Ramayana Ballet

About one month ago I attended a Ballet which told the Ramayana story. While the pictures aren't great, they do illustrate the story.

Here is the abbreviated version:

Newly married Prince Rama Wijaya and his bride Shinta were traveling through the forest with Leksmana, Rama's younger brother. Here they are:
Rahwana, a king, sees Shinta and desires her, as is wont to happen with evil, lusty kings. He sends a minion disguised as a deer to tempt Rama away from Shinta. This plan, despite being full of holes, succeeds.

Leksmana remains to guard Shinta for a while, but after Rama doesn't return, he also departs leaving Shinta safely within a magic circle.
The magic circle works much like that surrounding the Goblet of Fire in Harry Potter IV. Of course Rahwana has to try... and gets knocked away.
Not being one to give up easily, Rahwana decides to tempt Shinta out of the circle in the guise of an old beggar. Shinta, perhaps never having read nor heard about the dangers of talking to strangers or leaving magic protective circles, goes to help the beggar and is kidnapped.

We now return to Rama. He finally caught the darn deer. It transforms into a monster and attacks him, but he handily defeats it. This apparently doesn't disturb him at all, because he doesn't return to Shinta until Leksmana shows up.

They, of course, find her missing. This prompts some dancing wherein Rama finds out that Shinta has been kidnapped, which I will skip. At this point Hanuman, the sacred white monkey shows up, looking for a hero - much like Bonnie Tyler.For some reason, this quest takes priority over the kidnapped wife. Luckily it is quickly finished, and in return Hanuman pledges to help find Shinta. Never hurts to have a sacred monkey on your side is what I say.

Meanwhile, Shinta is held captive in Rahwana's palace. She, with the help of another young woman, successfully avoids his romantic advances.Meanwhile, Hanuman has arrived in the kingdom, searching out the princess. He finds her and informs her that help is coming but is captured in the process. Rahwana sentences him to be burnt alive.

Hanuman, of course, being a sacred white monkey, evades this fate and sets fire to the palace.
And yes, he really sets fire to the stage. Go big or go home, I guess.

Well, Hanuman reunites with Rama and they, along with a host of monkeys engage in a sea battle with all sorts of lobster-men who like to skip.
As artistic battles go, I guess this one was okay. I am not such a huge dance fan, and I think that it was a little weird when it appeared that Rahwana was giving Rama dancing lessons as part of the battle. No matter, eventually Rama shoots an arrow into the heart of Rahwana. That's the end of the fighting, but not the end of the story. When Rama reunites with Shinta, he believes that she has been violated by Rahwana. Thus he refuses to accept her as his wife. Personally, if he was going to go through all that just to refuse his wife, I think it would have been easier to forget about her the moment she was kidnapped.

Of course, the onus of proof is on Shinta. She does the logical thing, and lights herself on fire (with the help of Hanuman, since he is good at burning things).Fortunately, the god of fire steps in and saves her. This is proof enough for Rama, and he takes her back as his wife. Thus all's well that ends well.

Again, I apologize for the quality of these photos (and my verb tense agreement throughout the post). The light wasn't good, and I was too far from the stage to use the flash. No matter, you now have a better understanding of the Ramayana Ballet.

:)