increasingly enmeshed in a dialectic framework. The five chapters of the book cover the history of wayang and television from 1995 to the present but avoid chronology in favour of presenting multiple viewpoints and contradictory experiences in people’s pasts and presents. Chapter One, ‘Bright, Fast, Funny and Sexy: Wayang in a World with Television’ demonstrates how, over the past three decades, wayang has been hurdled into a rapidly modernizing Indonesia transforming itself to be more like television. By attempting to present wayang for television, many dhalang puppeteers have intentionally sought the lucrative visibility and power that goes with audience reviews, ratings, sponsorship and most importantly, revenue generation for media corporations. But the chapter concludes that the feeling that television and wayang are incompatible has grown. Prominent senior puppeteers such as Ki Anom Soeroto admit that they have not [End Page 237] found the right way to present wayang on television and the marriage between the two is fraught with problems. Chapter Two, ‘A Marriage Full of Conflicts: Television’s Production of Authentic-but-Entertaining Wayang’ zeroes in on mainstream productions and how producers have exploited shadow puppet plays. Wayang’s image has been appropriated for market appeal and ratings marketed as authentic performance culture and valuable nostalgia with commercial breaks. Even pirated video recordings of televised wayang broadcasts screened at traditional celebrations have been embraced in cultural practice. Conflicts are highlighted by a ‘creativity-killing frustration’ felt among televised wayang’s many stakeholders. Some of the issues lurking behind television and wayang screens include divergent agendas about programming, misinterpretations between artist agents and wayang performers, unsatisfactory artistic compromises, and glaring cultural divisions between Jakarta-centric and Central Javanese worldviews. This chapter in particular is useful because it brings the reader up close...