MY back is stiff. My legs are numb from sitting cross-legged for too long. But my eyes are glued to the screen before me. The rhythmic beating of the geduk signals the song is coming to an end, and soon the Tok Dalang will begin to tell his story. The Pohong Beringin begins to shake, and recede from the screen. The formidable character of Rawana enters the scene, and he begins to roar in ... in ... English?

No, it isn't Tourism Malaysia attempting to cash in on tradition. Rather, it's Reuben Cheow, a first-year student of Sunway University College's Department of Performance + Media, making his Wayang Kulit debut.

Reuben is from the third batch of DP+M students to study the practical side of Wayang Kulit under the tutelage of famed dalang, Pak Nasir. The class is a six-week crash course, under the prestigious title of "Traditional Malaysian Theatre". It's worth three credit hours, and is a graduation requirement if you ever want a Diploma in Performing Arts from Sunway

The Agony and the Ecstacy

In 2007, I was in the first batch of Sunway students to study under Dalang Pak Nasir. Prior to this, my previous encounters with Wayang were limited to hearsay, and images in textbooks, none of which were very promising in terms of fun and enjoyment. Like many of my classmates, I was not sure what to expect.

Saying the course was fun doesn't really do Wayang Kulit much justice. Aside from the horror of waking up at seven every Saturday to attend early morning classes at Akedemi Seni Kebangsaan (now know as ASWARA), and the throbbing pain induced by repeatedly beating a gedombak, the class was no less than thrilling. To be creating music (I'm not exactly rhythm-inclined) and literally being behind the scenes of an art that's often talked about with reverence, but not really understood, is an exhilarating experience.

Pak Nasir has the uncanny ability to tell which student will be good at what, from the moment he meets you. You are assigned an instrument on the first day, and the student-dalangs are selected. Each dalang is given a segment of the "Hikayat Seri Rama" to perform, and within six to seven weeks, the class will learn and rehearse the necessary songs and dialogue. At the end of this period, the group performs what it has learnt, to the delight of many an audience member.

I had sort of hoped my batch would be the last. It's not that I selflessly didn't want my juniors to suffer aching bones and early morning calls. It had more to do with my ego, and wanting to be able to say that I am one of the few Malaysians with basic knowledge of the art form. There's some sort of inexplicable coolness associated with Wayang Kulit that multiplies when you’re part of an exclusive club of young Malaysians who can tell the difference between a serunai and a gendang. Unfortunately for my ego, Sunway is determined that all their DP+M students have this knowledge in order to become serious arts practitioners.

The Prize of Pain Is?

Which brings me back to square one. What, exactly, are Sunway students -- many of who are at DP+M because they wish to break into the contemporary arts scene -- doing studying traditional Malaysian theatre?

As the first batch to undergo the program, some of us couldn't see the significance of studying traditional Malaysian theatre. "Sure, it's fun. But it's so, you know, old" and "For what lah want to see puppets? Can see real people on TV", were standard comments. Then there was the incredible epiphany of "Hey, I just realised that Wayang Kulit is a really old version of Golden Screen Cinemas."

It was spiritual and mystifying (for a newbie). But it was ‘traditional’, and we were there to learn the ‘modern’, to learn how to make films and act in plays. On the surface of things, there seems precious little opportunity to use the skills and knowledge gained from the six week course.

...

Since 2007, Fahmi Fadzil has been attending most of the weekly student pilgrimages to ASWARA to serve as a sort of assistant teacher cum translator, as part of his continuous study of Wayang. He explained to me the real crunch comes after you've learned what the art form is all about.

"The real importance is in figuring out what to do with the knowledge. It's the same as any other course you study. You have to learn to apply it. It is definitely not a skill that can be applied easily, but it's up to the students to make sure it doesn't become irrelevant.”

Cold comfort to those of us raised in an education system that rewards regurgitation over critical thinking. We need to figure out for ourselves what we’d gain from six weeks of bad backs and blistered palms? No gilt edged scroll on a silver platter listing exactly what we had learned, and how it would make us better artists?

Traditional Rethinking

"Why is Wayang important?" Eddin Khoo, who teaches the theory aspect of Traditional Malaysian Theatre, turns the question back on me. "Why is Wayang Kulit not important? If we weren't in Malaysia, we wouldn't even be asking this. Malaysians are so imitative, so prone to commercial culture that we've become distant from our own culture. We shouldn't even have to ask what the importance is."

But six-weeks to learn a form steeped in centuries of tradition, skill and knowledge? A six-week course in Wayang Kulit sounds almost blasphemous, but for all intent and purposes, it isn't. Eddin firmly believes that six weeks really can be enough. He said, "The effect of the course is that it provides enough of an opening, enough of an opportunity for students to know they need more. The direct involvement gives them not only a sense of command of the practice, but also of the contemporary nature of the art."

He's right. From the six weeks that I spent playing a gedombak till my palms bruised, I realised that the traditional theatre form isn't so traditional -- at least not as the word is commonly used -- after all. Pak Dogol and Wak Long (two infamous characters of the Hikayat) joking about the state of Siti Nurhaliza's virginity never quite fits in with the image of Malay tradition, as its presented today by cultural and moral guardians in all their uptight glory.

By the end of the diploma program at DP+M, students were employing elements of Wayang Kulit in their work. In 2007, the most recent graduating batch (mine) used puppetry and gedombak-like beats in their production of "Lao Jiu: The Ninth Born", directed by Chee Sek Thim.

DP+M students are even taking the initiative to further their study of Wayang Kulit. Reuben Cheow shared with me his desire to take it to the next level, knowing fully that really getting under the skin of Wayang Kulit takes years of study.

This is precisely what the head honchos at DP+M had planned by making Wayang a core part of the curriculum, and it bears out Eddin’s point. Sometimes, it’s not about ‘transferring skills’, but about opening minds caught in a bind of ‘modern’ vs. ‘traditional’, ‘old’ vs. ‘new’.

Thank you, Pak Nasir, for showing us that the traditional is encased in a glass display case, and that taking it out for airing isn’t the distasteful, futile task it’s often made out to be.

~

Yasmin Zetti Martin writes for Kakiseni.

Photographs by Melissa Teoh.

Sunway University College's Department of Performance + Media's third Wayang Kulit performance happened on 23 Feb, 2008 at 3pm at the Roof Top Theatre, Sunway University College, No. 5, Jalan University, Bandar Sunway.

The Department's next intake is in March 2008. For more details click here.