Puppetry
Like its neighbours, Việt Nam has a long and active tradition of puppetry or
múa rối, which is believed to have originated in ancient times as an integral component of religious ceremonies and festivals.
This is suggested by the continued use of hand puppets in connection with festival rites practised at a number of northern pagodas such as Bi (Nam Định Province) and Keo (Thái Bình Province) and by the puppet statues utilised in the traditional shamanistic rituals of certain ethnic minority groups such as the La Chí, the Lô Lô and the Ba-na.
Puppet performances are first recorded during the Lý dynasty (1010-1225), by which time rod puppetry clearly influenced by Chinese models had become popular at the court. String puppets are also mentioned in connection with courtly entertainment during the Trần period (1225-1400), but it must be said that, notwithstanding its popularity in royal circles, puppetry has always been first and foremost a folk art of the common people.
Regrettably very few examples of Vietnamese rod or string puppetry survive today. Rod puppetry is preserved in a few isolated Kinh communities of northern Việt Nam, notably Đồng Minh village near Hải Phòng City and Tế Tiêu village in Hà Tây Province. Meanwhile string puppetry may still be found in some isolated Tày ethnic minority communities of the far north, for example in the Trùng Khánh District of Cao Bằng Province and in the Định Hóa District of Thái Nguyên Province.
However, Việt Nam is best known for its water puppetry or
múa rối nước, a unique northern Việt variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition which some say originated during the 11th century when determined puppeteers in the Red River Delta found an alternative way to perform their art during times of severe flooding.
Whatever its origins, it was already well-established by the following century, as indicated by a stone carving at Đội Pagoda in Hà Nam Province, which records a performance staged in honour of the life of King Lý Nhân Tông (1072-1127). Traditionally water puppetry was presented in a theatre-like structure immersed in shallow water at the edge of a village pond or lake; today its most ancient forms and repertoire are preserved at Nguyên Xá and Đông Các in Thái Bình Province; Nam Chấn and Nam Giang in Nam Định Province; Bình Phú and Tế Tiêu in Hà Tây Province; Bùi Thượng and Hồng Phong in Hải Dương Province; Đồng Ngư in Bắc Ninh Province; Nhân Hòa outside Hải Phòng City; and Đào Thục in Hà Nội's Đông Anh District.
Hidden from the audience by a screen, the puppeteers stand chest-deep in the water, which if necessary is coloured to hide the system of bamboo rods and pulleys used to manipulate the puppets. As well as serving to conceal the technical secrets of the genre, the water constitutes the stage on which the puppets (sculpted from wood and coated with waterproof paint) perform. Performances comprise short playlets (including a number borrowed from
chèo and
tuồng) which recount Vietnamese legends and histories, interspersed by scenes of comedy and fighting animals. Musical accompaniment is provided by a small orchestra similar to that utilised in
chèo, led by a narrator.
During the early 1990s the
National Puppet Theatre (
Nhà hát Múa rối Trung Ương), the municipal
Thăng Long Puppet Company (
Nhà hát Múa rối Thăng Long) of Hà Nội and the
Hồ Chí Minh City Puppet Company (
Đoàn Nghệ thuật Múa rối Thành Phố Hố Chí Minh) established dedicated water puppet theatres to cater for the interest of a growing number of foreign tourists in this unique art form. These same three companies are in constant demand for overseas festival appearances and each now incorporates both resident and touring groups.
Traditionally the art of puppetry was handed down from generation to generation within each company, and whilst this tradition continues today, it should be noted that the Hà Nội University of Theatre and Cinema (Trường Đại học Sân khấu và Điện ảnh Hà Nội) recently launched as part of its Traditional Theatre programme Việt Nam's first formal training programme in puppetry, incorporating various styles including water, rod, string, glove and shadow puppetry.
With assistance from UNESCO the
Việt Nam Museum of Ethnology in Hà Nội launched in September 2000 what it is hoped will become an annual
Festival of Traditional Puppetry, presenting leading overseas puppetry troupes alongside a variety of different Việt and ethnic minority puppet ensembles. It is hoped that this initiative may go some way to help revive the fading art of rod and string puppetry in Việt Nam.
