Marvellous marionettes

ORIGINALLY scheduled for late last year but postponed following the death of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Thailand Harmony World Puppet Festival kicks off its second edition on Monday in surroundings that more than do justice to the traditional art form.
Moving out of Bangkok to Prommitr Film Studio in Kanchanaburi, the shooting location for the epic movie series “The Legend of King Naresuan”, the festival will take place among the replicas of gilded chedis, temples, ordination halls and traditional villages of ancient Siam and Burma, as well as the Sanphet Prasat throne hall.
“We have made a great effort to make this festival an international event that can promote arts and culture, as well as help our country’s socio-economic growth. We have selected this location for its aesthetic beauty and cultural values, and because the ambience makes it a natural tourist attraction. The spaciousness makes it possible to erect a wide variety of puppet theatres to house puppeteer groups from all over the world under the concept of a Puppet Village,” says Nimit Pipitkul, Silpatorn National Artist and chairman of Sema Thai Marionette Arts for Social Foundation.

“This year we are pleased to be welcoming the award winners from an international contest held in Poland. They include the Nardthaya Burapha Club from Thailand, Kkachidong from South Korea, Marionette Laal Kamara from Japan, Los Claveles Teatro Murcia from Spain, and Puppet Ku’s Theatre from Malaysia.
“The audience will enjoy walking and tram rides all over the venue along with the entertainment and tourism activities,” he says.
Khemporn Wiroonrapan, manager of the Child and Youth Media Institute, adds that the festival also offers opportunities for participating Thai youth puppeteer groups to showcase their abilities and potential.

“Young Thais will surely become aware of the immeasurable values of the Thai puppet arts, which come in more varieties than in any other Asean country so that they will be motivated to conserve them and continue the tradition. In addition, the festival is regarded as a good opportunity for Thai youths to exchange knowledge and learn from puppet artists from other countries. They will get to enjoy the performances and participate in such activities as demonstrations and workshops, which will greatly benefit their further creative developments and innovations,” he says.
The festival, part of which will take place at the floating market at the Ninth Infantry Division (Camp Surasee), is spread out over nine zones to accommodate the various puppet cultures and traditions of different countries.
The first is the “Drum Tower”, which serves as the information centre for Thai and international puppet shows. “The Floating Market” is designated for street theatre puppet shows from several countries while the “Sala Mongkol” stage is for traditional puppet shows. “Yodia Village” is the location for the folk puppet shows, nang yai and nang talung. The fifth zone is “Burmese Pavilion” and hosts puppet shows from Asean. “Sanphet Prasat” is the stage for Thai traditional puppet shows while “Black Box Theatre at Sanphet Prasat” is reserved for Blacklight shadow puppets. The eighth zone is “Nai Kai Street” and home to puppet shows in Asia and the ninth is “Temple Courtyard” designated for community cultural shows.

This year, the festival will feature 65 puppet troupes from 28 countries, including 30 groups from all four regions of Thailand. These include Thai Royal puppets by the Land of Art puppeteer group, a contemporary puppet show by Naresuan University, hand puppet shows by Chao Khun Tong Group and Mommy Puppet, Sema Thai Marionette Arts, Khlong Bang Luang Theatrical Puppet by Kam Nai Group, and Wat Baan Don Grand Shadow Play Youth Conservation Group.
“The Thai Royal puppet show, which uses string puppets one metre tall, is the oldest and dates back to the Ayutthaya period. Khru Kai [founder Surat Jongda] has brought Thai Royal Puppet back to life. The puppet troupe will present ‘Rajadhiraj’. A contemporary puppet show by Naresuan University will tell the story of Naresuan in front of Somdej Phra Naresuan Maharat Shrine every day at 7pm,” says Nimit.
Pahn Pirom of Chao Khun Tong says his troupe is delighted to return to the festival.
“We originally formed for a children’s programme on Channel 7 in October 1991 to promote knowledge of the Thai language and Thai culture, and later evolved into a hand-puppet troupe. We used the character Nok Khun Tong [a species of mynah bird] which can imitate the human voice to communicate with a buffalo named Cha-ngon and a dog. We regularly perform the ‘Chao Khun Tong Tee Klong Prachum’ show, which focuses on the cultures of our fellow countries in the Asean Economic Community and for the festival we have created a new story relating to the concept of ‘Puppet for Peace’,” Pahn says.
Akaraporn Changkrai, who has performed with the Wat Baan Don Grand Shadow Play in Rayong since he was five years old – he’s now 25 – stresses the importance of engaging the young generation in arts.

“It’s hard for children today to pay attention to art and culture. Our child performers, most of them students at Wat Baan Don School, became interested in the shadow play after witnessing it and touching the puppets. The charm of Nang Yai Wat Baan Don is the exquisite pattern. In the past, nang yai were made of buffalo hide in black and white and the plays were performed only at night. These days we add colour to the nang yai so we can perform during the day and also blend in the dance moves of khon to add depth to the performance. Wat Baan Don Grand Shadow Play’s most popular performance is ‘Ramayana: Sita walks through the flames”, in which a performer walks on fire. We want it to be more enjoyable, so we incorporate a battle between the army of Rama and that of Ravana. We use many more performers playing giants and monkeys,” he says.
For its part, Mommy Puppet came into being three years ago and evolved from the bedtime stories Wissavich Jitthawonkul would play out for his young son, Nong Jaa.
“At first we used only pillows and a blanket to represent all the characters. When Nong Jaa was five, he went to kindergarten and told these bedtime stories to his schoolmates after school while they were waiting for their parents. One day, he created his own fairy tale and asked his mother to come up with puppets for the worm, ant and bee in his tale so he could show his friends. His teachers and other parents were surprised that he could read as well as the depth of his imagination. I explained this was because I used the fairy tale as a medium as children remember pictures better than letters. Four years ago, we were invited to exchange and share our ideas with doctors and parents. From there, we decided to form our own puppet troupe using my son’s fairy tales. We were invited to perform for underprivileged kids at Siriraj Hospital once a month and for autistic children at Rachanukul Institute,” Wissavich explains.
“After we took part in the first Thailand Harmony World Puppet Festival, we became better known and I was invited to be a special lecturer on puppet shows for students at Suan Sunatha Rajabhat, Suan Dusit Rajabhat and Kamphaeng Phet Rajabhat universities. We also ran a workshop on puppet making at Baan Takien School in Rayong, which used the puppets as a medium for learning the Thai language. In Chainat, the puppets were used to encourage reading, and now the kindergarten is the model for using the puppets as a medium for other schools.
“This year, we will offer a story about kids. Our fairy tale is for everybody and includes plenty of audience participation. My son and my daughter Nong Jee will be the storytellers, while other kids will take turns manipulating the puppets of each character.”

No Strings Attached

- Thailand Harmony World Puppet Festival takes place at Prommitr Film Studio and the floating market in Kanchanaburi from Monday through February 26.
- Admission to the shows is free though there’s a Bt150 charge to enter the lot.
- Find out more about the festival and view the programme at www.HarmonyPuppetThailand.|com and at Facebook/Harmony World Puppet in Kanchanaburi 2017.