Narrator's Mask (Central Java Style)

Wayang topeng performances in Java and Bali usually feature some form of narrator in a special mask. The story is narrated by a Penasar (Bali) or a punakawan character (central Java), a dancer wearing a jawless half-mask that enables the actor to speak clearly. In performances featuring several characters, there are usually two narrators providing two points of view. The performance alternates between speaking and non-speaking characters, and can include dance and fight sequences as well as special visual and sound
effects. It is almost always summarized and concluded by a series of comic characters introducing their own views. The narrators and comic characters frequently break western conventions of storytelling by including current events or local gossip to get a laugh.

In wayang topeng, there is a conscious attempt to include in performances multiple, and sometimes contradictory, aspects of the human condition: the sacred and the profane, beauty and ugliness, refinement and coarseness. While the narrator is generally of common or coarse extraction (as illustrated in this case by the red face, bulbous nose, wide eyes, and buck teeth), he is seen as being able to communicate with great frankness and sometimes profound insight directly to the audience; this is in contrast to the more stylized characters, who are more or less trapped within their roles.

In wayang topeng performances, the characters' dance styles also illustrate their personalities; a punakawan like this would have a bumbling and uneven gait.

Image: Wood, pigment, laquer, hemp cord; 21 x 14 x 10.5cm.

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