Water puppeteers keep tradition alive
Ha Noi, Jan. 24 (VNA) -- Early in 2000, a French photographer organized a black-and-white photo exhibition in Ha Noi. In the midst of monthly cultural events, the exhibition stood out in its impressiveness. This isn't surprising considering its organizer spent four months in the water to photograph water puppetry performances and to determine the attraction of the Vietnamese Teu.
Perhaps that is why images of Teu are found so appealling to the French artist.
Dating from the 10th century, water puppetry is a special traditional threatrical art which is available only in the northern delta of Viet Nam. Ha Noi has two water puppetry theatres offering regular performances catering mostly to foreigners.
Teu Charming To only Children and Foreigners
It is fortunate that Vietnamese water puppetry can find foreign audiences at a time when it is gradually losing appeal to locals. Honoured artist Nguyen Thi Cuc, Deputy Director of the Thang Long Puppetry Theatre, appeared happy because of her theatre being active with stage lights shining all the year round. Every year, not only offering hundreds of performances, the theatre also organizes contract based performances. However, Cuc notes that water puppetry shows are attractive to mostly foreigners and small Vietnamese children who go to the theatre with their parents on the occasions of the Mid-Autumn Festival or International Children's Day June 1st every year.
"Western people are observant," Cuc comments, adding, "A 40 minute documentary film screened in France in early 1980s that introduced Vietnamese water puppetry resulted in immediate invitations to Vietnamese artists to perform there. Four Vietnamese troupes were invited and went to France together, but only the water puppetry troupe received total sponsorship that included travel and accommodation costs."
There are three water puppetry troups in Viet Nam, including the one of the Central Puppetry Theatre, the Thang Long Puppetry Troupe and the Ho Chi Minh City Puppetry Troupe. They perform mainly abroad.
Ngo Quynh Giao, Director of the Central Puppetry Theatre, states that in 1998-1999, the theatre sent four troups abroad with their perfomances helping considerably increase the income of performers. Each performance abroad lasting for several months brings revenues of at least USD 4,000 a night to a 16-member troupe, resulting in each performer earning about USD 20 a night. "On the contrary, for a local performance, they earn only some tens of thousands of dong (a few dollars). Without performances abroad, lives of these artists would surely be very hard," he explains.
In contrast, artists of the Thang Long Puppetry Theatre, in the centre of Ha Noi, earn their living mainly from local performances catering to foreigners, Cuc acknowledges. "The Thang Long Puppetry Theatre is ideally located near Hoan Kiem lake. That's why its performances attract almost every foreigner coming to Ha Noi. But maybe the attraction is because of another reason - the advertisement that includes: "Buy one ticket, and you will receive free one cassette tape and one silk paper fan".
Future of Water Puppetry
Water puppetry performances in Viet Nam mainly showcase famous old stories. In Giao's opinion, this is easy to understand because spending cannot be poured in a new play with the uncertainty of knowing whether the audience will like it.
There are in Viet Nam fewer and fewer writers of puppetry plays nowadays. Royalties reaped from a puppetry play would not even support the author one month. Puppeteers and researchers of this theatrical art have for some time dreamed of establishing a traditional water puppetry stage for performing comedies in a monthly serial form, but the dream has not gone beyond because of the lack of money. Hence, the only way for surviving puppetry is marketing it to foreigners.
However, it is a happy signal that the Ministry of Culture and Information recently approved the Central Puppetry Theatre's building of a project costing VND 7 billion. Under this project, from 2001 to 2002, the theatre will carry out the construction of several main buildings including a puppetry performance theatre, an administrative office, a production workshop and puppet display room. The performance theatre will be designed to have two stages, one for water and one for dry puppetry performances. The theatre will accommodate audiences of 200. The production workshop and display room will be of a venerable traditional design and located near the main entry.
Teu is awaiting well conceived investment of both money and intelligence to find the way back into Vietnamese hearts.--VNA
