By Marina Emmanuel

STATE polls and environmental concerns aside, its time to train our eyes on the annual George Town Festival (GTF).

The 14th edition of this celebration of arts, culture and heritage is slated for July 15-30, as tourists and culture-vultures will return to Penang after “standing down” in recent years, no thanks to Covid-19.

After three years of postponements, the Japanese Team ITO is now set to collaborate with Penang’s Ombak Potehi to stage a localised sequel to the literary classic, ‘Journey to the West’ for GTF2023.

Team ITO was established in 2014 by Shiokawa Kyoko, a puppet maker/puppeteer of Edo Ito Ayatsuri Ningyo, a traditional Japanese marionette puppet theatre.

Edo refers to the old name of Tokyo, Ito to the string, Ayatsuri to its manipulation techniques and Ningyo to the puppet.

It is believed that this type of string puppet theatre emerged as folk entertainment in 17th century Japan, one of which is the Youkiza puppet theatre troupe established in Tokyo in 1635.

Meanwhile, Potehi is a type of Hokkien glove puppet theatre that originated in Quanzhou, China.

It was reportedly brought to Malaya by the Chinese in the early 20th century. Penang was said to be an important base for the potehi, with there being about 10 troupes on the island in the post-war era.

Potehi was performed to honour deities at temple festivals and during the Hungry Ghost festival.

The troupes commanded large audiences as a form of entertainment as well.

Sadly, only four troupes are left now.

Although the temples still hire groups to perform during the birthdays of the deities, there is hardly any audience, according to the promotional material for this upcoming performance.

Ombak Potehi was started by Tan Sooi Beng in 2015, to rejuvenate the potehi glove puppet theatre in Penang.

Tan is an Honorary Professor of Ethnomusicology at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

She has been actively engaged in revitalizing the traditional arts in Penang together with the heritage bearers and young people of the state.

She recruited a group of young people who learnt the art of puppet manipulation, narration, and music from the masters of the Beng Geok Hong Puppet Troupe of Penang.

Save the dates of July 29 and/or July 30 for “The Monkey King Adventures: Love of Onibaba” which is touted to be a performance with “thrilling fighting scenes featuring string puppets that split into two, and flying potehi glove puppets!”

The GTF this year is set to showcase over 50 programmes featuring the work of Malaysian and international artists across different disciplines with productions ranging from traditional, contemporary, experimental, and multidisciplinary works.

For information and tickets: Click Here

Penang’s tourism calendar will feature over 50 programmes during the 14th edition of the George Town Festival this July