• Society

Celebrating Angkor with a Shadow Theatre Performance

• By Isa Rohany
• December 24, 2023 7:00 PM

SIEM REAP — The Khmer shadow puppet theatre Sbek Thom attracted large audiences during the Angkor Thanksgiving Ceremony in Siem Reap city, which was held this year from Dec. 7 through 16.

Inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2005, Sbek Thom is performed under the night sky by using a large campfire as light source behind a big rectangular canvas. The Wat Bo Leather Puppet Troupe has always been eager to keep alive this traditional form of theatre believed to go back to pre-Angkorian times.

Vann Sopheavuth, director of the Wat Bo Leather Puppet Troupe, discussed the work involved in order to hold a performance.

Isa Rohany: What did you stage during this annual event in Angkor Park?

Vann Sopheavuth: As part of the Angkor Thanksgiving Ceremony, we have entertained our audiences with one part of the Reamker epic tale, this ancient story inspired by the Ramayana of India.

Normally, we divide the performance into three parts. The first part is when performers conduct a spiritual ceremony to honour the ancestors teachers as a means to keep the performers focused and for the show to proceed without any obstacles.

The second part is a teaching session. Since many people gather early for a puppet performance, our ancestors teachers thought this was a good time to do some teaching for the people. So, they created a short story about a white monkey representing a good and pure soul, and a black monkey representing an evil soul. This stands for the good and bad sides of human beings, which are constantly in battle with one another. However, the moral of the story is that the nature of the good souls prevails: The black monkey is captured and sent to be rehabilitated by a hermit who is a wise person, according to the story.

The third part is when the Reamker story itself is performed. The story is about a fight between Indrajit and Lakshmana.

Isa Rohany: How much effort and training does it take to hold such a performance for the audience?

Vann Sopheavuth: Normally, 88 shadow puppets are needed to perform a complete story of between five to six hours. However, on this occasion, we only performed about one hour and 30 minutes. Since there is a frequent demand for our performances, we train frequently in the course of a month. To smoothly run a show, we may need about 30 people. This includes the puppeteers, the musicians and those who control the campfire. We are happy to see many people coming here to enjoy our performance. Our spectators are our supporters of the puppet show. When more people are here, our performers are very happy to do their job.

Conducted in Khmer for ThmeyThmey News, the interview was translated by Ky Chamna for Cambodianess News.