4/11/2023 0 Comments Country known for water puppetry![]() ![]() I have to guess and imagine.”ĭespite the language barrier, audiences can still easily follow the storyline of the pieces. However, he added, “Frankly, the sound system is not so good. “I may comment about it with one word, ‘bravo’, I really enjoyed it,” said Iskandar. What impressed him the most is the puppets, which are colourful and have eye-catching movements on the water, he said. He said he had never seen such a thing in any other place in the world. For him, Vietnamese water puppetry is something wonderful and beautiful. The theatre offers three to six shows a day, depending on whether it’s the low or high season.īob Iskandar from Jakarta visited Hà Nội recently on a business trip. “The playhouse has 300 seats, and we serve about 1,700 shows each year,” said Lượng. Thăng Long Theatre holds the Asian record for “the only theatre in Asia that performs water puppetry all 365 days of the year”. “After nearly a half-century of development, from an art troupe of nine actors and actresses, now the theatre has 50 artists and 15 instrumentalists.” ![]() “Our theatre was established in 1969,” said Lượng. The artists controling the fox, the duck, the tree and the farmer have to co-operate in harmony.” “It happens in one minute but the artists have to practise in one week. The interesting act provokes and attracts any audience. The fox swims to catch a duck and then he hides behind the bush, climbs up a tree, until he catches the duck and carries up to the tree. ![]() “This act is one of the most special techniques in water puppet show,” Lượng explained. Suddenly, a mischievous fox appears and catches their ducks. A couple of peasants appear when they are raising ducks peacefully. This apparatus extends behind the stage curtain to the hidden puppeteers who stand in waist-deep water," researcher Nguyễn Huy Hồng wrote in his book Vietnamese Traditional Water Puppetry.Ī piece like fighting fox catching duck is exciting enough to gain claps from audience. During the show, they just see the puppets on the water surface acting out various scenarios, including the dragon dance, unicorn fighting for a ball, farming and fishing."During performances, puppeteers control their puppets through a stick-and-string apparatus concealed by the pond water. Audiences learn the trick at the end of the show when artists come out from behind the rattan curtain. After the 45-minute-long show, many tourists buy the little puppets as souvenirs.Ĭurrently, tourists are offered performances of puppets controlled by poles. The puppets are covered with red lacquer trimmed with gold. Puppets range in height from 30 to 100cm. Puppeteers carve their puppets from fig tree and waterproof them with resin from the lacquer tree. In the water puppet play, artists use firecrackers and fireworks to create a special effect and attraction. The performance is often organised on the occasion of the local festival which gathers all of the villagers, especially children.Ī water puppetry show is accompanied by musical instruments such as drum, two-stringed fiddle, flute, drum kit, 16-chord zither or monochord. Water puppet theatre is called thủy đình, set up in communal ponds. Water puppetry has its origins since the 11 th century in the Red River Delta of northern Việt Nam where the wet-rice civilisation took shape, according to Chu Lượng, vice director of the Thăng Long Theatre. The water puppet performances are various and touch on everyday life activities of Vietnamese people, entertainment and plays that set examples of national heroes, and traditional opera plays like chèo and tuồng. In addition, there is Lotus Theatre on Hàng Trống Street, the Central Water Puppet Theatre on Trường Chinh Street and several private venues. Thăng Long Water Puppet Theatre, located on Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street near Hoàn Kiếm Lake, is the most popular theatre for water puppetry. While Indonesia has shadow puppets, Japan has bunraku theatre with black-clad ninja puppeteers and in the US, people know Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and all the other members of the madcap Muppet gang, Việt Nam has an 800-year-old art form called traditional water puppetry, remarked Things Asian Press. W ater puppetry is a special treat for tourists in Hà Nội - a must-see show for all foreign visitors. The show officially begins and wows spectators. ![]() The unique feat is always a curious thing for audiences. In the beginning, he raises the festival flag from the water without it making a splash. He serves as narrator of the water puppet performance. A puppet called Tễu comes out and introduces himself: “I was born from the heavens/Gone into exile for picking fairy’s peaches/As the world is complicated and treacherous/I’m wandering to see to troubles.” ![]()
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