Sriwedari Wayang Orang Theatre

The Sriwedari wayang orang theatre puts on performances of classical Javanese dance-drama most evenings, drawing on the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. Wayang orang — "human puppets" — uses elaborately costumed human performers in the roles that wayang kulit assigns to shadow puppets, with the same slow stylised movements and falsetto vocal style.

Tickets are cheap and the performances run for several hours. You do not need to arrive at the start or stay to the end — Javanese audiences move in and out freely. The quality of the dance is genuinely impressive, the costumes are magnificent, and the atmosphere of an evening performance in this old theatre is one of the more memorable cultural experiences available in Java.

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A story
Sriwedari was originally built as a pleasure garden for the Susuhunan in the early 20th century — a royal park with a zoo, a music pavilion, and performance spaces. The wayang orang theatre has operated continuously here since 1911, making it one of the longest-running traditional Javanese theatrical companies in existence. Performances were suspended during political crises and independence struggles but always resumed.