[ Sbek Thom Ty Chean's Troupe ]

Sbek Thom Ty Chean's Troupe’s performances are all based on Reamker, the Cambodian version of Indian epic Ramayana. The original version of Reamker has seven chapters, and it takes hours to finish the performance of a chapter. Therefore, the troupe sometimes has to create shorter versions of the performance based on different instances.

Sbek Thom Ty Chean's Troupe is not currently invested in creating new pieces, but it does not mean that they do not care about new works. They believe that the more important mission at this point is to pass down the tradition that they inherited from the former generations to the later generations.

The training required for performing Sbek Thom includes reading extensive texts which are not only the play scripts, but different versions of Reamker or other ancient books, in order to understand the god's world and the characters’ emotions. When performing or rehearsing, the most important task is to pay attention. Since leather puppets do not have souls in them, puppeteers have to carefully listen to the music and narration to truly breathe souls into the puppets.

Sbek Thom Ty Chean's Troupe 演出內容為古代故事《Reamker》，是柬埔寨版的印度史詩《羅摩衍那》。傳統的《Reamker》演出有七個篇章，每一個篇章完整演出長數個小時，因此有時候依據面對的情況，創作比較短的演出版本。

Sbek Thom Ty Chean's Troupe 沒有創作新的作品，然而，這並不代表團隊無心在新的創作，而是認為此時更重要的任務，是將上一代傳承給他們的傳統演出再傳給下一代。

演出 Sbek Thom 需要的訓練，包含閱讀大量文本，不只是劇本，還有不同版本的《Reamker》或其他古書，以了解神明的世界或角色的情感。當進行演出或練習時，最重要的事情是集中精神，因為皮偶本身沒有靈魂，因此操偶師需要很仔細地聽音樂和說書，才能把靈魂注入偶中。