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Tourism keeps Vietnam’s ancient water puppets afloat
HANOI, June 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – 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.
Backstage behind a thin bamboo screen, around 20 puppeteers slosh around
waist-deep in rubber overalls wielding the marionettes with long rods.
“The puppets are pretty heavy… and the water also creates resistance,”
said puppeteer Nguyen Thu Hoai, who swapped her galoshes for flip-flops
between sold-out shows.
“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.
Some of the puppets weigh as much as 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) and the
largest ones, like the one-metre-tall (three-foot) fairy, require four people
to manipulate.
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.
“I’ve never seen a puppet show that way with the water,” American tourist
Caroline Thomoff told AFP after a show.
“I could really see people fishing, dancing and all the different
performances that happened.”
Vietnam is the birthplace of the centuries-old art form that emerged in the
northern rice paddies as entertainment for farmers.
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.
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.
– Overseas appeal –
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.
“When our children and later generations see performances they will be just
like the original versions,” he told AFP.
Despite its ancient roots — or perhaps because of them — the shows draw
little attention from local Vietnamese viewers, especially millennials.
More than half of Vietnam’s 93 million people are under 30 and often prefer
their entertainment in digital form.
“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.
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.
But he perseveres, hopeful the next generation might pick up a passion he
says runs in his blood.
Yet as interest wanes at home, there are signs water puppetry may be
gaining traction abroad.
Canadian 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.
For puppetmaker Viem, such innovative approaches may be the secret to
reviving the centuries-old tradition among locals.
“If the script and the performance don’t change, it’s impossible to serve
the audience in the long-term,” he said.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1804 hrs