This book discusses the television broadcasting of Javanese shadow puppet performances, and how this is different from the live performances. This study is about televised wayang kulit performances, mainly those broadcast between 1995 and 2005 on one of the private nationwide channels in Indonesia, followed by their variations on other stations, and different iterations after 2005. While the problematic relationship between commercial media and the traditional arts is generally known, this book is highly valuable because it builds valid arguments about why wayang kulit and commercial television do not go hand in hand. It is a resourceful book and contributes significant inputs to studies about interactions between traditional and modern arts, as well as to studies of traditional performance in general.
The author, Jan Mrázek, has himself studied the gamelan and Javanese puppetry from influential masters for decades. This experience introduced him to the vast network of Javanese puppeteers, gamelan players, and other artists. The book guides us in exploring issues in the contemporary televised wayang scene through long-term observation of different sites: television studios, control rooms and executives’ offices, cultural companies, production companies, live performances sites, spectator areas, and so on. There are also in-depth interviews with superstar puppeteers from different regions, whether they have television broadcasting experience or not, gamelan players, singers, television crew, producers, executives, commentators, and spectators at live wayang shows. There are interpretations of what is really going on, not only through the lens of academic research, but also nuanced local perspectives. The book traces the potential, aesthetic plans, hopes and dreams for wayang broadcasting, as well as the incompabilities, historical and philosophical burdens of traditional and televised wayang, and—as if the two factions are a married couple—their different paths ahead.
The first chapter concludes that both puppeteers and broadcasters are still struggling to work with each other, as there are fundamental differences in wayang and television cultures, histories, and ethos (pp. 35). Television's tendency towards mass appeal and commercial bias has been corrupting wayang kulit's substance and turning puppeteers from moral and spiritual leaders into media celebrities (pp. 41–3). Physical appearances—including of the puppeteers and musicians—have become more important than spiritual content, and performances have become less spontaneous and in constant need of novelty (pp. 46–50, 68–70). Some televised wayang shows have even adopted visual spectacularisms from film and animation (pp. 58–63). The old ways of narrative performance have been substituted by segmented talk shows on trivial topics, with more comedy, and the initially slow and thoughtful pace of the wayang has become faster in rhythm and shorter in duration (pp. 52–7). Mrázek argues that all of these developments are the result of a long history of modernisation to create order, to be safe, open, accessible (p. 89) and rational (p. 95).
The second chapter explores how some producers reconstruct wayang for television with claims of authenticity, based on the fact that they film actual traditional wayang performances. Mrázek argues that this ‘authentic’ brand is attractive for modern-mobile and displaced societies, who have a real distance to actual wayang performances (p. 103). However, this ‘only recording’ approach creates a bigger gap between television and the real wayang performances, because of their intrinsic differences (p. 99). The chapter details the manipulations involved in television shoots and conflicts with wayang performers (pp. 145–54), and how the puppeteers and musicians derive limited benefit from recordings of their own shows (pp. 154–65). Meanwhile, the third chapter contrasts the differences between the consumption of television and live performance by focusing on traditional wayang spectatorships. Wayang goers must actually conquer physical barriers to get to the show venue, whether it is distance, weather, or the lack of information (pp. 170–73); they also become part of the atmosphere, whether it is festive or ritualistic, along with the street food and drink vendors, gambling stalls, and many other spectators (pp. 174–83). Some of the most important aspects of live performance are that the spectators can experience the excitement with their five senses and can choose what they want to focus on, instead of having a television editor decide for them (pp. 183–95). On the other hand, Mrázek reminds us that these wayang spectators can be critical television viewers who are able to point out the weaknesses and strengths of watching wayang on television; one anecdote here was that television enabled them to watch three different performances at the same time (pp. 196–202).
On this point, I think the book could emphasise further that wayang on television is merely a substitution for the experience of watching real live wayang. Prior to televised wayang, there were shows broadcast on radio where the listeners had to depend on only the music as well as the puppeteer's narration and dialogue, but these programmes have always been popular and are still being produced today. While wayang on television or the Internet can never capture the sensory richness and full experience of a live performance, wayang fans can choose to watch some programmes that are closest to their interests.
And from chapters 4 and 5, I think that is exactly what the next generation of wayang-on-television producers want to achieve: by focusing on some aspects that they feel were missing from the earlier televised shows or by adding what they think modern media could contribute. These chapters explore examples of programmes on the state-owned and private channels, for example, a series produced directly on VCD, an academic attempt to explore the possibilities of combining the visualities of the traditional-symbolic wayang with the modern-realistic television, to various experiments after 2007 on the national channels, new local stations, and the Internet. Producers of these shows are clearly trying to offer innovation: animation or special effects, creating a rural atmosphere on set, going back to local tastes, or enabling a chat function during live-streamed wayang on the Internet.
I personally hope that the ‘marriage’ of media technologies and traditions can find solutions, or give birth to new individuals; but they should go to a marriage counsellor and identify their biggest challenges. Reading this book, I get a strong impression that television's requirements for cost efficiency and profit-making were the biggest constraints for most idealistic and imaginative wayang programme producers. The book places the Indonesian private channels in context: they are not blessed with abundant advertising resources nor the power to attract a global audience that would enable them to experiment, as the North American channels purchase the best possible series each year, and these wayang shows are not prime-time material. If Mrázek considers that ‘the story of wayang and television, puppeteers and producers is but a drop in a sea of (hi)stories’ (p. 250), I beg to add my own drop about television in Indonesia, from the perspective of an exhausted local viewer: I dream of the national public television station, TVRI, or local channels getting funding comparable to PBS or BBC to be able to produce inspirational and celebrational programmes.
