Water Puppet Show in Hanoi by Arushi

For a total of 650,000 VND (around £21.50) we watched a fascinating puppet show in Hanoi, consisting of wooden puppets dancing in water controlled by puppeteers. We bought tickets in the early afternoon, finding there was only one show left that wasn’t sold out, and very limited seat options. We managed to buy three and two seats about 2 rows apart and went off to explore the surrounding areas until the show.

The opening was a beautiful piece of music from the orchestra and the incredible traditional instruments, such as one which made a sound that could even be mistaken as someone singing it was so harmonious, as well as a few singers who accompanied the orchestra with both an instrument and their voice. The orchestra was colourfully adorned and were a smiley group who were clearly enjoying themselves. Then the first puppet arrived, the narrator who shared various conversations with the singers.

Although the show was in Vietnamese, the general plot was somewhat followable, consisting of fishing, children playing, and a regatta to name a few. The most interesting parts I found were the various dances - dragons dance (which even had a bit of fire), unicorn dance, fairy dance etc… These scenes were filled with melodic music from the orchestra as well as enchantingly artful movements from the puppets. The puppets could thrash with the rapid tense music, or sway gracefully with the soothing sounds, synchronise together or chase each other.

A particularly impressive part was the ‘catching frogs’ scene, showing the narrator chasing the leaping frogs that jumped so realistically and quickly it was easy to forget these creatures were just wooden puppets.

The engineering of the entertaining lively puppets was something we puzzled over. You could just see through the water the poles attached to the puppets allowing the puppeteers to control the former from afar, but still we were questioning how they managed to not tangle up the poles, or exactly how the various attachments of the puppets moved (such as the arms). A quick search on google did not provide entirely satisfactory results, only showing a picture with the other side of the curtain where a shallow pool of water was, allowing the puppets to be placed in the water.

The show lasted for about an hour and I found it very captivating and it really proved that the magic of these shows can be enjoyed even from someone who doesn’t understand any Vietnamese!Les mer