![]() It also hides the puppet operational equipment and puppeteer movements, enhances the acoustics and provides a shimmering lightening effect. The water serves a dual purpose – it is the puppets’ stage whilst and a symbolic link to the rice harvest. Original water puppet festivals were those literally held inside a rice paddy, with a pagoda built on top to hide the puppeteers, who stand waist deep in water. When the rice fields flooded, the villagers would entertain each other using this form of puppet play. The tradition of water puppetry dates back to the 11th Century originating in the villages of the Red River Delta in Northern Vietnam. “If the script and the performance don’t change, it’s impossible to serve the audience in the long-term,’ he said.One of the most popular tourist attractions in Hanoi is the iconic Water Puppets Show, or Mua Roi Nuoc in Vietnamese, meaning, “ making puppets dance on water“. Yet as interest wanes at home, there are signs water puppetry may be gaining traction abroad.Ĭanadian Director Robert Lepage returned to Toronto this year with an adaptation of Stravinsky’s opera “The Nightingale”, in which the orchestra pit was transformed into a pool of water for singers-come-puppeteers commanding marionettes.įor puppet maker Viem, such innovative approaches may be the secret to reviving the centuries-old tradition among locals. ![]() Like other puppet craftsmen in the village, Viem doesn’t earn enough to support his family making the marionettes so he picks up work on the side as a manual labourer.īut he perseveres, hopeful the next generation might pick up a passion he says runs in his blood. “There are new types of entertainment now, electronic devices and the internet, so apart from festivals we can’t perform all the time because (local) people don’t watch a lot,” said Pham Dinh Viem, a third-generation puppet carver from a craft village in Thai Binh province. More than half of Vietnam’s 93 million people are under 30 and often prefer their entertainment in digital form. “When our children and later generations see performances they will be just like the original versions,” he said.ĭespite its ancient roots – or perhaps because of them – the shows draw little attention from local Vietnamese viewers, especially millennials. ![]() The tropes haven’t changed much, and neither have the hand-carved wooden figures of animals, boats, farmers or fish painted in brilliant golds, reds and greens, according to Chu Luong, the director of Thang Long theatre. The shows traditionally featured age-old fables and mythical lore, like the famous Hanoi parable about a Vietnamese king’s treasured sword that was used to fight off Chinese invaders. The earliest record of the performances is on a 12th century stele that still stands at a pagoda in northern Ha Nam province, but historians say water puppetry likely originated even earlier. Vietnam is the birthplace of the centuries-old art form that emerged in the northern rice paddies as entertainment for farmers. “I could really see people fishing, dancing and all the different performances that happened.” “I’ve never seen a puppet show that way with the water,” American tourist Caroline Thomoff said after a show. The shows at Hanoi’s Thang Long theatre have become a staple on the well-trodden tourist circuit and draw thousands every week, including many first-time viewers. Some of the puppets weigh as much as 10 kilograms and the largest ones, like the one-metre-tall fairy, require four people to manipulate. ![]() “But our years of training and experience helps us control them,” added Hoai, who like many of her colleagues graduated from Hanoi’s College of Theatre and Cinema. and the water also creates resistance,” said puppeteer Nguyen Thu Hoai, who swapped her galoshes for flip-flops between sold-out shows. Photo: Manan Vatsyayana / AFPīackstage behind a thin bamboo screen, around 20 puppeteers slosh around waist-deep in rubber overalls wielding the marionettes with long rods. This picture shows Vietnamese singers and musicians rendering accompaniment during a water puppet performance at the Thang Long theater in Hanoi. VIETNAM: In a darkened theatre in central Hanoi, a wooden dragon emerges from a pool to the sound of cymbals crashing in a traditional water puppet show that lures hundreds of tourists daily but is largely shunned by locals.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |