Here the light and the shadow do not compete with each other, but cooperate, resulting the birth of the shadow puppetry. It contains everything what a classic theater possess: instead of actors just puppets act. The expression way of shadow theater is interesting that represents a beautiful combination of art forms.
Once the puppets were made of leather of calf, camel or donkey and were played with a wooden spokes. On the screen we see not the puppet, but just its shadow, that becomes alive in front of our eyes and lives his own life, taking us also to the far-fetched reality. However, the light fades out, taking with it the magical world of shadows.
Almost all nations have had their shadow puppetry, but few were able to maintain this form of puppet theater and pass it from generation to generation. Already in the second millennium BC, the shadow puppetry was quite popular in India and China. We can read about this kind of theater in Plato’s works, it was mentioned even in Egyptian “Book of the Dead.”
Shadow puppetry reached Europe at the end of 17th century, after returning of French missionaries from China and evoked a big interest. However, the shadow puppetry has not found large expansion in the future as the puppet theater. Today it is mostly preserved in the Islamic world – Syria, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, as well as China, Greece, Japan, India, Hawaii. Although it should be noted that unfortunately it does not have the same expansion as it was in 1940-50-s.
The shadow theater was also widespread and had its unique place in Armenian culture. This theater had a ritual significance and was an integral part of folk festivals, fairs and special church fests, including Carnival, Vardavar, Christmas, along with wedding celebrations, mounted games, fights of wrestlers. The ritual character of the theater suggests that it comes from the ancient times. Among the Armenians, unlike the shadow theaters of other nations, for example, Turks, Greeks, Chinese, the puppets are not colored, yet this fact does not make poor the performance.
Since 19-20th centuries the shadow puppetry is not a part of the ritual ceremony, but was turned into a public presentation. This type of theater does not imply a boundary between the audience and the presenter. During the shadow puppetry performance the audience, as a rule, becomes the participant of the show. The performance, maintaining the main plot, was being improvised, involving the audience into the dialogue.
Today, the AYROGI shadow theater of Ayrudzi expedition continues the traditions of shadow puppet theater and present them to the Armenian audience.