The puppet theatre group from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Papermoon Paper Theatre, performed for the first time at the Sydney Opera House over the weekend.
SBS Indonesian was one of the attendees of its closed sessions on 5 June, which invited several communities in Sydney including school students and teachers.
Co-Artistic Director of the theatre group, Maria Tri Sulistyani—known as Ria—said the session was remarkable given that, especially in Indonesia, it is not customary to bring schoolchildren closer to theatre performances. This was also what she admitted was an obstacle for the group when it was first formed in 2006.
“The hardest thing is convincing people to come to the show at the beginning,” Ria said. Now, they have toured in more than ten countries around the world.
The story for their Sydney's show, A Bucket of Bettles, emerged six years ago from the drawing of Lunang Pramusesa, Ria's son who was also one of the puppeteers in this show.
Ria said that their puppet work was an adaptation of the Japanese traditional puppet techniques, 'bunraku' and 'kuruma ningyo'.
“Puppet theatre is about the art of bringing objects to life,” Ria said, adding that any material—such as dried leaves and plastic bags—could be used as a material.
SBS Indonesian also spoke with Acting Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia in Sydney, Andos Lumban Tobing, as well as Head of Children, Family and Creative Learning of Sydney Opera House, Tamara Harrison related to this performance.
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