Puppets dancing and moving on a shimmering water stage accompanied by Vietnamese folk music and instruments. A water puppetry performance by the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre from Vietnam was a unique experience at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) here on Tuesday. It is the first visit of the Thang Long theatre to the country.
Water puppetry is something very unique and integral to the Vietnamese life. Like the name sounds, water puppets move on water, controlled by the invisible hands of the puppet masters.
The water puppetry was staged on a specially designed pool of water at the Bharat Murali Open Theatre before a spellbound audience, for whom it was a novel experience, providing great fun and excitement.
Great attraction
Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique folk art, believed to be more than 1,000 years old. However, it has evolved into a universally entertaining show and a great tourist attraction.
Puppeteers manipulate the wooden puppets on a special stage covered in water. Water puppetry needs extreme precision and tremendous practice. In addition to music, light plays a significant role in making the performance interesting.
In olden days, water puppetry used to be performed in waterlogged paddy fields and served as a source of entertainment for paddy farmers. The puppet masters would keep their feet deep in the muddy water and manipulate the puppets with their fingers along the strings on a stage built around the fields.
The art of puppetry flourished mainly in the northern region of Vietnam and later spread all over the country.
Now the puppetry is performed in specially designed pools. The storyline is always simple, revolving around legends of kings or stories of common farmers. The language is not a barrier to convey the message.
Dark Things
Dark Things , directed by Anuradha Kapur and Deepan Sivaraman for the Performance Arts Collective of the Ambedkar University in Delhi, was presented on Monday.
Based on the text for an oratorio by South African writer Ari Sitas, the project emerged from the collaboration among Anuradha Kapur, Deepan Sivaraman and Sumangala Damodaran.
Renowned musicians Chandran Veyattummal from Kerala and Reza Khota from South Africa created the musical landscape.
