The music plays a huge part in the show and the instrumentalists often shout words of encouragement to the puppets on display. Typical performances are accompanied by a wide variety of traditional Vietnamese folk music that is played on: These puppeteers train for at least three years before they get up on or in – as it were – stage to entertain their viewers. To illustrate the skill levels involved here, you should know that the show typically features 7 to about 11 puppeteers working in harmony with one another to create magic on stage. The typical themes that surround a water puppet show are still deeply rooted in rural Vietnamese traditions that include fishing, planting and harvesting of rice as well as village folklore. The ‘heart of the show’ hasn’t changed much today only the setting and the locations. Leech bites and other related issues that come with standing in murky waters for long periods of time were common place. It is also said that the shows were not originally meant just for the entertainment of the local rice farmers but also as a way to keep the spirits amused so that they would not cause mischief.īack then, simple stages were built around flooded rice paddies and the expert puppeteers would go about their business regaling and entertaining their audience while in wadding waist deep waters. It is said that the original water puppet shows were performed in actual rice paddies around the Red River Delta in North Vietnam. This provided the perfect opportunity for talented artists to perform water puppet shows on both land and water. This meant that handicrafts flourished and ceremonies, festivals and general merry making become popular pass time activities. The fact that there were no wars to be fought at the time meant that the people could sit back, relax and come up with as well as enjoy some of their cultural festivals and traditions. Legend has it that the country saw a prolonged period of peace and prosperity right after 1010. It is documented that ‘Water Puppetry’ dates back to about 1,000 years during the Ly Dynasty (although it could very well go back further by a few hundred years or so). It is said that in the past, these secrets were passed down from father to son because they feared daughters would divulge the secrets when they marry outside the villages. It is part of the thrill, especially when you see the puppets impossibly pass objects between themselves. In fact, the secret to how these talented puppeteers make their puppets move so flawlessly and on cue on top of the water while seeming blind from behind a screen is a closely guarded secret till date. If you attend one of these theatre shows, you will get to see the most amusing and rather confusing show of puppets jerking their way across shallow pools of water with the master puppeteers well hidden behind curtains and stages. You are probably thinking by now: ‘That’s all well and good, but what in the name is a Water Puppet Show? Well, I’ll tell you:Ī Water Puppet Show is really just what it sounds like: a puppet show but on water. Vietnamese Theatre: The Water Puppet Show in Hanoi The Vietnamese Water Puppet Show in Hanoi was just a wee bit different. Funny faces were painted on the pads of my ten digits and then an impromptu theatre show was performed for my imaginary friends. Every culture has its own unique festival or attraction that signifies something integral to what makes that culture special (like Tokyo’s Robot Restaurant Show!) In Vietnam, one of the most historically significant and now universally entertaining shows that I visited was the water puppet show in Hanoi.īefore traveling to Vietnam, when the term ‘puppet show’ was mentioned, it would usually bring back memories of the tiny finger puppets I made as a child using permanent markers.
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