The Wayang-Theatre

by Jochen Koltermann
(Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

A new exhibition is planned in the ethnologic faculty of the local university. It is about the history of Java and Malaysia, especially the Islamic time which started about 600 years ago. There are also exhibits from earlier ages, the hindu-culture coming from the chinese-indian trading routes and times before, when the local religion was kind of animism.

Between the craftworks is an odd set of wayang-puppets, made during the eighth-hundred A.D., the figures resembling humans with disturbing deformities. They were found some decades ago with sanskrit-written palm tree leaves, yet not translated.

Soon after opening of the exhibition the puppets and the written leaves are stolen. The thief is easily found, he is an burglar, well-known to police, who is specialized in picklocking museums.

Possibilities

1 Shortly after the thief is identified, he is stabbed to death by his accomplice who wants all the profits from the crime for himself. He sells it on the international black-market shortly afterwards.

2 The burglar is found dead, apparently from a heart attack. The thief stole to order - and was then poisoned by his client.

(Before 1942 the client is a native-Indonesian group working against the foreign government. In modern times the client is an Islamic terror-group.)

The client wants the puppets for two purposes. They were once once a holy set of puppets in the client's home region and they can be used in the conjuration of Shuggoran and his childer. They want the puppets back to let these demons loose on their enemies.

3 The thief is acting on behalf of a rich collector. He pays the burglar well and is now translating the texts so that actors can perform the original wayang. He will take the main role, and perform the act in front of his art-loving friend.

Unfortunately, this is the play of shadows and the songs will render the veil between dimensions. The collector is sacrificing himself to become a spectral hunter, to haunt the place of his self-sacrifice.

Copyright (c) 2010 Jochen Koltermann


About the author: I am from Germany. Forgive me my bad english.

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