Star Wars comes alive in 'wayang kulit'

Tintoy Chuo and Teh Take Huat, both huge Star Wars fans, recently put on a 20-minute wayang kulit show at the Esplanade at KLCC Park on Sunday as part of the Petrosains Science Festival 2014.

“Peperangan Bintang” is a truly unique take on George Lucas’ “Star Wars IV: A New Hope”, and features familiar characters such as Sangkala Vedeh (Darth Vader), Puteri Leia (Princes Lia), Askar Pemberontak (Rebel Soldiers) and Hulubalang Empayar (Stormtroopers).

It was everything you can expect from a wayang kulit show - it involved a full contingent of gamelan players, 12 shadow puppets, and even visual effects.

Tintoy Chuo, the designer of the shadow puppets said the former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, inspired him to create something different.

“When we want to do something, we don’t want to do it too traditional, there’s a lot of people who are already doing that, so we want to do something different,” said Chuo.

“My target audience is youth, people who have never seen wayang kulit before.

“We are giving the audience a choice, we are opening up a new step, so people who have never seen it will be inspired to love wayang kulit,” he said passionately.

The duo first debuted their idea at the Designers Weekend Exhibition at Publika in 2012 and have received input and support from master puppeteer Muhammad Dain Othman.

The wayang kulit master first contacted Tintoy on Facebook when he heard from a friend that he wanted to create a Star Wars wayang kulit performance 2012.

"The old has to contact the new," 62-year-old puppet master said wisely.

“When I met him the first time, I said to him that I salute him for what he is doing because to me, it is a time to revive and save the dying art of shadow play,” he added.

However, Muhammad Dain put down a few conditions before he agreed to be involved in the project.

He insisted that the essence of shadow puppets must be adhered to -- there must be a gamelan troupe of nine to 10 people, there must be the physical elements of a white screen and the tree of life, and finally the format of the pendalang must be followed.

Two years on, the Star Wars wayang kulit is a hit not only with Star Wars' fans but all who have managed to catch it.

Chuo hopes that next year on May 4th, Star Wars Day, that they will be able to produce a full one hour show.

Meanwhile, Petrosains CEO Tengku Nasariah Tengku Syed Ibrahim said the Science Fair was a huge success.

More than 70,000 people attended this year’s festival.