Water Puppetry – can’t miss in Vietnam

A water puppet performance (Source: VNA)

Megan McCafferty from Scotland found a water puppetry show at Hanoi-based Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, very interesting.

She was recommended to see the show by her friends who had visited Vietnam.

Even though the stories were in Vietnamese, she still could understand them. 

“It’s quite good to learn about Vietnamese tradition, culture, and history,” Megan told Vietnam News Agency.

Megan McCafferty finds Vietnamese water puppet interesting (Source: VNA)

Meanwhile, Lauren MacDougan, also from Scotland, called Vietnamese water puppetry a must-see in Hanoi.

“The performance was very good,” Lauren said, adding even though she didn’t understand Vietnamese language, it was easy to follow the stories.

She expressed her pleasure with convenience of ticket delivery service.

“We don’t have to wait. We just came five minutes before the show. It was really good.” 

Vera Regina from Brazil paid special attention to the musical instruments and the music.

“It is very interesting for me because the instruments are very different. I especially like the music.”

Being recommended by a Japanese friend, Vera wanted to see the Vietnamese traditional art form right on the first day of her arrival in Hanoi and she found it worth seeing.

“Everything was very different and very nice. I like to watch it very much. I am pleased that I came,” Vera said.

According to Tran Thi Kim Chi, Head of the Management board of the Theatre’s Viet Culture Space, more and more international visitors chose to see water puppet shows when they visit Vietnam.

During peak time, the theatre hosted three shows a day, with each serving an audience of 300 people.

Water puppetry is one of Vietnam's most memorable traditional art forms performed on stage.

It came into existence and developed over the past thousand years ago in the north of Vietnam.

Rice-growing villagers in the Red River Delta staged water puppet performances to celebrate the end of the rice harvest, religious festivals and other important occasions.

The performances feature the daily life of villagers such as folk singing, farming, fishing, love stories and children playing.

The plays are also picked from ancient legends, myths and historic stages such as “Le loi returning the sword”, “fairies dance”, “four sacred animal dance” (Dragon, Unicorn, Tortoise, Phoenix)./.

VNA