HANOI, VIETNAM
Last night I got wild and decided to fork out a whopping 20,000 dong (okay, it's like $1.25) to get all cultural and catch a performance at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. According to the brochure, water puppetry is a uniquely north Vietnamese art form that dates back to the 11th Century, and was originally performed in lakes or flooded rice paddies. Today, though, there's a special theater in Hanoi with a flooded stage where the magic takes place.
It works like this: Puppeteers hiding behind screens control various wooden marionettes using long poles that extend horizontally under the water. It's kind of hard to describe, but I have to admit, it was very entertaining. Accompanying the puppets was an ensemble of seven Vietnamese folk musicians and singers, who also provided the dialogue and sound effects. The music alone was worth the price of admission, but the puppets made it even better.
The hour-long program consisted of seventeen often humorous short vignettes with such catchy titles as "Dance of the Fairies," "Rearing Ducks and Catching Foxes," "Unicorns Play with Ball," and "Returning to the Native Land After College Graduation." (Huh?) There was also a reenactment of the legend of the big sword-stealing turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake (see yesterday's entry). The range of motion that the puppets displayed was incredible, and the show employed all kinds of ingenious special effects including smoke coming up through the water, fire-breathing and water-squirting dragons, tree-climbing foxes, and phoenixes with bobbing necks.
Today I mostly took it easy and stayed at the hotel, 1) because it's reeeally hot, 2) because for some reason most of Hanoi's attractions are closed on Mondays, and 3) because venturing out on the street involves quite a risk of being run over. I did take a short walk this afternoon, though, to visit Memorial House, a restored 19th-Century residence reborn as a museum showcasing the architecture and lifestyle of the Old Quarter as it was over 100 years ago. There's not a whole lot to it, but it's a quaint little place with some interesting little nooks and crannies.
Last night I got wild and decided to fork out a whopping 20,000 dong (okay, it's like $1.25) to get all cultural and catch a performance at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. According to the brochure, water puppetry is a uniquely north Vietnamese art form that dates back to the 11th Century, and was originally performed in lakes or flooded rice paddies. Today, though, there's a special theater in Hanoi with a flooded stage where the magic takes place.
It works like this: Puppeteers hiding behind screens control various wooden marionettes using long poles that extend horizontally under the water. It's kind of hard to describe, but I have to admit, it was very entertaining. Accompanying the puppets was an ensemble of seven Vietnamese folk musicians and singers, who also provided the dialogue and sound effects. The music alone was worth the price of admission, but the puppets made it even better.
The hour-long program consisted of seventeen often humorous short vignettes with such catchy titles as "Dance of the Fairies," "Rearing Ducks and Catching Foxes," "Unicorns Play with Ball," and "Returning to the Native Land After College Graduation." (Huh?) There was also a reenactment of the legend of the big sword-stealing turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake (see yesterday's entry). The range of motion that the puppets displayed was incredible, and the show employed all kinds of ingenious special effects including smoke coming up through the water, fire-breathing and water-squirting dragons, tree-climbing foxes, and phoenixes with bobbing necks.
Today I mostly took it easy and stayed at the hotel, 1) because it's reeeally hot, 2) because for some reason most of Hanoi's attractions are closed on Mondays, and 3) because venturing out on the street involves quite a risk of being run over. I did take a short walk this afternoon, though, to visit Memorial House, a restored 19th-Century residence reborn as a museum showcasing the architecture and lifestyle of the Old Quarter as it was over 100 years ago. There's not a whole lot to it, but it's a quaint little place with some interesting little nooks and crannies.
posted by John Kuge at 11:10 PM
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