Wayang Topeng – An eighteenth century revival of Wayang Wwang (not to be mistaken with Wayang Wong, although linguistically they mean the same.) that had flourished in the eleventh century. Wayang Topeng can be translated as ‘masked shadow or puppet play’ but wayang has been more loosely translated as dance drama. (Soedarsono, 1969) It is mostly based on the stories of the Pandji-cycle but narratives from the Ramayana and Mahabharata can also be performed. Within the dance drama genres that still exist in Indonesia, there are many diverse traditions and styles preserved by both indigenous groups and groups that perform for tourists. They are generally called Wayang Topeng or Wayang Wong, even if there are differences. You should, therefore, not see them as homogenous art forms.

The dance movements of Dibia in Search: Hamlet [insert footage link: (cam 1 tape 1) 00:18:48.00 – 00:21:05.00 ] resemble Wayang topeng; in its hard and rigid body movements (It is still only one of the many fixed patterns of movement for different characters in Topeng). It can also be argued that it resembles Wayang Wong (human) – a maskless cousin of Wayang Topeng, whereby actors put on heavy make-up to represent different character types. Dibia, in this case, does not wear a mask till much later, when he also has the full accompaniment of the gamelan, and undergoes a ceremonious process to ‘receive’ the mask from Ikeda. [insert footage link: (cam 1 tape 3) 00:12:17.00 – 00:18:58.00 ] Nevertheless, the choice of wayang variants is significant in that the motifs of spirit and personification of spirit are represented by Dibia, which now seems appropriate that the Butoh (read annotation on Butoh) dancer symbolically gestures the ‘mask’ to Dibia, and he begins his own metamorphosis into the ‘Topeng Puppet’ which is closer to the masked art form. His movements are also more elaborated with the mask on (with clear movements of the neck and head to emphasize the mask, which easily draws our attention to the mask.)

Wayang Topeng and Wayang Wong have distinct roles and character types. However, in this case, the differences in roles and changes in movements are not easy to identify. Dibia switches roles and characters, which further emphasizes role-changing in Search: Hamlet. [insert footage link and compare with earlier : (cam 1 tape 2) 00:10:21.00 – 00:11:04.00]  Also significant is the lack of a conventional dalang, or the puppeteer of the wayang who sings, jokes, narrates, cues the gamelan, philosophizes, and in Topeng, narrates the story without manipulating the actors directly. (Onghokham, 1972) The dalang here is either played by Dibia when he sings (as shown in the first footage link) or another actor who acts as a story-teller speaks the scripted part of Search: Hamlet. Nevertheless, it is still a different concept as compared to the single dalang who dictates the performance. The sharing of roles for the primus motor marks another departure that intercultural performance draws our attention. Next, you should consider how the sharing of roles and the shifting of roles implicates both the actors and the audience members in the collective experience of this intercultural production (as well as others).

References

Onghokham, “The Wayang Topeng World of Malang”, Indonesia, Vol. 14, Oct., 1972 (Oct., 1972), pp. 110-124.

Soedarsono, “Classical Javanese Dance: History and Characterization”, Ethnomusicology, Vol. 13, No. 3. (Sep., 1969), pp. 498-506.

Suanda, Endo, “Cirebonese Topeng and Wayang of the Present Day”, Asian Music, Vol. 16, No. 2. (Spring - Summer, 1985), pp. 84-120.