History of shadow puppets shines

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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter

When most people imagine a puppet show, what comes to mind are pieces of fabric to slip over a hand, or perhaps a marionette, pulled by strings to move and walk. However, Wednesday at the Walpole Library, there was a whole different kind of puppet show. “Shadows Around the World” is a puppet show put on by Jim Napolitano exploring the history and styles of shadow puppetry. Focusing on world cultures and the history and development of shadow theater, the hilarious Napolitano traveled the globe in an accessible way to children.

Napolitano began with the origins of shadow puppetry in China, telling the legend of Wu Ti and the first shadow puppet. Made out of silk, these puppets traveled along the Silk Road, becoming integrated into other cultures along the way. A few of these placed included Greece and Turkey. “Historically, the Turks and the Greeks have not gotten along very well. They have gotten into discussions, you know what I mean?” Napolitano said to the crowd. “They think they’re so different, but they have art in common!” He then proceeded to put on a Turkish style show, “not because it is better - please, no discussion - but I’m just going to do that one.” The story followed Karagoz, a trickster who, with the help of a genie, turns his friend into a donkey.

The next location on his journey was Indonesia. “Every single show begins with a tree of life, and every story, they think, comes from this tree,” Napolitano explained. “The older stories are the roots of the tree and the newer stories are the branches, and the brand new stories, stories that you might write someday are the leaves.” Indonesian shows also feature a unique type of music called a gamelan band. “This band includes a musical instrument like a xylophone, and there always has to be two because they’re out of tune with each other and when two instruments play the same note but are out of tune with each other it makes this really weird warbling sound, so there will be some great music,” Napolitano explained.

Complete with beautifully intricate and colorful puppets, Napolitano’s show was dazzling. Free and open to the public, the program was sponsored by the Walpole CFCE Program. Not only informative, his show was laugh-out-loud funny, entertaining, and beautiful.