Dalang Jemblung

Jemblung is a speech art in the form of dialogue which is performed by four players by sitting at a table served with rice cone, snacks and drinks, while telling stories like a kethoprak that presents stories of chronicles, legends or folklore and occasionally interspersed with the sound of gamelan music played by mouth or oral while eating dishes that are on the table. The word Jemblung itself is derived from two Javanese words into a new word formation "jenjem-jenjeme wong gemblung " (a sense of joy felt by a madman). Jemblung art is classified as a rare art but it is still maintained and developing.

Dalang Jemblung is a typical Banyumas speech theater, not accompanied by traditional musical instruments but performed by the players with their own voice (vocals) acting as accompaniment "music". The puppeteer Jemblung plays as a character in a story, but also as a "musical instrument" for men and as a "waranggana" (pesinden, singer) for women. One of the players becomes the mastermind and also plays as a character in the story.

The form of staging the Dalang Jemblung is very simple and is done inside the house. The four players (usually three men and a woman) sat around, in the middle there was a short little table with only one piece of equipment namely "kudhi" a kind of knife typical of Banyumas. The Kudhi function here ia as an equipment to assist the performance as an embodiment of weapons when there is a war scene, as well as "cempala" in the performance of Wayang Kulit or as "keprak". The players use tradisional Banyumas cloth namely belangkon or iket, Surjan or Beskap, batik cloth and wear "slippers" (sandals).

The mastermind behind jemblung is the most "pure" and the simplest speech theater, which all expressions are carried out with the most essential expression media, and that is the sound. With the ability to produce such voices the players can describe the atmosphere of the story, the events behind the story, furthermore they can describe the various of characters that are played.