This video montage shows excerpts from an afternoon rehearsal and an evening performance by the wayang Sasak group Sekarsari led by the puppeteer (dalang) Bapak Sadarudin in Jelantik, Central Lombok on 22 August 1997.Shadow puppet theatre is known as wayang Sasak in Lombok, and is unique in its language structure, musical style, and subject matter. Unlike the shadow puppet plays of Java and Bali which enact Hindu tales, wayang Sasak plays are centred around Muslim themes. Stories are taken from the Serat Menak, a cycle of stories about the forerunner of Mohammed, Amir Hamza, and from the Takepan, a collection of local Sasak tales. When Islam was introduced to Lombok from Java during the 15th to 17th centuries, Javanese shadow puppet plays were used to propagate the new faith among the Sasak. Wayang Sasak evolved beginning during this period from a combination of Javanese and Sasak traditions, probably drawing on a pre-existing local tradition of shadow play. Despite its Islamic subject matter, Wayang Sasak is considered unacceptable to orthodox Muslims, who object to the tradition's roots in pre-Islamic Sasak culture, and to its representation of human figures.Besides voicing and manipulating the puppets, the dalang also conducts the musicians by tapping on the puppet's wooden storage box with a small hammer held between his toes, directing changes of tempo and mood in the performance. The instrumental accompaniment for wayang Sasak is provided by a large hanging gong, a small gong with a sunken boss (kajar), a small gong with a prominent boss (cenat), a pair of "male" (gendang lanang) and "female" (gendang wadon) drums, small, mounted cymbals (rincik), and a metre-long, ring-stop bamboo flute (suling wayang) played with circular breathing. The two quite different sounding small gongs play as a complementary, interlocking pair, as do the two drums, supported by the rincik. The large gong sounds the pulse, while the long suling wayang weaves a seemingly endless melody through the voices of the percussion, responds to and supports the voice of the dalang, and bridges sections in the ensemble playing.Notes by Christopher Basile.

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