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 * A Wrinkle in Time: The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Banyumas (West Central Java).** By Rene T.A. Lysloff. __Asian Theater Journal__. Spring, 1993. 10.1 pp 49-80.

In the article "A Wrinkle in Time: The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Banyumas (West Central Java)," Rene Lysloff draws from multiple theories and differing scholarship to approach her understanding of the Javanese //wayang kulit// theatre. By exploring Western literature and metaphysics, Lysloff draws a unique interpretation of //wayang// theatre and the passage of time within the performance. Individual elements within the puppet theatre remark and draw distinctions in the time of the production. A notable element is the staging of //gara-gara,// an interlude of chaos and destruction within the play that interrupts both the narrative and the audience's relationship with the mythology. In the //wayang// theatre, time intersects on multiple levels to create a unique universe for the performance.

Lysloff begins the article with a quote from Madeline L'Engle's //A Wrinkle In Time// and introduces the similarities between L'Engle's theory of tesseracts and //wayang kulit//. A tesseract is a wrinkle in time or a coincidence of two unlikely, untimely events. The intersections of time within the //wayang kulit// become real life examples of L'Engle's literary ideas. According to Lysloff, "time is a product of the mind" (50). By giving time a metaphysical property she is able to interpret the stop-go-reverse flow of time in //wayang// performance. Lysloff goes into depth in describing the properties of time and cites numerous sources; however, metaphysics is such a difficult concept, that her article would have benefited from a simpler description and deconstruction of time.

After describing the properties of time itself, Lysloff then applies those properties to the staging of //wayang kulit//: "One might say that wayang is about time. Each performance marks and sacralizes the passage of human and natural time" (53). The entire performance lasts nine hours, but the //wayang// is thought to imitate the human life cycle. The first division is childhood where the problem is introduced, the second is youth and the main source of conflict, and the last division is old age and the resolution of the play. Inside the play, individual elements provide commentary on the passage of time. The //sulkan//, songs sung by the //Dalang//, remark on the physical time from night to morning. The music inside of the performance provides a tempo for the narration and clues to scene shifts. The //kayon//, oval leafed puppet, marks divisions between acts and it's placement shows the audience at what point of the evening they are in. Although Lysloff didn't include a description of the //kayon's// design, the images of chaos and order on the puppet also help establish the narrative time within the performance.

In "A Wrinkle in Time," Lysloff remarks on the abrupt shift in time caused by the //gara-gara//. The //gara-gara// happens after the first division of the evening where the crisis is introduced. To explain the phenomenon, Lysloff retells the performance of a //wayang kulit// she witnessed in her research. The first division ended with a battle, but the //gamelan// instantly shifted the music to a calm, somber tone and a //sulkan// began about the hour of the evening. This sharp break introduces the //gara-gara// and allows the music a baseline to once again reach a fevered state. The next //sulkan// and //gamelan// becomes faster and introduced the count down of the //gara-gara//--the progressive epochs of chaos and destruction. The puppets match the song and tell a tale of intensifying turmoil that consumes the world and even the gods. At the end of the music, four clown figures come out for a comic interlude. During this, the narrator drops his third person narrative voice, and the clowns leave the narrative world to join the physical world of the audience. The //gara-gara// becomes a tessarct--a wrinkle in narrative and human time. In //wayang kulit// theatre, time becomes the bridge between the audience and the puppets as people escape into the world of the theatre.