After a quick breakfast, Ly Hoang Anh drives off to the Central Puppetry Theatre in Hanoi where preparations are underway for a new water puppet show. “We have been working for more than one month without rest to get the show ready for Children’s Day,” says the 25-year-old puppeteer.
Dinh Trong Dung, the play’s director, says of the 15 puppeteers involved in the forthcoming show, “Most of them were only recently taken on and are quite young, but they are full of enthusiasm.” The enthusiasm is much appreciated. Dung believes that this unique Vietnamese art form is in need of a new lease of life in terms of its workforce.
Vietnamese people are deeply fond of this 1,000-year old art form, which is also arguably the only performance art that has proved popular with foreign audiences. “While the lack of audiences is the toughest problem for most traditional arts such as Cheo, Tuong or Cai Luong, for puppetry it is a lack of manpower,” says Nguyen Thuy Nga, the deputy head of Central Puppetry Theatre’s Art Management Division.
Vietnam does not have a school specialising in puppetry art. Most of the theatre’s puppeteers were recruited from the Traditional Arts Faculty in Hanoi’s College of Theatre and Film Studies. It can take up to four years of further training for students to get up to the standard required for a professional performance.
While Vietnamese audiences have a sentimental attachment to water puppetry, discerning fans would also like to see something new. Nga believes that the genre also needs a new wave of directors and playwrights. She points at a huge pile of scripts on her table and shakes her head. Only one or two are usable. “It is extremely difficult to write a script.” The pantomime style used to retell famous legends appeals to kids and foreign tourists looking for a slice of Vietnamese culture, but Vietnamese adults need something more.
