Among Criticalia's aims is rethinking performance and its relationship to the mass media. Theatre and dance in the non-Western world in particular tend to suffer on the one hand from romanticization by foreign tourists and scholars, and on the other by sanctification by members of the society in question who are anxious that their 'culture' should be seen in as good a light as possible. To enable the creativeness, vitality and humour of such performance to be accessible to wider audiences, Criticalia aims to make recordings freely available and invites scholars and performers to submit suitable materials.

Below is a theatre play performed by Bali's leading actor-dancers. This gives something of the inventiveness, energy, raucousness and bawdiness of popular theatre. In so doing, it differs significantly from much of the published work on Balinese theatre, which presents a more domesticated and respectable image of Balinese culture.

This is draft version and comments and feedback would be welcome to inquiries@criticalia.org.