Shadow puppet theatre: from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand

Interesting exhibition at the British Museum looking at the tradition of shadow puppets in these three countries.

It explained the role of the plays in ceremonies and as entertainment and talked about how they told stories from the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic traditions.

The puppets were surprisingly colourful considering they are only seen as silhouettes in the plays. They were some lovely sets and I liked the idea of displaying some of them as they would be stored at the side of the stage ready for use.

It was interesting to see that some of them were from the collection of Sit Thomas Stamford Raffles. My favourites were the modern ones with hip hop characters, young women with bee hive hairstyles and even a Darth Vadar!

Closes on 29 January 2017

 

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