O

REVIEW
A Touch of Thai:
“Joe Louis Live in Sydney”
at the Sydney Opera House
By Kay Yasugi
Last month I attended a fantastic free event
organised by the Royal Thai Consulate at the
Sydney Opera House. The show was “Joe Louis
Live in Sydney”, which was a one hour showcase of
traditional Thai puppetry. Joe Louis (also known as
Sakorn Yangkhiawsod) was the one of Thailand's
top puppet masters and the country's last 'Grand
Master' of the Thai puppet art form known as Hun
Lakhon Lek. His troupe now travels around the
world to share his legacy of amazingly crafted
puppets. This show consisted of various acts,
including a demonstration of traditional Thai dance
and an excerpt from “The Ramayana” epic
(“Ramakien” in Thai), which is the most popular play
performed by the troupe.
On first glance, the puppetry looked similar to the
Japanese style of Bunraku (Ningyo Joruri), as each
puppet was operated by three performers – two
controlling the arms/head and one controlling the
feet. Like Bunraku, the puppets have a somewhat
fragmented existence – they dance and move on
stage while their voice comes from elsewhere: a
cluster of musicians for Traditional Thai chanting,
cymbals and drums – producing sounds ranging
from the dramatic to the soothing and almost
hypnotic. However, there are distinct differences
between the art forms. For example, all the
puppeteers’ faces are in full view (whereas in
Bunraku, only the master puppeteer shows his
face). Unlike the ‘invisible’ puppeteers of Bunraku,
the Thai puppeteers are very much part of the
performance. They work in tandem with the puppet,
mimicking gestures and facial expressions like
ripples in a pond. The puppets also ventured out
into the audience, greeting them (and even
borrowing a lady’s handbag, to the great
amusement of the crowd).
As an incredibly rare treat, the audience was invited
at the end of the show to come up and see the
puppets (and even touch them!). This was a
wonderful opportunity to have a look at the
ingenious rod mechanisms of the puppets, which
allowed their wrists to flick, wave and even pray.
The puppeteers use their thumbs to control small,
grooved spools embedded in the rod handles, which
are connected with string to the wooden hands of
the puppets like miniature pulleys. It was amazing to
see how the performers delicately and skilfully
operated the control to achieve subtle nuances in
movement.