Mystery theatre

I went to see some traditional theatre last night, and by "traditional" I mean I had no idea what it was about, because it was mostly in Javanese. It was an all-woman comedy in honor of Kartini Day, which is Indonesia's version of a Women's Day.


It was fun: the costumes and music were cool, and I liked the actors. You figure somebody is a pretty good comic actress when she's amusing to watch even if you can't understand what she's saying.


I don't know much about kethoprak, which is what this sort of theatre is called, but I think it's generally about court life in the days of the old Mataram kingdom. I suspect there are standard plots and themes the playwright can riff on. The scene changes and some of the action were accompanied by live gamelan music.

I'm still down in Yogya and haven't been able to post pictures till now because the internet is so slow. Hopefully, today's good luck will continue.