Good show in shadow lands

10 April 2012

As the flame dances behind them, the shadowy figures of animals flutter and shiver in the heat, taking on the evanescent reality of a dream.

Indonesian shadow puppets have been used for centuries for satire, but in this epic portrayal of the natural world versus the evils of globalisation, they first make the audience care by seducing them with an ephemeral beauty.

British-born director Nigel Jamieson proves an extraordinary welder of the ancient and contemporary in this potent, spryly comic show about the dangers of skyscraper culture and the evils of former Indonesian President Suharto's regime. Even though the predominant religion in Indonesia is Islam, he has turned to the Sanskrit legend of Rama, and the theft of his wife Sita by the demon Rawanna - so that Sita represents the unsullied loveliness of the natural world and Rawanna is a tree-chomping, animal-murdering capitalist.

Jamieson has worked in Australia for several years, and he allows Australian and Indonesian cultures to blend by creating a soundscape from jazz and Balinese traditions. A trombonist parps away like a bullfrog on heat, an alto sax weaves its melodies across the light beat of cymbals, and the pure voice of Katie Noonan soars above the rhythm of Indonesian drums.

When the screen first rises up in front of the audience, hiding the musicians, a shadow forest appears. This is no sentimental evocation of a pastoral idyll but a real-istically tragic yet comic wilderness - where shadow birds impale shadow insects on their beaks, a crocodile lurks hungrily for an unsuspecting duck and a hungry tiger is upstaged by a pair of shagging hyenas.

The bawdy humour is sustained by two central characters, Twalen and Merdah, servant clowns whose picaresque quest for Sita takes them from this ancient "paradise" into bulldozed and burnt forests, computer-generated skyscrapers and the student demonstrations against Suharto. Basic witticisms encapsulated, for example, in farting guitars contrast with the touching relation-ship between the two, as they chart the corrupt landscape with a jokey innocence.

Visually intricate and emotionally robust, this is a sensually exciting and conceptually bold evening out.

The Theft Of Sita

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