PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Iron Bamboo begins with a prayer, actors and musicians sitting before a shrine, as they do before every performance. This time, however, the shrine is onstage, and the performers are praying in the very play, their backs to the audience. They complete their devotions and pick up shadow puppets, made from carved leather and mounted on two bamboo sticks. As the fantastic shapes play against the illuminated scrim in front of the actors, the performers' bodies, normally behind the backdrop, become as much a visual affect as the puppets themselves. It's a startling inversion, the artifice of theater put on display, as if to remind us that the performance we're watching is inextricable from the artists themselves.
