'Pahlevan Panbe' well received by the audience at WWPC2013
Indonesian audience well received Iranian puppet show, 'Pahlevan Panbe', so much that the festival's officials asked for a second performance of the show.
"Pahlevan Panbe which first performed in Tehran's MOBARAK puppet theatre festival in 2006, was the only Iranian puppet show at Jakarta's WAYANG festival and well received by Indonesian audience" Fariba Reisi, director of the puppet show said in an interview with Iran Theatre. She has recently came back home from Indonesia.
Referring to the shining of the puppet show at the festival, Reisi added "this made the event's officials to ask for a second performance of Pahlevan Panbe and two other puppet shows. The Rang Barg group accepted the offer and the puppet show performed once more for the eager Indonesian audience"
She went on to say that "due to Jakarta's famous traffic jams, National Museum was chosen both as a place for performance and a place for theatre groups to get some rest. This provided the theatre groups with a good opportunity to know each other better. Meanwhile, the shows that performed successfully were invited to take part in other festivals around the world. Pahlevan Panbe was invited to participate in both United Arab Emirates first traditional theatre festival and Spain's theatre festival."
She added "In order to preserve Indonesian heritage, WAYANG, Indonesia's traditional puppet show was given a special section at the event. The main part of the WAYANG puppet show is Wayang Kulit. Wayang kulit, or shadow puppets, are the best known of the Indonesian wayang. Kulit means skin, and refers to the leather construction of the puppets that are carefully chiselled with very fine tools and supported with carefully shaped buffalo horn handles and control rods. Wayang golek which are wooden doll puppets that are operated from below by rods connected to the hands and a central control rod that runs through the body to the head are a kind of WAYANG puppets. Wayang wong and wayan topeng are other forms of WAYANG in which in which the players wear masks known as wayang topeng or wayang gedog. Every day these shows were performing at the Monas Square from night till the sunrise. Wayang can be seen everywhere in Indonesia; in form of puppets, oral tales, hand crafts…"
wayang world puppet carnival (WWPC), which host 64 modern and traditional theatres, films and animations from 45 states, took place in Jakarta from 1-8 September 2013.