ABSTRACT
The last chapter focused on the symbolic import of the puppets. We are dealing, however, with theatre and not with a static art form and it is on the stage that the characters come alive or, as the villagers put it, 'wake up ' (metangi). This is vividly illustrated by the Balinese proverb 'like war in the shadow play', which is said of a man and a woman who quarrel during the day but sleep together at night. The analogy is taken from the puppets who are thought of as sleeping in their chest when off stage out of sight of the public, but who confront and fight each other during a night wayang. It is then that the nexus which binds individuals and groups is dramatized.
